Fernando may have recently become a Master of Wine but that doesn’t mean his studies are over. Each month he will be visiting top winemakers that he admires across the word to learn new techniques and practices to implement in Frontonio, part of his unending quest to make the best wines in our little corner of Aragón.

Fernando started off 2018 with an exciting visit to one of Austria’s top wineries: Weingut Bründlmayer . Although Austria and Aragón may seem like they are at opposite ends of the scale in terms of European winemaking, Fernando’s aim was to discover how they make use of traditional Austrian oak fuders – large inert oak barrels – to add structure to their wines without reducing the fruit character of the aromatic white grapes Riesling and Grüner Veltliner.

After a comparative tasting of white wines that had been aged in barrels and fuders with head winemaker Christopher Forst, which Fernando described as “tremendous”, he left with plans to import Austrian oak fuders or barrels to Frontonio. In terms of the vineyard, ever-observant Fernando also spotted some trolleys used to carry the crates of grapes (saving the worker’s backs) that he also added to the shopping list, along with longer 1×1 corks for the top and icon ranges of wines. Francisco (Frontonio’s money man) is going to be dreading Fernando’s return from his visits if he keeps coming back with more things to buy!

Nearer to home, Fernando’s second field trip of the month was to famed winery, Scala Dei in Priorat. January is the time of the year for winter pruning, getting the vines ready for the new vintage, and Fernando wanted to learn how the Scala Dei team, headed up by his good friends Ricard Rofes and Roc Gramona (member of the youngest generation of the Cava dynasty) –is implementing the teachings of the “Pruninguys” Simonit & Sirch to improve their pruning. The method, or rather, philosophy of these rock stars of the vineyard is to follow the flow of the sap through the plant, avoiding generating excessive dead wood through large and ill-placed pruning cuts, helping avoid diseases such as Esca and extending the life of the vine. Fernando was particularly interested in what he learnt in the Mas Deu vineyard in terms of applying it to planned new Garnacha plantations and the use of the single stake or Echalas training system as seen in the Côte-Rôtie.

Thanks go to Weingut Bründlmayer’s owner Willi Bründlmayer, head winemaker, Christopher Forst and CEO Andreas Wickhoff and to Ricard Rofes and Roc Gramona of Scala Dei for becoming part of Frontonio’s history and helping improve our wines.