2022 Follaco

In 2016, Thyge Benned Jensen decided to do something completely different with his life. He quit his office job in Copenhagen and moved to Spain – more specifically Fermoselle in Arribes on the Portuguese border – to start making wine. Bodega Frontio is in a very remote part of the country, but the area attracted Thyge – or Chus as he is called by the locals – as there are grape varieties that are unique to the area, vineyards at a high altitude (650-750 meters), granite subsoil and vineyards that are affordable.

Little by little, Chus has taken over more and more vineyards from the locals – some of which are over 100 years old – just as he is continuously planting new wines. He has seen all sorts of challenges as a new winemaker ranging between understanding the local culture and dialect to temperature fluctuations between frost and extreme heat over the course of the year. But these challenges do not mean that Chus falls into temptation to cut corners. He insists on working organically in the vineyards, harvesting and sorting by hand and having a natural approach contrasting the region’s other winemakers.

Chus started making his wine in a 200-year-old cellar (bodega), but has later moved into a former distillery, which has now been made into a winery. Here the wine is made using spontaneous fermentation and no additions except a minimal amount of sulphur if deemed necessary. Unlike his neighbours, he also partly uses whole clusters to give more complexity to the wines. It is clear to us that the wines from Bodega Frontio are getting better and better the more experience Chus gains. Gradually they have reached a level that far exceeds the price that the wines from small and unremarkable Arribes dictates.