In Spain, There's Always A New Grape To Discover

A totally unbiased guide to the wines from Somontano, my home region, including the 'lost' grape moristel.

May 04, 2025

Today, we welcome Elvira Fonz-Gutiérrez as a new regular contributor to Everyday Drinking. Elvi is a Madrid-based wine writer and content strategist, who has worked in the wine industry in California and France.

There’s a wine region “beneath the mountains” in northern Spain that no one has told you about—until now. The success in the American market of neighboring regions like Rioja, Navarra, and Catalonia has long overshadowed the wines from Aragón, the landlocked region tucked between them. You may have heard of some of Aragón’s central appellations—Calatayud and Cariñena, both renowned for their bold garnachas, with producers such as Bodegas Frontonio catching the attention of global wine critics. All signs point to an imminent boom in Aragón’s wine scene.

And yet, beyond Spain’s borders (and even within them), few know about the regions lying north and south of this land of garnachas—hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Just an hour north of the Ebro Valley, in the province of Huesca, sits Aragón’s northernmost Denominacións de Origen: Somontano. The name itself might trip up Anglophone oenophiles —pronounced saw-mawn-TAN-oo—but its meaning is quite literal: beneath the mountains.

That said, Somontano is not a high-altitude region. Most of its vineyards sprawl across terraced landscapes at a relatively moderate 350 to 650 meters above sea level. But don’t let that fool you. Somontano’s vineyards are a maze of rugged, steep terrain, twisting along riverbeds that spill down from the Pyrenees toward the Ebro Valley. The mountains act as a natural barrier, shielding the vines from harsh northern winds while shaping a unique microclimate perfect for winemaking.

After such an introduction, you might think I’m biased—and you’d be partially right. Somontano is my home region. Huesca—the province where I grew up—is one of Spain’s best-kept secrets, with its mountains, its charming villages, and its gastronomy (home to seven Michelin-starred restaurants). And the same goes for its wines.

But before I get carried away listing all the reasons why you should start seeking out Somontano producers (or start planning your trip to Huesca this summer), we need some context. Somontano has unfortunately not been quietly crafting Spain’s finest wines for centuries, hidden in some sort of time-space anomaly that’s kept it off the radar of wine lovers and critics. No—the reason why we can call it one of Spain’s “up-and-coming” regions is that its quality leap has only happened recently, within the past 15 years or so.

Tracing back to its origins, we owe the resurgence of this wine region to our French neighbors. When phylloxera devastated Bordeaux in the late 19th century, French winemakers were forced to move south across the border in search of viable vineyards to meet demand. That’s how Somontano wines first gained recognition among French consumers. Production kept growing, and by the 1960s, the region established its first winemaking cooperative, with over 200 family growers. The downside of that modernization was, as in the rest of Aragón, the shift led to a large-scale, industrialized production model that cast something of a shadow over the region’s reputation. There’s a reason why you likely haven’t heard of Somontano DO until now.

But that’s precisely what’s changing. The new generation is rewriting the narrative. Independent projects, still hard to find in America, are redefining Somontano’s image and elevating its quality.

One producer who embodies this description is Bodegas Fábregas, whose wines stood out among the 500+ wines that Jason and I tasted during Barcelona Wine Week in past February.

Though it was founded in 1883, Fábregas’ first bottled vintage hit the market in 1983, just a year before the official creation of Somontano DO. Since then, from their winery in the town of Barbastro, they family continued crafting wines that capture the pure expression of the terroir with respect from an organic, low-intervention approach, and the skills of generations past, now infused with fresh energy and innovation under the guidance of Gonzalo, winemaker and fifth-generation of the Fábregas family.

Gonzalo’s charisma captivated us when he presented his wines, when he passionately told the history of the 90-year-old abandoned vineyards of Monteta and El Trunchón he is restoring and replanting. He's named this crusade as Proyecto Moristel.

Moristel, a red grape, is one of Somontano’s three indigenous varieties, along with parraleta (red) and alcañón (white). These varieties were once the most widely planted in the region thanks to their natural resilience: well-adapted to drought, poor soils, and late ripening. But they were overshadowed by international varieties during the 20th century. Moristel, parraleta, and alcañón were close to disappearing and account now for just 4 percent of total acreage. A decade ago, Gonzalo started his mission, to restore moristel to its former status as “queen of Somontano.”

Gonzalo spearheaded the revival of these vineyards, seeking out the “heroic vinegrowers,” as he describes them, the last growers who had managed to preserve the variety—and struck deals with them to restore their vines. In 2016, he found the perfect vineyard: over 50-year-old vines planted on poor, rocky soil. This was a full-circle moment—the return of the Tinto Morastel cuvée (“Morastel” being the way the original vineyard owner spelled it) to the Fábregas lineup, 32 years later. Since then, Gonzalo continues to expand the extent of Proyecto Moristel, restoring forgotten vineyards and planting new ones to unlock the grape’s full potential. He puts his hashtag #cepasenpeligrodeextinción (‘endangered vines’) right on the label.

The 2024 Tinto Morastel (again, with the purposeful alternative spelling of the original vineyard owner) is the most popular wine amidst Gonzalo’s Proyecto Moristel. Clocking in at just 11.5 percent abv, it’s fresh, herbal, mineral, cool, rustic yet complex, balanced and deeply expressive. It will fool even the most seasoned taster in a blind lineup.

Gonzalo’s El Truchón 2022 hails from a single vineyard, with 80- to 90-year-old vines of moristel, along with a little garnacha, and local white varieties parraleta, and alcañón. With short barrel aging (2 to 3 months), this is a pure interpretation of the terroir, which he describes as “salvaje” (‘wild’). On the nose and palate, it delivers a mix of ripe and fresh red berries with herbal notes (licorice, fennel, anise), with soft, rounded tannins, finishing with rustic grip and long, savory depth. It’s a testament to Somontano’s unique heritage.

The aura that can be felt at Bodegas Fábregas is the essence of Spain’s new wave of winemaking. Gonzalo’s wines, though still only available in Europe, are already getting some attention. Just last week, I spotted them on the wine list at BiBo, chef Dani García’s restaurant in Madrid. It won’t be long before importers feel the urge to bring moristel across the Atlantic (ahem, importers, pay attention).

Though I’ll keep insisting that you should come taste these wines for yourself, and to soak in Huesca’s full food and wine experience, in the meantime here are a couple of recommendations you might be able find now in the U.S.

Let’s start with a little twist. If you want to taste a singular representation of Somontano’s terroir showcased through a popular variety that is as beloved as it is disliked, gewürztraminer is the answer. Surprisingly, it’s one of the most widely planted white varieties in the region, alongside garnacha blanca and chardonnay. The soil and topography similarities to the Vosges Mountains would explain why this grape has adapted so well, despite being so far south of its native Alsace.

And if you’re wondering why gewürztraminer even made it here in the first place, it all goes back to the arrival of the French, who brought with them international varieties like cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, as well as gewürztraminer, Even today, the way these international varieties express Somontano’s terroir is what makes this region distinct from Aragón’s other three DOs (Cariñena, Calatayud, and Campo de Borja), all of which are primarily known for garnacha. Here, gewürztraminer takes on a spiced, aromatic complexity, with floral and honeyed nuances, ripe fruit, and a silky, almost unctuous texture—thanks to the region’s long, sun-drenched summers.

Bodegas Enate produces wines that represent Somontano’s traditional profile and are widely available across the U.S., while Idrias, the Somontano label from the Aragonese brand Grandes Vinos, focuses on single-varietal gewürztraminer from organic vineyards at 500 to 650 meters, offering another introduction into Somontano.

Another cornerstone winery of the region is Bodegas El Grillo y La Luna. They stand out with a more French approach to the importance of the origin and parcels. Grillo SP, their top-tier cuvée, comes from one of the few vineyards in the region that is horse-farmed. I also love their fun, minimalist labels (grillo means “cricket” in Spanish).

The fact that these and most of the region’s wines haven’t made the leap across the Atlantic keeps them under the radar—yet. Somontano might be a few steps behind the Spanish wine regions that blew up over the past couple decades, but it’s catching up fast. What we’re seeing now feels like a rennaissance that could bring this Pyrenean gem into the spotlight sooner than you’d think. This is the new Spanish wine, with forward-thinking producers restoring its old rocky vineyards, reviving unique indigenous varieties, and traditional winemaking techniques.

Who knows—maybe we’ll soon see it featured on those “up-and-coming regions” lists. And when that happens, I’ll take pride in knowing these are the wines of the mountains where I grew up.