A visit to the wine regions of Navarra in 2023 is a bittersweet experience. The emergence of dynamic new producers goes hand in hand with the decline of vine cultivation, particularly in northern areas, and the precarious situation of old vineyards, which are doomed to be uprooted unless winegrowers can get a fair price for their grapes.
Viña Zorzal's latest undertaking exemplifies this dynamism. The Corella-based winery, which revitalised Garnacha in the Ribera Baja sub-area and is now an international beacon for the variety, has expanded northwards to Baja Montaña. Here they have teamed up with Gonzalo Ibarrola, a technician at Intia (Navarra Institute of Agroalimentary Technologies and Infrastructure) and a winemaker committed to preserving the old vines of Lerga, his village in the Aibar Valley, where he grows six of the 12 remaining hectares. These include Los Arenales, a vineyard planted in 1900, and other plots from the 1950s and 1960s in the Santo Tomás site. Climate change has benefited this area, known for its high rainfall, elevation (the village is 618m above sea level) and northern latitude.
“Vines and cereal crops used to coexist almost 50% of the time, but most of the vineyards have been uprooted. I have no recollection of home-made wine, because winemaking stopped with the creation of the cooperative in the 1940s,” explains Ibarrola. According to the Viña Zorzal team, who discovered Lerga almost by chance in the 2020 vintage, Gonzalo is not a supplier but a partner whose name appears on the label of Golerga, the exhilarating and new Garnacha that captures the expression of this cool, northern location.
Roberto Aguirre, the driving force behind Ubeta Wines in Barillas (Ribera Baja), sees both sides of the coin. An avid collector of old vines, he owns 30 hectares of over 40-year-old plots at the foot of the Moncayo mountain, in the villages of Ablitas, Cintruénigo and Fitero, on the border with Aragon. However, he admits that "hardly anyone is willing to pay the cost of farming an old vineyard."
Some revealing data: of the 256 hectares of vines over 50 years old registered by the Regulatory Council, 232 are Garnacha. The variety, which in 1990 covered 12,582 hectares, or more than 70% of Navarra's vineyards, rapidly lost ground to Tempranillo and international varieties. By 2000 the area under vine had been reduced by half (6,200 hectares) and in the following decade it was down to 3,043 hectares.
The chart below shows the distribution of varieties in Navarra in an earlier period. It was compiled (in percentages) by the agronomist Francisco Sanz Carnero and published in 1975 by the Ministry of Agriculture in the book El viñedo español (The Spanish Vineyard).
The withdrawal of Garnacha is not limited to Navarra. It has also occurred in other Spanish regions where this variety was dominant, such as Rioja Oriental and most of the DOs in Aragón. But Navarra had the resources to reverse the situation in a relatively short space of time.
In a paper presented at the Grenaches du Monde competition held in Olite last year, Pilar García Granero, a winemaker, lecturer at the Basque Culinary Centre and former president of the DO Navarra, cited a 1986 EVENA study published in Jorge Sauleda's 1988 book Viñas, bodegas, vinos de Navarra (Vines, wineries, wines of Navarra). The study recommended reducing Garnacha's surface under vine from 82% to 35%, increasing Tempranillo from 7.5% to 31% and Cabernet Sauvignon to 16%. The current reality doesn't differ much from these figures: there are 2,600 hectares of Garnacha, which represents 26% of Navarra's vineyards, Tempranillo 30% and Cabernet and Merlot 12% each.
José Félix Cibriain of Evena (Navarra's Viticulture and Oenology Centre) recalls an earlier plan in 1975 that encouraged the cultivation of Tempranillo and white grape varieties "to balance wine production." The 1980s plan, he points out, "came in the wake of the success of Magaña's wines and those of other local producers; it promoted the conversion of vineyards from goblet to trellis, together with the introduction of Chardonnay as the benchmark white variety and the red varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot."
According to Pilar García Granero, "they took the Californian model instead of looking to the Rhone." In her first experiences in cooperatives 30 years ago, Garnacha was the variety for rosés: “Doble pasta wines [made with double the amount of red grape skins and a portion of must. It has a deep colour and high levels of tannin] were made to maximize bleeding; reds were almost a by-product as the price of rosé juice doubled the price of reds.”
The first projects dedicated to quality red Garnacha were developed against the prevailing trends, often with the encouragement of outsiders. A leading Rioja producer such as Artadi settled in Artazu (Valdizarbe) in 1996 at the request of an American friend who was looking for a good Spanish Garnacha to sell in the US. Nekeas, also in the Valdizarbe sub-area, launched El Chaparral de Vega Sindoa in the 1997 vintage at the request of its US importer, Jorge Ordóñez, who wanted an old-vine Garnacha in his portfolio.
In the late 2000s, the focus shifted to San Martín de Unx in the Baja Montaña sub-area, thanks to the arrival of Domaines Lupier and its fine, highly distinctive Garnachas, which quickly gained international recognition. The following decade saw the emergence of Viña Zorzal in Ribera Baja. Initially better known for their affordable wines, they soon set the pace for terroir-driven, outstanding Garnachas, while initiating a series of collaborations with Spanish and international producers that have served as advocates for both the variety and the region.
The latest generation of Garnacha producers includes Gonzalo Celayeta, winemaker at the San Martín de Unx cooperative, who consults for other wineries, runs his own business and co-owns the Kimera project with his friend and producer Luis Moya; Aseginolaza & Leunda; and Josu Amatria, one of the youngest names in the region. Not all of them work under the DO Navarra seal, but they share similar values and goals and have already got together for tastings such as the one organised a few months ago by Sancho Rodríguez -he is the brother of Telmo Rodríguez, the leading producer behind Remelluri in Rioja and Cía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez-, who has started a small project straddling Rioja and Navarra under the Manin y sus Muchachos brand.
Meanwhile, long-established producers in the area such as Chivite, Marco Real, Ochoa and many others, whose involvement with Garnacha was mostly confined to rosés, have added Garnacha reds to their portfolios. This year at the DO Navarra headquarters in Olite, I had the opportunity to taste more than 50 samples.
Navarra is not easy to communicate as a wine region. It has to contend with Rioja, an omnipresent neighbour that spreads its tentacles into its own territory, since eight of its villages (Andosilla, Aras, Azagra, Bargota, Mendavia, San Adrián, Sartaguda and Viana) belong to DOCa. Rioja. And its wine-producing area is extremely large and diverse. There are three sub-areas in the north, -Tierra Estella, Valdizarbe and Baja Montaña-, a large central region (Ribera Alta) and Ribera Baja at the southern tip of the province.
There are more than 100 kilometres between the northern area, which stretches south of the capital (the Pamplona basin marks the limit of viticulture), and the furthest point, on the border with Aragon. This is the same extension as Rioja, but instead of running from west to east, it runs from north to south through mountainous areas, river terraces, plateaus and plains. The climate varies accordingly, with Atlantic (the Bay of Biscay is a mere 50 kilometres in a straight line from the northernmost vineyards), Mediterranean and continental influences, as well as the influence of the vast semi-desert landscape of the Bardenas Reales.
Many producers see the potential for different appellations within such a large region. At Artazu, Carlos López de Lacalle says: “We lack demarcated territories that could define the specific character of each area and promote them as separate entities; this could stimulate demand. Generalisations are neither exciting nor attractive.” The lack of identity is a recurring theme in most discussions. It's not just the rich geographical diversity, but also the challenge of promoting international varieties at a time when being local and unique seems to be the best-selling point. It is no surprise, then, that Garnacha has been chosen, along with rosés, as the DO's flagship in its latest promotional campaign.
Present in varying degrees (from 55% in its stronghold of Baja Montaña to 9% in Tierra Estella), Garnacha forms the backbone of all of the wine regions of Navarra. Could it become the 'glue' of the DO?
The variety was already present in the area in the 17th and 18th centuries, but from the end of the 19th century its resistance to diseases, especially powdery mildew, made it more widespread. Some of the earliest references, compiled by José Félix Cibriain and Ana Sagüés, technical experts at Evena's Viticulture Department, in a study of the history of Garnacha, date back to 1746, with the donation of a vineyard planted with this variety in Obanos, a village near Puente la Reina, or a vineyard "planted with good Garnacha vines" in Pamplona in 1767. In Viana (now part of the DOCa Rioja), there is a mention in 1744 of a bodega that set its Garnacha casks apart.
A special quality that many producers appreciate in Garnacha is its ability to capture the surrounding landscape. Gonzalo Celayeta, for example, says that “as a variety, it is very 'vectorial', since it shows significant differences between the various sites. Garnacha adapts very well to all areas of Navarra. Here, the latitude, combined with the elevation of certain areas, produces an unmistakable freshness that gives the wine its typicity and character.”
There is another important argument: the best Garnachas command relatively high prices, which is a glimmer of hope in the gloomy picture of Navarra.
Local viticulturists have done their homework. Between 2008 and 2009, they surveyed over 40-year-old vineyards to collect all possible intra-varietal Garnacha biotypes. The project, called "Compilation, evaluation and creation of a germplasm bank of local grape varieties," is the result of a partnership between the Public University of Navarra and the Vitis Navarra nursery. The idea of Bernardo Royo, professor at the Department of Agricultural Production, to carry out the selection randomly and in winter made it possible, as viticulture professor Gonzaga Santesteban recalls today, "to create a collection rather than a selection."
Between eight and 12 samples were taken from more than 400 vineyards, including neglected plots. Eventually, more than 4,000 biotypes were grafted, all with traceability of origin, so that infected and virus-free material could be distinguished. While all the plant material was preserved, the virus-free stock, comprising 2,025 biotypes, forms the basis of the Vitis Navarra research.
According to Rafael García, director and owner of the nursery, the 700 biotypes with the highest quality were identified. These formed the basis of various polyclonal selections of 12 clones, as well as clonal families. The production of clone heads was also on the list. This task was developed at the Dominio d'Echauz, Vitis Navarra's extensive property in Soria (Castilla y León), at 1000 metres elevation. It involves monitoring the best performing biotypes by tasting the berries, in this case over a period of five years. Then, descendants are created to carry out micro-vinifications that allow oenological and phenological parameters to be assessed for each of them.
"We have to give our clients as much information as possible so that they can make the right choice," García points out. "We also advise them to plant different biotypes, so that they can eventually make their own selection and choose those that are better adapted to their respective areas."
In a second article about Navarra, we will write about the different landscapes where Garnacha is grown and the wines and styles that result from each of them.
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