Spain’s Navarra Region
“This wine is too good for toast-drinking my dear.
you don’t want to mix emotions up
with a wine like that.
you lose the taste.” –Ernest Hemingway
The
Spanish region of Navarra was introduced to us Americans by icon Ernest
Hemingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises but we did not know it. His
vivid descriptions of simultaneous beauty and violence at the Festival
of San Fermin – now called outside Spain at least, “the running of the
bulls”, thanks to him – took place in Navarra’s capital city, Pamplona.
Also
famous for being able to consume twice his body weight in alcohol and
actually doing it on a regular basis, Hemingway makes wine something of
a character in his epic novel, always there, always influencing, always
speaking through the other characters, otherwise silent.
These
are the wines of Navarra he writes so nonchalantly about, wine that
keeps appearing and is drunk and more appears as if from nowhere. His
American brothers and sisters back home are living under Prohibition,
and Hemingway and his friends in Navarra are drinking in the streets.
Navarra
is not the northernmost wine region in Spain. There are others somewhat
farther north, but they are known almost exclusively for white wines.
This region represents the northernmost reach of native grapes
Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha, and others. The vineyards of Navarra
climb the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains where the slopes face in
an ideal direction, generally south and west, and then the vines end.
On the other side of the Pyrenees is France, and the resort beaches of
Biarritz.
Navarra is Basque country, an elbow of territory where
Spain and France meet on the Atlantic. The people consider themselves
neither Spanish nor French –nor both. They speak a language that is
more Baltic than Romance, and the Basque influence on food, wine and
culture goes back millennia. The ancient Romans found the territory
between Bordeaux and Rioja already inhabited by a tribe of people
called Vascones, today’s Basques. The rising tide of Spain’s wine
reputation is bringing attention to lots of previously ignored wine
regions in Spain, and Navarra is also beginning to enunciate what makes
their wines different and interesting.
April Cullom is a
certified educator on Spanish wines who organizes events and promotions
for Spain. The difference, she said, is, “The Navarrans were the first
Spanish wine makers to go international. They’ve been working forever
with native grapes like Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano. But they
like to use a lot of international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon
and Merlot. They’re much more international in style and very easy for
consumers to understand and enjoy.” By international, Cullom said she
meant using non-traditional grapes, not the overblown, super-ripe,
splintery oaked wines that the term “international” sometimes is
applied to. “The style is elegant, and they’re well-made, with a
judicious use of oak,” she said. “They’re known for rosé, but they make
excellent reds and beautiful whites, especially their unoaked
Chardonnay.
“Navarra is a unique cool climate in Spain. It’s all
cooled down, not this extremely fruit-forward style. These are elegant
styles for a consumer that it’s easy to get their head around.”
Craig
Gandolf, manager at Fine Estates From Spain/Jorge Ordoñez Selections,
reminisced about the first time he visited one of their properties in
Navarra. “I had been sleeping on the bus and we had come from the
south,” he said, “and when I woke up and looked out the window, the
vineyards were snow-covered. We were in a quaint little valley, and I
thought we had detoured to Switzerland. I got off the bus and realized
everybody was still speaking Spanish.” For Gandolf, location is what’s
important to understand. “The vineyards of Navarra are nestled in the
foothills of the Pyrenees. Because it’s so far north, it doesn’t have
the same heat that so many of the vineyards of Spain are subjected to.
It’s moderated by the Atlantic winds and Atlantic rainfall. Navarra is
very green compared with the high central plateau of Spain, like La
Mancha where everything tends to be dusty and brown. And snowfall is
quite a regular occurrence.”
Conventional wisdom tells us that
wine grapes make the best wine when they grow at the limit of their
viability in one way or another: barely enough water, barely enough
solar radiation, that sort of agriculture is good for wine. “The wines
themselves develop a finesse and complexity that sometimes eludes other
regions,” Gandolf said. “The cooler growing season allows the grapes to
mature longer.”
This finesse game Gandolf describes is one of
the things that has kept Navarra’s profile somewhat low till now.
“Navarra has never come to the forefront when people are going for the
high-impact, high-alcohol red wines. Jumilla, Rioja, Ribiero del Duero
have based their fame on big-bodied red wines,” he said. “You’re going
to get wines with more finesse and class in Navarra. They’re not great
big blockbuster wines, but they’re wines that hold their own.”
We
keep discovering Navarra over and over again as if for the first time.
Pamplona is the first stop on the Spanish side of the medieval
pilgrimage route to the shrine at Santiago de Campostela in northwest
Spain. Centuries of international pilgrims certainly influenced this
place, but the place influenced them too, and they carried the
reputation of Spanish wines to the rest of their known world.
The
vineyards and wineries of Navarra practically hug the old pilgrimage
road as it passes through. No one knows, but my guess is that the route
changed over time to be closer to the wine, not the other way around,
making it that much easier to find our way back again.
Navarra’s
invasion of Boston begins with Gastronomic Week from January 19 through
23. A dozen area restaurants will offer special Spanish tapas on their
menus, as well as Spanish wines, and many will have the unique Navarran
liquor, Patzaran, available for sipping.
AVILA 1 Charles Sreet, Boston, MA 617.267.481O
CHEZ HENRI 1 Shepard Street, Cambridge, MA 617.354.898O
CHIARA 569 High Street, Westwood, MA 781.461.8118
CLIO 37OA Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 617.536.72OO
DALI 415 Washington Street, Cambridge, MA 617.661.3254
EASTERN STANDARD 528 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 617.532.91OO
ESTRAGON
7OO Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 617.266.O443 – top Spanish chef Enrico
Martinez will be cooking here during Wine Expo weekend!
TAPEO 266 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 617.267.4799
TASCA 1612 Commonwealth Avenue, Brighton, MA 617.73O.8OO2
TORO 17O4 Washington Street, Boston, MA 617.536.43OO
OLIVES 1O City Square, Charlestown, MA 617.242.1999
EVOO 118 Beacon Street, Somerville, MA 617.661.3866
In-store
tastings of Navarran wines currently available in Boston will take
place at several of the better wine shops around town, both before and
after the Expo weekend.
The 21 Navarran winemakers arriving in Boston at the end of month will not be idle while they’re here.
Catch up with them:
Friday, January 23
The
trade is invited to attend a free seminar on the wines of Navarra at
6:3Opm at The Boston Wine School in Brighton, featuring a wide
selection of Spanish tapas and remarks by expert Ana Laguna.
Friday, January 24 to Saturday, January 25
At
the Wine Expo. Importers interested in private meetings at the
Business Center at the Wine Expo should contact
acollum@globalbridgesllc.com.
