Arínzano: we visit the oldest winery in Spain
Arínzano: we visit the oldest winery in Spain
For almost 1,000 years, Arínzano has cultivated the mystery of time and nature. Located in Aberín, Navarre, in a valley like no other (this affirmation is evidenced by the area’s microclimates), stone, earth, and water give rise to an exceptional terroir that favors the singular expression of great wine varieties. The estate has been successively owned by monks, lords, and wine-growing families, but it has always had ties with wine. Today, in the center of this valley cut by the Ega River and the Cierzo winds, Arínzano reveals wines that preserve the strength and grace of time and the land.
Arínzano is, first and foremost, a wild and ever-changing landscape; an oasis in an arid environment that occupies 350 hectares, of which only a third of the land is for winegrowing. This thousand-year-old glacial trough receives a stream of fresh air from the Atlantic that crosses the final massifs of the Sierra de Urbasa Mountain Range and later travels down river towards the rolling slopes of the estate.
The property is made up of 128 hectares of vineyards –Chardonnay, Merlot, Tempranillo, and Cabernet Sauvignon grape varieties– planted on soils composed of marl, sand, limestone, and limonite from the Neogene, along with gypsum and dolomites from the Triassic. Each of the grape varieties was planted in a specific type of soil and with a specific orientation on the estate so as to best adapt to their cultivation properties.
Each plot is worked individually by the winemaker and the rest of the team; modern and precise enology is practiced here, dictated by intuition and experience rather than cookie-cutter recipes and techniques. Due to the unique qualities of the terroir and its winemaking philosophy, Arínzano was awarded the prestigious Vino de Pago designation in 2007, the highest category that a wine can achieve in Spain. Arínzano is the first winery in northern Spain to obtain this distinction – a distinction which, to date, only 24 Spanish wineries hold. The Vino de Pago classification, which applies to the entire estate, is proof of the quest for excellence that continues in full force every day in this thousand-year-old land – a search that is undertaken with the same dedication and devotion as those early monks who first worked the vines back in 1055.
At Arínzano, they are convinced that time is wine’s deepest and most ultimate dimension: brilliant fruit cannot be conceived without the intensity and structure of silky tannins sculpted by time and the measured footprint of the essentially new French oak barrels that are used. The result? Exceptional wines: Arínzano Merlot Agricultura Biológica, which showcases all the potential that Merlot can offer when treated exclusively with natural processes; La Casona de Arínzano, a blend of the two red grape varieties that best adapt to the estate’s terroir (Tempranillo and Merlot), resulting in a complex, delicate, and elegant wine; Hacienda de Arínzano Red, a blend of the three red grape varieties present at the estate (Tempranillo, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon) which stands out for its aromatic expressiveness, roundness, and silky mid palate; Hacienda de Arínzano White, a complex, fresh, and creamy Chardonnay with great culinary versatility; and, lastly, A de Arínzano, an elegant, vibrant, and very gastronomic direct-press rosé. Time stands still when these wines are tasted. Silence allows us to better appreciate these spiritual and physical sensations, the fleeting moment during which we can fully grasp the grace of eternity. When we visit the Arínzano estate for the first time, our being able to taste the wines increases our sensitivity to the mystery and magic hidden therein – without completely revealing all of this exceptional place’s secrets.
Arínzano
