One of the region’s rising stars, with its multi-award-winning, extensive range of wines and cutting-edge technology, Bodega Inurietta is a great illustration of Navarre’s resurgence and its assertiveness in global wine markets. We take a look at what defines this young bodega shooting for the moon.
The team has made a pledge to farm sustainably. The winery is equipped with many solar panels and a water treatment system, to name a few.
Bodega Inurietta may not have a long backstory – it was only founded in 1999 – but it is anything but a rookie. With nearly 300 hectares under vine planted all around the property and its impressive barrel cellar fitted with innovative control equipment, the winery can certainly knock spots off many of its counterparts. And yet, at this Ribera Alta estate in the very heart of Navarre, the intention is never to make a show. In fact, it is a far cry from the spectacular designs of some of the region’s wineries. Here, winemaking is the priority and everything has been designed to facilitate the transfer of grapes and production of quality wines.
Quality also requires impeccable equipment.
The respect shown for the winemaking process is the continuation of careful work in the vineyards. It is therefore no surprise that winemaker Eider Rodriguez should place greatest emphasis on the outstanding nature of the terroir as an explanation for the unique style of the wines. Although all of the vines are less than 5km from the winery, the soils are anything but uniform. “We have no fewer than seven types of soils and an incline of up to 200 metres. Also, the vineyards near the river do not perform in the same way as those on the upward slopes. These different parameters provide us with extraordinary variety which then allows us to produce wines with differing personas”.
Winemaker Eider Rodríguez.
Obviously, farming 300 hectares of vines requires hard work all year round but when it comes to harvest time, the task is made easier “because we can pick each grape variety and even each vineyard block at peak ripeness whilst at the same time taking the fruit very rapidly from the vineyard to the winery”, explains Rodriguez. Having your own vineyards is also “a real declaration of intent”, it confirms a desire to do things well, handle the fruit with care and show unwavering respect for the environment. Several environmentally-friendly techniques have been introduced, like ground cover to avoid erosion, use of pheromones to combat grapevine moths and sheep manure to fertilise the soils. The winery also uses PCRs – or Polymerase Chain Reaction – a molecular resource for detecting powdery mildew. The presence of insect-eating birds along with birds of prey and bats is facilitated by the appropriate roosts and nests that have been installed.
Lees stirring or batonnage.
These sustainable techniques are part and parcel of an era of connected farming. The winery has weather stations designed for farming and smart systems to keep it informed in real-time of the weather and risks of pests out in the vineyard. The techniques are particularly useful for controlling humidity in the soil and managing irrigation systems effectively. These innovative resources rationalise operations across-the-board and, ultimately, reduce human input.
Jabier Marquínez, winemaker at the bodega.
The same principles are echoed in the winery itself, throughout the winemaking process. “Technology allows us to transform quality fruit into fine wines with minimal intervention”, says Rodriguez. From pneumatic presses to temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, modern systems are skilfully combined with techniques stemming from ancient local wisdom. A case in point is the rosés which are made using the ‘saignée’ or bleeding method typical of Navarre, whilst the fruit designed for the red wines is destemmed and crushed traditionally.
This is also revealed in an ongoing project at the winery aimed at retrieving heirloom grape varieties, many of which do not even have names. The overriding aim is to identify the most worthwhile varieties from an aroma and flavour perspective and the ones best suited to a changing climate. “This year, for the first time we will be making wines from ten grape varieties”.
Most of the wines ferment in stainless steel tanks, aside from a few which ferment in French oak barrels.
But that’s not all. The winery has long stood out for its proactive approach to research into improved vineyard management. Of late, it has focused in particular on the use of yeast, in the vineyard, to combat noble rot and is working on production of its own yeast to achieve this.
The Antoñana family, which owns the bodega, was already farming vines nearly a century ago.
This hotbed of innovation and research has paid off, as evidenced by the multiple awards showered on the wines across the globe. A staggering eight gold medals were awarded to the winery during the last International Gilbert & Gaillard Challenge. The wines are enjoyed worldwide – over 30% of them are exported to Europe and Japan, primarily, but also to China, the United States and Central America. Navarre may well be a long-standing wine region, traditionally its wines remained in the local market and, to a lesser degree, the Spanish wine market, explains Rodriguez, adding that “exports have been a major ally for the region”. Navarre now seems committed to carving out a place for itself in the wine world’s firmament, and Bodega Inurrieta is all-set to blaze the trail.
The estate owns its own vineyards.
