Navarra continues to push diversity as its USP

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 20 February, 2017

Best known for its Rosado wines, Navarra is increasingly looking to promote understanding of the breadth of styles and varieties in the region, tapping into a mix of up-and-coming producers, re-invigorated vineyards and its white wines

"We are known as a region for rosés, and reds, but we are beginning to focus more on our whites and also continue to show the diversity of our reds," says Jordi Vidal, general manager of the Consejo Regulador Navarra, speaking to Harpers on a recent visit to the region.

"We don't really have one story, but several stories, so the message has to be this diversity."

Selling diversity as a USP is nothing new, but where Navarra and its producers believe they have the edge is in the general style of wines, which, in this northerly and elevated part of Spain, typically show freshness rooted in good acidity.

Despite being predominantly a red and rosé region, the aim in highlighting the whites is to reflect and grow understanding of what the region is capable of. And this in contrast to the more traditional mix of varieties and styles in neighbouring Rioja, which has tended to overshadow Navarra on the world stage.

Furthermore, the mix of 'international' and local varieties that have long been grown side-by-side in the region offer a breadth of wins that its producers argue are well-suited to modern gastronomy and preferences for fresher styles of wine.

"Navarra needs a revolution, like Galicia or Jerez. The wineries are doing very good things, young people are fighting for quality and it is really beginning to show," said Jorge Navascués, consultant to Viña Zorzal. "Navarra has been seen as fighting alongside Rioja, but Rioja is well established and Navarra is about change."

Navascués, who is something of a rising star on the Spanish wine scene, consulting to several wineries, added: "The revolution will be in the vineyards, and the diversity in Navarra is crazy - it's a region that stretches from the desert to the mountains, with very distinct differences in climate and soils."

Navarra's strength in diversity has also been its Achilles Heel, in the sense that the region and its producers have in the past struggled to find a rallying point beyond Rosado wines, with the mix of international and indigenous varieties presenting a further challenge to easy consumer understanding of the region.

Chardonnay is a front-runner among the quality whites and potentially a strong lead variety that Navarra can lay claim to over the rest of Spain. Smaller quantities of varieties such as Garnacha Blanco, Muscat and Viognier are also making their mark.

With reds, blends rooted in Cabernet, Tempranillo and Merlot lead, with Garnacha Tinto benefitting from a big push and delivering a range of engaging styles, Graciano making some increasingly good wines, while experimental quantities of varieties as diverse as Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and even Pinot Noir are also in evidence (although outside of DO regulations).

Old patches of vines are being snapped up by producers, with many of those vineyards well-sited at several hundred metres on poor, stoney soils, adding to the evolution in the region. And even some of the well-known Navarran rosados are evolving, becoming lighter in colour and weight in response to external trends.

"Navarra should be promoted as a hotspot of innovation, but it also depends on where you go [in the DO], because each place has such a singularity of soil and climate, so this needs to be explained and it depends on who you talk to," said Guillermo Penso at Bodegas Otazu, a well-financed relative newcomer to the scene.

What is certain is that we can expect to continue to see an on-going increase in the diversity emerging from this already versatile wine-producing region.

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