There are things going on all over Spain, and Navarra is no different. It is a historic area that lives in the considerable shadow of Rioja to the southwest. This, however, is a new project by two environmental biologists and former winemaking hobbyists of Basque decent deciding to ‘go pro’ with the intent of focusing on Navarra’s widest planted varietal, Grenache. There’s a bit of a twist as they are looking for old plantings with more historic genetic materials. If those sites contain other ancient indigenous varietals, that’s okay, too.
They have assigned themselves a rather formidable task. They want to establish a new identity for Navarra based on scrutinizing and developing unique sites and allowing them to express themselves. They seem to have caught on in Spain and bottles of their wines started showing up in Michelin-starred restaurants across the country. The key to their work is biodiversity. They are working on high elevation sites with predominantly old vines in places were aromatic plants like rosemary, thyme and lavender naturally sprout up between the rows. Kind of sounds like Provence.
The name of the project, Aseginolaza & Leunda, will be a bit of a stumbling block for some folks, as will the general lack of familiarity regarding what Navarra is really all about. But that won’t be a major problem just yet since there is very little wine at present. The national importer says that only 1000 bottles came into the country among seven different bottlings. So you won’t need to clear away a lot of space in the cellar, but you should get to know this promising startup early on.
The Aseginolaza & Leunda Navarra Kauten 2020 is 100% Garnacha harvested in small bins and fermented with 25% whole clusters (the rest is destemmed) via native yeasts. It spends three months in neutral barrels before being bottled unfiltered with a minimum of SO2. As is the character of Navarra Grenache, the flavors center on cool edged, urgent red fruits.
From Luis Gutierrez at robertparker.com, “The very young and primary 2020 Kauten, produced with fruit from their younger vineyards, is fruit-driven and a little heady, with good ripeness and 14% alcohol, which provided pungent flavors and abundant fine-grained tannins. The oak is neatly integrated and the wine has very good general balance. It’s elegant and powerful with good ripeness, 14% alcohol, very good freshness (pH 3.17 and seven grams of acidity) and integrated oak after six months in barrel. 1,200 bottles were filled in July 2021…92 p0ints.”
As to the Aseginolaza & Leunda Navarra Matsanko 2020, the soil is composed
by a a succession of shales and siltstones, with insertions of coarse-grained sandstones. The wine sees five months in older barrels and then is bottled unfiltered after natural clarification. Luis Gutierrez takes care of the rest of the technicals in his piece.
From Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com, “I was quite surprised by the complexity and nuance of the 2020 Matsanko, despite being very young. It fermented with full clusters and semi-carbonic maceration and matured in barrel for five months. It’s a blend of old-vine Garnacha (75%), Tempranillo (15%) and Viura (10%). It’s elegant, serious and somehow austere, with good ripeness (14.5% alcohol) and concentration, abundant fine-grained tannins and good depth. 1,239 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2021…Aseginolaza & Leunda is one of the new names from Navarra worth following…92+ points!”
An intriguing new source to check out, quantities are limited.