2017 El Terroir

Full bottle 1,280 g. Made from Garnacha, some vines planted as long ago as 1903. Certified organic. This is quite a story, of which I've been aware but I'm not sure I have ever spelt it out on JancisRobinson.com. Domaines Lupier was started in 2006 when husband and wife team Enrique Basarte and Elisa Ucar left their jobs, took out a loan and began purchasing abandoned plots of old-vine Garnacha around the village of San Martin de Unx. They now own 17 hectares across 27 separate plots of bush-trained Garnacha, with the oldest site planted in 1903. 2017 was a challenging year in the vineyards of Navarra, but high-quality fruit was produced. Spring frost, drought, heatwaves and occasional hailstorms all played a part. The harvest started in the third week of September and finished by mid-October, fortunately with favourable weather. The fruit comes from a variety of Grenache clones of over 80 years old at 650–700 m elevation on predominantly limestone soils with different orientations. The grapes were hand-picked and transported to the winery in 12-kg crates. Fermentation took place in open vats and barrels, with the extraction techniques limited to one punchdown in order to preserve the finesse of the Grenache. The wine was then aged for 12 months in mainly used barrels of different sizes with only 8% new oak. Quite a deep crimson, deeper than for many Garnacha. Sweet, almost gamey nose and very well balanced. More concentrated than some but it's the fruit, the whole fruit and nothing but the fruit with quite a bit of fine tannin still. The style is more Cairanne than Ch Rayas. Elderberry fruit. By no means overpriced. (JR)