The Principality of Asturias is a great source of extraordinary oenologists. Alicia Eyaralar is the living proof of it. Originally from Oviedo, she trained in DO Penedés, and after briefly passing through Bierzo, where she discovered the Mencía variety, she settled in Navarra where she is developing her full potential. Currently, she is the heart of ‘Ars Nova’ and ‘Ars Mácula’, two red wines from the Compañía Vitivinícola Tandem. One of its objectives: that DO Navarra red wines earn the same respect as the rosés.

Alicia Eyaralar came into the wine world by accident. After finishing her biology studies in Oviedo, in 1988, she decided to go to Barcelona to study oenology, caught up in the enthusiasm and conviction of a friend. While there she did her practical studies with one of the giants under DO Penedès: Jaume Serra.

However, her first job as a professional oenologist was not in such a large bodega, but “in a little bodega in Villafranca del Bierzo where the wine is made in a rudimentary way. I learnt a lot during the two harvests I was there and I came into contact with a very special variety, Mencía”, explained Eyaralar. The bodega was Valdeobispo, under DO Bierzo, where she authored some of the wines that, over the years, some people have described as Bierzo’s first-ever modern wines.

In 1991 Alicia Eyaralar settled, with the help of Bodegas Palacio de la Vega, in DO Navarra. “They were seven very good years, they really trusted me and it was there that I became aware of the quality of Navarra wines”, she recalled. Furthermore, it was there that a crucial encounter took place that would alter the future. She met José María Fraile, an economist from Pamplona, who in 2001 came up with the proposal for the Tandem venture.

“José María made a proposal to set-up a bodega together with a limited group of friends and family and a vine grower partner, Pedro Lizarraga. We chose the name of Tandem because we are two principal partners but above all because in Latin it means ‘Finally’. Finally…we fulfilled our dream of having our own bodega”, Alicia recalled with feeling.

That was how the Compañía Vitivinícola Tandem was born in 2003. José María Fraile lead the management team and Alicia Eyaralar, who by then had the experience of 14 vintages under her belt, took care of the winemaking. “We were driven by our passion for the wine world, the dream of creating our own venture and some very individual red wines as well as the potential of a terrain like Navarra. Its landscape gives rise to several different microclimates, each affecting the character of the vineyards, giving them a fundamental characteristic: diversity”, stated Alicia.