Exceptional surroundings and exquisite taste are behind Otazu’s recognition as Vino de Pago

03/08/2010

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The Navarra bodega, Otazu founded a little over two decades ago in the Manorial Estate of the same name, is located in a region with a long winemaking tradition in the realm of the Merindad de Pamplona. In recent years, this bodega has become a world leader of fine wines owing to both the excellence of every process involved leading up to the finished product, as well as its privileged geographic location which gives rise to a very singular terroir. As a result, in 2009, Otazu officially became part of the nine Spanish ‘Vinos de Pago’, the maximum category which recognises the highest quality standards used in getting the very best out of the agri-climatic conditions and the legacy of a wine region seeped in history.

Bodega Otazu is located in a privileged landscape surrounded by the sierras of Perdón and Echauri, and the River Arga. The region boasts a long winemaking tradition which dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries, confirmed by the antique tools and presses which can be currently found at Señorío de Otazu (Señorio in Spanish means Manorial). In addition, in the area devoted to cuisine and diet at the court of the Navarran king, Charles III the Noble (1411-1425), in the Navarra Regional Archives, special mention is given to the wines from Eriete and Val de Echauri, where the bodega’s current estate is located.

The old part of the bodega, built in the French style, dates back to 1860 and has a capacity to house 200,000-litre oak vats, which in its day represented large-scale progress for the region’s vitiviniculture. However, just a few years later, the arrival of various blights which attacked the vineyard kicked off a process which would result in the decline of vine cultivation; a trend which still continued right up to the present day. The 2,700 hectares committed to vine cultivation in the Cuenca de Pamplona area in 1890, were reduced to a mere hectare in 1989. Faced with this situation, that very same year a company called, Gabarbide S.A. decided to rebuild the old bodega as part of its commitment to recuperating the region’s vitiviniculture activity, which would give rise to the quality wines which have since earned Otazu the highest recognitions.