THE BASQUE COUNTRY-PART ONE…’The Smuggler’
Navarra, part of the Basque region, definitely has a bit of a different flavor than other part of Spain and today’s visit, basically our only wine stop of the day, is at Bodegas Magana. The story of Juan Magana, who runs the estate with his son Diego, is the stuff wine legends are made of. Juan came to the region in the 70’s with the idea of creating an estate that made unique wines in this area of nutrient poor, arid, but mineral rich soils. The difference is that their model was French, not Spanish. In other words, it was their belief that Merlot and Cabernet would produce great wine here. There were only two problems. There wasn’t any Merlot to be had around these parts, and, oh yeah, it wasn’t strictly legal either. So Juan set about to find some Merlot in the place he thought would be the best, Pomerol, and scored himself what is referred to as the “Petrus clone #181 Merlot” at a nursery in Bordeaux.
The Petrus #181 'foreign' Merlot
The short story is that, since there would be border stops on the main thoroughfare, Juan arranged to smuggle in the vine cuttings through the Pyranees Mountains. He would graft the vines, develop the cuttings, and then head out on another journey over the mountains to do it again. He actually built quite a business selling his cuttings from this “super Tempranillo” Merlot to other parts of Spain as well as Cabernet, Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc. Eventually, when the D.O. was looking for new clones to admit some years later, they came to Juan ‘the Nurseryman’ Magaña to ask his advice. He told them the true story and now everything is above board and Magaña has a stellar reputation.
The Maganas, Jauan and Diego, were very gracious and before we went to taste in the vineyard (are you getting a theme yet) they provided a very unusual lunch…locally grown vegetables. I have told people traveling to Spain that I never saw much of anything that looked like a vegatable, except tomatoes, the last time I went. So to have fresh local onions, radishes, lettuce, etc, was a treat. Of course there was some lamb after that, this is Spain after all, and a showing of some of the older vintages of Magana as well as their current value wines. The 1982, a generally good year in Spain, was impressive at age 27. Unfortunately, the current releases didn’t do a lot for us stylistically. They tasted like pretty good Bordeaux overall at the upper end, but cost about the same, so our interest was definitely mediated. If your are in Spain, these wines are distinct stylistically vis a vis other wines there. But in a market like California, where there are plenty of real Bordeaux, there aren’t as many opportunities to recommend this. They do seem to age well though.
In the end, there was the first of many jamons Iberico, the cured hams traditional in Spain. Having been in the meat business some three decades ago and pretty handy with a knife, I assisted in slicing as there was no jamoncero (a server who specializes in slicing up a the jamons). A little bit more red wine and off on the bus to the small town of Tudela.
That evening a group of us walked the town of Tudela with Patrick and followed him to a local tapas place about four blocks from the hotel. It was our first experience with just regular Spaniards in a tapas bar on a Saturday night. Nice array of selections, many fried and then warmed in a microwave, and a very limited wine selection. Hey it wasn’t Madrid, but the vibe was lively, the food was tasty and it was a good time. We walked back to the hotel around midnight through a fair sized plaza which was still quite full of people, including lots of children playing despite what to us was a rather late hour. Clearly from the crowd, that was how it was done and we weren’t in Orange County any more where the streets roll up at 10PM in most places. Tomorrow, Rioja…
Tags: Basque Country, Navarra, Spain
