Domaines Lupier | Navarra

                     

Enrique Basarte and Elisa Ucar

"We had to do something."

The past holds the seeds of the future. So it is with art, music, literature and wine. Enrique Basarte and Elisa Ucar, the husband-and-wife team behind Domaines Lupier, know that today’s innovations in viticulture will be built on knowledge of history and tradition. In their case it’s all about old vines: The have rescued abandoned Garnacha vines, some as ancient as 109 years old, that other producers around San Martín de Unx in Navarra were ignoring. “It was spiritually painful to us,” says Elisa. “Being in love with Garnacha, we had to do something.”

And so they have. The couple, both of whom have been involved in the wine industry for some 15 years, studied parcels in the area, tasting grapes from each to select the most interesting and the most promising. They acquired 27 micro plots at various elevations, each a treasure offering its own unique terroir. Elisa and Enrique believe in biodiversity and in using microbiology to assure their soil remains alive with nutrients, but their philosophy of winemaking remains rooted in three words: purity, simplicity and authenticity.

Their two cuvees – each made from 100% Garnacha – are at once dense and clean, hinting at the traditionally savage profile of Garnacha but transformed by soft tannins and exquisite finesse. In the end, the wines are made in the vineyard. As Elisa explains in Spanish, “Es lo que es” (“It is what it is”).

Learn more about Domaines Lupier here.