Greg and I were recently visiting his parents in San Diego, and I brought along a bottle of Azul y Garanza Naturaleza Salvaje Navarra Tinto I’d planned to explore for this post. I was looking for inspiration and asked my mother-in-law if she had any Spanish cookbooks in their EXTENSIVE library. I thought it was a simple question, but it set off a chain reaction that resulted in several new books on Spanish cuisines arriving at the house a couple of days later. This is of course is how the library becomes so extensive. It wasn’t my intention, but as a result, I got to play with lots of new cookbooks while at the house. It’s always so much fun to explore the cuisine and wine of a region together.
In this case, we’re going to Navarra (or Navarre in English) in northern Spain and enjoying it with Basque cuisine. We’ve made several recent virtual trips to the Spanish Basque regions, first with Txakolina, and then with cider, but I didn’t look at them together with Basque cuisine, so I took the opportunity with this wonderful bottle of Garnacha paired with a couple of recipes adapted from Basque: Spanish Recipes from San Sebastian and Beyond by José Pizarro. (I think it was the compact edition.)
Navarra
Let’s start with a glimpse of the region. In terms of wine, Navarra has largely been overshadowed by its neighbor, Rioja, but it is definitely worth getting to know. It has many fascinating aspects, of which you’ll get just a taste below. We’ve also looked at Narra before, so for a bit more, check out Cooking to the Wine: Señorío de Otazu and Broiled Skirt Steak with Romesco Sauce.
5 Fact Navarra Cheat Sheet
- More than just pink. This area has long been known for its rosés, rosado in Spanish, and up until the 1980s, those were the wines of note. However, since then their red and white wines have been gaining notice as well. This push forward was due in large part to the establishment of the Estación de Viticultura y Enología de Navarra (Navarra Viticulture and Oenological Research Station), which conducts research and training in viticulture and winemaking.
- Location, location: Navarra is located in the north-central part of the country, running from the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains and over to the Ebro river, just across from Rioja, just below France. Navarra DO (created in 1933) covers the entire southern half of the region–almost everything running from just south of Pamplona, the region’s capital.
- Extra Credit: While we’re not getting into them today, the region has five distinct winemaking subzones: Ribera Baja, Ribera Alta, Tierra Estella, Valdizarbe, and Baja Montaña.
- Super varied terrain and climate. There is a lot going on in a relatively small amount of space: the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean is about an hour to the northwest, the Pyrenees Mountains lie to the northeast, there are several other mountain ranges in the northern sub-zones, and the Bardenas Reales Desert and the Ebro Valley are both in the south. That’s a lot! It’s not surprising then that the region of Navarra also has a mixture of climates. You’ll find a mixture of Atlantic, Continental, and Mediterranean moving from north to south in the region as a whole.
- Garnacha and Tempranillo, plus lots of friends. Grenache has traditionally dominated plantings here, although the numbers have gone down in recent years. It now clocks in at about 24% of plantings. That said, you’ll still find some excellent old-vine Garnacha. (Like today’s wine!) Tempranillo has taken over first place, making up about 33% of plantings. You’ll find the whole international gang here as well, along with a few other traditional grapes. Here is the full breakdown of permitted varieties:
- Red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha Negra, Graciano, Mazuelo (Carignan), Merlot, Tempranillo, Syrah, and Pinot Noir.
- White: Chardonnay, Garnatxa Blanca, Malvasía, Moscatel de Grano Menudo, Viura / Macabeo, and Sauvignon Blanc.
- Pilgrims, bulls, Hemingway, the French, and Game of Thrones - this region has it all! There is A LOT of interesting culture and history here. Here is a rapid-fire hit list:
- The Camino de Santiago passes through here. Catholics would pass through the area while making the 400-mile pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, where it’s said that the remains of St. James the Apostle are buried. These travelers wanted wine and it caused a boom in Middle Ages for the region’s wines. Demand was so high that in the 14th century, restrictions had to be placed on vineyard land to ensure that there was enough farmland to grow grains for food.
- The famous Running of the Bulls (known locally as the Fiesta de San Fermin or simply Sanfermines), occurs every year in Pamplona between July 6 to 14.
- That inspired Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, which portrays American and British expatriates traveling to Pamplona to partake in the festivities.
- Navarra was once the Kingdom of Navarre. In 1589, King Henry III of Navarre inherited the French throne as Henry IV of France, and in 1620 it was merged into the Kingdom of France. It remained under the control of the French crown until the 1800s. The French influence can still be seen in the cuisine and architecture.
- The Bardenas Reales Desert served as the location of the Dothraki Sea in Game of Thrones in Season 6. If you’re planning to start a Khalasar, this is the place to do it.
For additional details, see this excellent fact sheet by Navarra Wine US.
The Wine: Azul y Garanza Naturaleza Salvaje Navarra Tinto 2019
I’ll admit it. It was this wine’s beautiful label that first grabbed my attention while I was searching for bottles at K&L in SF. However, when I stopped to do a little in-store research on my phone, I discovered that I’d already enjoyed wines from this producer before. Azul y Garanza makes entry-level wines in liters bottles, and I’ve both purchased and sold the red and the white many times before. They’re both super gulp-able and easy-drinking crowd-pleasers, perfect for taking on picnics and to BBQs. (The red also works well with a nice chill.) I’d never had their higher-end offerings and was excited to try one out.
The Azul y Garanza’s has vineyards that begin in the lunar landscapes of Bardenas Reales Natural Park and in the Pre-Pyrenees. The winery’s founders Dani Sánchez, María Barrena, and Fernando Barrena aim to work with these landscapes as a whole, not just the vineyards. As such, they encourage as much biodiversity as possible, believing that all of the surrounding plants, as well as the animals and insects, have a part to play in the success of the grapes. They’ve planted native fruit trees and shrubs to increase the biodiversity of the ecosystem.
Growing anything here is no easy feat as the clay-calcareous soils are shallow and poor. There is only minimal water, since rain is irregular at best, and often nearly non-existent. There are also extreme diurnal shifts, with temperatures varying greatly between day and night. Under these conditions, it’s no surprise that yields are very small, and the grapes that do grow are small, intensely concentrated, and very powerful. The name for the bottle we’re looking at today seems incredibly appropriate as Naturaleza Salvaje means “wild nature.”
Keeping in the spirit of working with nature, the vineyards are worked completely organically (certified), without the use of pesticides, insecticides, or chemical fertilizers that might harm the soil or the ecosystem. Winemaking is likewise quite natural/low-intervention, using wild yeast fermentation, and using mostly concrete vats.
Naturaleza Salvaje Navarra Tinto 2019 ($30 at K&L, 13% ABV) is 100% Garnacha and comes from vines just north of Bardena Reales. (So basically, this wine comes from the Dothraki Sea!) The average age of the vines is 40 years old, and grapes are hand-harvested, then fermented in concrete tanks, followed by six months aging in amphora and six months in neutral 300L barrels. Only minimal sulfur is used. (You can find additional details here and here.)
This wine basically tasted like the label looks. On the day we opened the wine I picked up notes of bright, black sour cherry, raspberry, mixed wildflowers, and herbs on the nose. It was quite effusive and we all agreed that those cherries were pretty much jumping out of the glass. On the palate, there were also notes of red licorice, red plum, and a touch of spice. It was medium-bodied and simultaneously richly flavored and refreshing, and very lively. The tannins were fine and smooth. (I think you could easily have this with salmon or richer seafood dishes without a problem.)
Everyone at the table really enjoyed this wine! In different words, my FIL commented on how it tasted quite alive. It was just delightful.
The Food: Tomato Soup with Jamón & Manchego and Griddleded Marinated Chicken Thighs with Pickled Shallots
I picked two different recipes from Basque: Spanish Recipes from San Sebastian and Beyond by José Pizarro to play with. The first was a tomato soup topped with grilled bread, jamón, and cheese. If you like pan con tomate, proportions are basically just flipped so that this is tomate con pan! I didn’t change much in the recipe other than that I decided to roast the garlic bulb whole rather than to split it into cloves as is done in the original. I just figured it would be much easier to squeeze out all the garlicky goodness at once, rather than fussing with individual cloves. I also decided to run the tomatoes through the food processor for a smoother texture than how it’s presented in the book. You can also absolutely keep this soup vegetarian if you prefer by using vegetable stock and omitting the jamón at the end.
I took more liberties with the second recipe to transform it from a pintxo, the Basque version of a tapa, to a main course dish. The original recipe called for quail, but the grocery store was out, so I just swapped in some chicken thighs – always a favorite with us! I think you can easily use whatever type of poultry pieces you’d like, you’ll just need to adjust the cooking time. To complete the transformation to a main course, I served the chicken on a bed of roasted, smashed potatoes and arugula, which got dressed nicely by the vinegar running off of the pickled shallots. Since the recipe called for a raspberry vinaigrette, I also added a few fresh raspberries to the plate for color and because I thought they might resonate nicely with the wine. (The recipe for the potatoes is not included here, but you can find it in this post, just omit the bacon and use olive or cooking oil.) This would be a great dish to make for company because you can prep everything the day before, and then just grill the chicken the day of.
How it All Worked
I had little doubt the wine would work with the tomato soup, and it absolutely did. The wine had a tangy quality that matched the tomatoes, and the richness of the jamón and cheese only enhanced the match. This dish brought out the wine’s more savory side.
I was less sure as to how the wine would work with the chicken dish, particularly because I was worried that the vinegar in the pickled shallots would flatten the wine as vinegar has a tendency to do. Not a problem. I know neither Greg nor I held back in our use of the shallots, but the wine held up just fine. I think that between the char on the chicken and the richness of the potatoes, there was enough other stuff going on that resonated with the wine to keep the vinegar from throwing things off. I also think the raspberries tied in nicely as well. They were ripe but tart, and worked with the fruit notes. Overall, this dish spoke to the wine’s fruity side and brought out hints of smoke.
It was a very happy meal all around!
PASTE HERE
For more related to Grenache, check out these posts:
Additional sources used for this post and extra reading:
