The brothers Patricia, José Miguel and Ricardo (Richi) Arambarri have heard on many occasions from their father José Miguel, son of the small town of Badarán (Rioja Alta), that "not a kilo of grapes from Nájera upwards". And it is that in this area of Alto Najerilla de La Rioja, located around 600 meters above sea level, the grapes were very difficult to ripen and to reach the minimum alcoholic degree and the desired quality. Most of those berries ended up becoming claret or rooster's eyes (mixture of whites and reds) since the reds that were made were medium hair. But climate change and rising temperatures have changed almost everything.
The grapes today achieve optimum ripeness and a balance that until just two decades ago was unusual. Now this reviled region in the southwest of La Rioja with its marked orography has become a coveted manna. But the search for greater production in the vineyard in the 80s of the last century led to planting clones with a higher load of grapes and better resistance to fungal diseases. This entailed a loss of genetic and varietal material that Richi Arambarri has now wanted to rescue from oblivion in a unique look at the best past. He says that "in order to advance in the world of wine, it is often necessary to look to the past." And he has no doubts that "the Alto Najerilla valley is one of Rioja's hidden treasures", an area at the foot of the Sierra de la Demanda that crowns Mount San Lorenzo, the highest peak in La Rioja with 2,271 meters altitude.
And it is precisely in the Alto Najerilla valley where the youngest of the brothers, Richi, with the support of the technical director who began the adventure of producing wines again with his father, Raúl Acha, has opted for vineyards that have become "in our most privileged area of La Rioja”. They are goblet vines planted a minimum of 60 years ago (there are also twisted but beautiful hundred-year-old vines, some with layering). Richi has wanted to recover the polyculture of yesteryear (with truffle fruit trees on the farms) and all the genetic and varietal wealth that was in danger of being lost. All this following the parameters of organic farming and respectful tillage. This unique plant heritage is the foundation of the El Pacto wine project, with highly demanding wines at a very low price. They are modern wines with an updated look at the past, fleeing from excesses of concentration and wood. Richi acknowledges that "it is a project that belongs to Raúl Acha and me". It is stated that "Viñedos El Pacto is a commitment to our ancestors, to a generation that decades ago preserved the precious wine-growing heritage in two areas of Rioja that are a connection point with our origin: Alto Najerilla and La Sonsierra".
The very good 2021 vintage was marked by abundant rains in late spring and September. The arrival of dry anticyclonic weather during the final phase of maturation led to a harvest that they describe as "a dream". The Viura grapes (which are in the majority), Riojan Malvasia, Garnacha Blanca, Calagraño, Jaina and other very minority (some of them unknown) were harvested together on September 23, 2021 in bins. They only rule out the muscatel variety for winemaking, which ends up making their stomachs happy during the harvest. They recover an atavistic organic agriculture that seeks to take care of the environment, with the minimum possible intervention. They do not seek the greatest production, but rather let "nature take its vital course." The vineyards of El Pacto Blanco, dry land without irrigation, were planted between 1920 and 1973 in the towns of Cárdenas (six farms) and Nájera (two farms). Its soils are clayey-ferrous, with a high component of conglomerate rock at its base.
After harvesting the grapes are not processed. The whole bunches spend the night in the cellar, in the bins. The next morning, on September 24, the grapes were destemmed and macerated for 6 hours in stainless steel tanks before being pressed to achieve greater aromatic richness and volume on the palate. After that, a static settling process was carried out by gravity, with decantation and racking to eliminate the coarse lees. The alcoholic fermentation of the must was spontaneous, with the indigenous yeasts of the grapes and at a low temperature (between 16 and 18º C). In the final part of the fermentation, the wine passed to bocoyes and foudres made of French and central European oak. Half of the wine was aged for eight months in a 5,000-litre oak foudre (for second use) and the rest in 600-litre bocoyes (for third use) in contact with the fine lees. It was bottled on December 29 of last year. The wine of the 2022 vintage premieres a part of the elaboration in a tartarized concrete tank.
The White Pact 2021 is an exemplification of balance and elegance, a haute couture white and attention to detail. It is a canvas without dissonant colors in which a significant step forward is taken compared to the first vintage, the previous one. Everything in him is harmoniously arranged. Of this 2021, a total of 12,500 three-quarter-liter bottles were produced, and 300 one and a half liters. Richi states that he feels “proud” of this wine and explains that when he serves it blindly it is difficult to place it since he believes that its area of origin “is still very unknown”. The technical director Raúl Acha defines this white as "the mineral verticality of the clay-ferrous soils of the Cárdenas valley."
It is straw yellow in color, clear and with medium brilliance. It stands out with notes of flower and white fruit and nectarine with hints of smoke, brioche and yeast and aromatic herbs from the Mediterranean garrigue. It is silky, creamy, with a mineral tip (flint and saltiness) and glyceric. Its good acidity and freshness is its backbone. A modern white Rioja, very elegant and with a unique character. It is a complex and very gastronomic wine. Richi likes to harmonize this wine with pochas de vigil (with vegetables, but also with its sacraments) while the technical director, Raúl Acha, opts for accompanying it with lamb chops al vine shoots and even with paellas. It is also ideal for a Rioja-style cod, for caparrones (dry red beans) with vegetables, for some stewed quail, for smoked hake kokotchas from the Venta Moncalvillo restaurant in Daroca de Rioja or with Marta hake from the El Portal del Echaurren from Ezcaray.
The Vintae Group was founded in 1999 with the Riojan winery Hacienda López de Haro. They also have projects in Toro, in Navarra and in Soria's Ribera del Duero, and have disinvested in Chile. In 2008, Richi Arambarri took over the reins of the company from the general management, at just 23 years of age, after his father suffered a stroke. In 2016 they started the El Pacto project. It has been "a rebellion with knowledge", in the words of Richi. His latest very limited production project will be released on the market in two months. There are 300 bottles of a sparkling wine made from Viura and other white varieties and another 300 bottles of a red Garnacha vinified in white. Both are from the 2015 vintage, made following the traditional method (aged in the bottle with the lees for 5 years with a crown stopper) and without DO. They are the Pandemonium, very sharp sparkling wines due to their outstanding acidity, only partially offset by the addition of 9 grams of sugar per liter.
On their labels an angel from God's army fights against a fallen angel (cast out of heaven for disobeying or rebelling against God's commands). It is a project with mountain vineyards with which they have tried to "bring life back" to the slopes of the Cárdenas river valley. They are new plantations with a vertical stake protected from the voracity of wild boars with metal fences. It is a limit zone and extreme climate located at 800 meters above sea level and with a thermal integral similar to that of Champagne, but with a better distributed rainfall. It is the culmination of the dream of the founder of Vintae. Richi affirms that they have created these two sparkling wines, presented between chandeliers with candles in the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (Yuso), "to compete with the best in the world". They are very unique sparkling wines "impossible to emulate in any other corner of our country".
Vintae currently has 300 hectares of its own vineyards and produces around 5 million bottles a year, of which around 90% are red wines. They export 45% of their production. The United Kingdom, the United States and Canada are its main international strongholds.
