From: Getariako Txakolina, Basque Country, Spain
Varietal: 95% Hondarribi Zuri and 5% Gros Manseng
Taste: This is one of the best Txakoli we’ve had, and it’s an easy fit for anyone who loves wines like Loire Valley Chenin Blanc, Riesling from Alsace or the Mosel, classic Chablis or Albariño from Rías Baixas. Complex aromas and flavors of lemony fruits, petrol, chamomile, chalky minerals, orchard fruit, beeswax, and citrus zest unfold with distinct sea-spray salinity on the finish. It’s zesty, bright, and authentic, “like licking a lime-drenched seashell,” with much more complexity as the wine opens. We highly recommend it and hope you love it as much as we do.
Pairing: From José Pastor Selections, “This is a "Real" Basque Country wine to pair with Serrano ham, sheep’s cheeses, poultry as well as fresh seafood.” Other fantastic pairing partners include ceviche, oysters, sushi, clams, rice dishes, and fried food. Within that category of fried fare, we love pairing this with fried chicken, garlic-fried shrimp, and classic fish and chips.
Bengoetxe is a bit different from the other wineries in the Txakoli area. They are further inland, in a historic vineyard which was lost to Phylloxera and only replanted in 2001. The inland location allows them to farm organically (certified, too) as well as fermenting with ambient yeasts. As opposed to most Txakolina’s which have some injected CO2, their wine does not.
This wine. Bengoetxe 95% Hondarribi Zuri and 5% Gros Manseng, from a single certified organic 3.5 ha vineyard planted on a moderately steep slope of mostly clay, located in the highlands of the province of Gipuzkoa, this is fermented with wild yeasts in small 3,000 liter steel vats, and raised on the lees for up to one year. It is bottled unfiltered and unfined. All CO2 is natural.
About. Many thanks to José Pastor Selections for the following information and loving description of Bengoetxe.
Distinctive wines, wines that speak of their terruño, come from lovingly tended and organically farmed grapes. It is this nurturing philosophy, rare in the Basque Country, a region dominated by industrial farming and winemaking, which drives Iñaki and Rosa Maria Etxeberria to produce Bengoetxe.
We first met Iñaki and Rosa Maria after they released the 2009 vintage, a wine that floored us for its stone fruit, beeswax, and mineral depth. Was this Riesling? Chenin? Basque wine? How did this wine have such lovely intensity without oak or obvious tricks? From Getaria, really?
It turns out that the Etxeberria’s baserria has a long history and unique terruño to go along with the single wine they produce. Perched high up on a clay slope, their ancient farmhouse has been handed down to the family for generations. The locals have long affectionately nicknamed it, Bengoetxe, which means ‘come home’ in Basque. After both phylloxera and civil war hit their area, the vineyards were ripped out. It was only in 2001 when the Etxeberria’s replanted their land with the native Hondarribi Zuri and Gros Manseng, called Iskirita Zuri Handia (say that 5 times!) in Basque. Organic from the beginning, certification came in 2007, the first producer in the Basque Country to do so.
One of the few producers in the D.O. that's not located right next to the coast, and in or directly near the town of Getaria. Using historic evidence of pre-phylloxera plantings that vineyards were inland, Olaberria, Iñaki fought for years to be included in the D.O. Finally he persuaded the Consejo Regulador- the governing body that controls membership, winegrowing, and winemaking rules for Getariako Txakolina- to grant them D.O status in 2008.
Bengoetxe's terruño gives a different face to Txakoli. Their village, Olaberria, is a little warmer, especially in the summer, and the soil is more clay-dominated than their coastal neighbor's. Their grapes are riper, sturdier grapes.
Thankfully, the Etxeberria's do not intend to make a copy-cat Txakolina. Classic and slow wild yeast fermentation takes place in small 3.000 litros vats, located in their home garage, then the wine is raised on the lees up to a year with no batonnage. SO2 levels are kept to a minimum and because all CO2 “is natural” (not injected) the wine does not often show the spritzy character of other Txakolis from Getaria.
This is a "Real" Basque Country wine to pair with Serrano ham, sheep’s cheeses, poultry as well as fresh seafood. We can’t help but feel like this was how the Txakolis of the past tasted before comercial yeast, chemicals and heavy filtration took hold of the region. With Bengoetxe, we feel we have unearthed an authentic and treasured puzzle piece of Basque winegrowing history.
