This extremely large and modern enterprise - effectively the largest wine producer of Navarra - was founded in 1983 and invested an impressive 6 million euros building its principal high tech winery in Murchante (some 100 kilometres south of Pamplona) over 1998/9; yet it is so successful that it is now being further enlarged.
Here alone, 6 million kilos are vinified annually, 15000 barriques are stored, and more than a million bottles sit quietly in repose. Garnacha still accounts for 42% of all Navarra vineyards, but here the emphasis is on Tempranillo of which Príncipe de Viana have some 500 hectares, though some Cabernet and Merlot is also grown. Technical director of all this is our old friend Joseba Altuna, the original Guelbenzu winemaker, who went on to help set up Inurrieta and finally cast anchor here; and it is he who makes Sabina for us: a delightful duo - the white Viura with just a touch of barrel-fermented Chardonnay for added substance and the red a mouth-filling, lightly oaked Tempranillo with just a dash of Merlot and Cabernet - now complemented by an excellent rosé.
Finally, a word of thanks to recently departed Export Director Jordi Prat who has decided to give Italian wines his best shot but was nice enough to arrange that our wines all be in Stelvin as of late last year.
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