I recently had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ignacio Arzuaga, from Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro, who came to Vietnam to share information about his winery and wines which are now available locally.
Organised by the Wine Warehouse, which is currently selling Arzuaga wines in Vietnam, and hosted in the iconic Reflections restaurant at the Caravelle Hotel, twenty five lucky people (myself included) had the chance to try a selection of Arzuaga wines, paired with great food from the Caravelle’s chef.
Arzuaga winery comes from one of the two more famous wine producing regions in Spain, Ribera de Duero. Winemaking in Ribera dates back over 2,000 years to the Roman era. In the middle ages, new plantings by monasteries such as the Cistercians in Valbuena de Duero (first to arrive in the 12th century) and the Benedictines from Cluny in Burgundy spurred a revival in local winemaking.
Ribera’s earliest underground cellars with their distinctive chimneys were built in the thirteenth century in towns across the region, and still serve to protect wines from the extreme climate.
Wine became an essential aspect of Ribera’s cultural and economic development facilitating trade with other areas of Spain and resulting in the first quality regulations, the “Ordinances of Castilla y León,” in the fifteenth century. Ribera wines were highly regarded for export at the height of the Spanish Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in more recent times the founding of Bodega Vega Sicilia in 1864 heralded the quality credentials of the region prior to the formal establishment of the D.O.
Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro is a family winery founded in 1987. Ignacio’s father, being a gourmet and owner of several top restaurants, decided to complement his love for good food and wine by buying some land to make top-quality wine. As a result, Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro was born, starting with 25 hectares of vines, making the first wine in 1993.
Over time, and due to the national and international success of its wines, the winery has been growing and currently sports around 154 hectares of vines; however they still keep their family tradition of focusing on producing quality rather than quantity.
Thanks to the gourmet background of Mr Arzuaga, they have tailored their wines to be enjoyed with food, looking for elegance and balance, as well as wines that respect, and even enhance, the culinary experience.
Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro crafts wine using traditional natural methods in an artisan way, making the most of the knowledge passed from fathers to sons for many generations: grapes are picked and selected by hand rather than by machine, and all fermentations are 100% natural without adding any chemicals. The result is a collection of magnificent wines.
Mr. Ignacio Arzuaga is very proud of his product because they also meet the family’s second wish: making high quality wines which are affordable, so that everyone can enjoy them.
You can find Arzuaga wines at Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, the only 7 star hotel in the world, where Arzuaga’s entry level wine is even available by the glass: if you can find the entry level wine in the only 7 star hotel in the world, which focuses on top quality, imagine the quality of the higher end wines!
Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro only brings the wine to the market when it’s ready to drink, so when you buy their wines, you will not need to wait in order to enjoy them.
Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro is one of the many wineries I visited in my trip to Spain last year, and apart from the visit to the winery and the beautiful surroundings, you will be delighted to know that they also have a 5 star hotel on top of the winery, plus a 1.000 square meter spa based around the wine culture, in fact it is the largest spa in the world located inside a winery.
The spa was built with the idea in mind of bringing people closer to the wine culture, Mr. Ignacio recommends wine lovers visit a winery a least once during the harvest season, not only for the experience of seeing and enjoying the process, but in particular to experience the different aromas and smells during harvest, that later on will be associated to those scents brought by the wines when being imbibed.
The wine dinner at Caravelle was fabulous, and we all had the opportunity to try four of Bodegas Arzuaga Navarro’s wines.
The first one, La Planta, was served with a delicious smoked salmon risotto, which was enhanced by the smoky tones of La Planta.
The slow cooked pork cheek was paired with the Arzuaga Crianza, winner of two gold medals, an elegant wine with lots of fruit, creamy and round.
It was followed by the Arzuaga Reserva, served with pressed leg of lamb; another gold winner, bringing elegance and complexity to the table, with dark fruits and the characteristic aromas of Ribera de Duero Wines.
However the star of the night was Arzuaga’s Gran Reserva: a beautiful wine with soft plum tones and long length, absolutely beautiful.
If you want to know more about the wines served at the wine dinner, please check my blog www.wineinvietnam.com as I will be reviewing all of them shortly. And if you have the chance visit the winery, a real unforgettable experience!
