I recently received a shipment of Wines of Navarra to sample and review on the blog, and so far it has offered a beautiful taste of Spain. The first wine we tried was a 2015 Bodegas Castillo de Monjardin Garnacha.
100% Garnacha from old vines , aged 6 months in American oak.
I am a big fan of Garnacha, and this was a big hit in our house, paired with turkey chili of all things. It would be great with a selection of Spanish meats and cheeses, and I am kind of dreaming of a glass of this wine and a plate of Manchego right now.
Elegant and well balanced, beautiful light ruby in color, this Garnacha offered chocolate, cherry, and earth notes without being heavy or overbearing at all. This is definitely a red for all seasons and could be sipped in front of a fireplace on a snowy day with lighter meat dishes as easily as it would pair with grilled chicken during a summer barbeque. I’m definitely not a red only in winter and white in summer wine drinker, and I always love finding wines that transcend season.
Exploring more of Spain (I’ve been to Barcelona only.) is definitely on my travel wish list, and I would love to walk some of the Camino de Santiago someday. . . so hopefully tasting Navarra wines where they grow is in the cards!
The Wines of Navarra website is really beautiful and offers information on the regions and its wines and gastronomy.
Navarra is one of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions, a storied land of vast inherited cultural wealth tucked into the Pyrenees of north-central Spain, just below France.
Navarra lies at the nerve center of a celebrated medieval pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago, and was once a Kingdom of Navarra, whose cultural flowering under French monarchs in the late Middle Ages left behind both a stunning architectural legacy and a potent residual ‘Frenchness’ that still pervades local sensibilities.
Navarra sits along a rugged, transitional zone at the convergence of three major climate types–Mediterranean, Continental, and Atlantic. Its landscape comprises semi-desert basin, lush woodland hills and high mountain peaks, all within a total area is smaller than that of Connecticut.
Wines of Navarra provided me with wine samples. All opinions are my own.
