Artazu Pasos de San Martin Garnacha 2018
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The Garnacha we find at Pasos de San Martín has a bright red ruby colour which creates light and transparency in the glass. In the nose we notice forest floor aromas and blue flowers; it is clean and penetrating. In the mouth is energetic and fruity, with delicate and fresh tannins. It is a wine full of power and authenticity.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Tangy and spicy with attractive Mediterranean herbs to the vivid, dark strawberries with hints of cigar box, flowers and iodine. Medium-bodied and quite elegant on the palate, with juicy red and blue berries coated by vertical yet well-honed tannins. Almost a bit ethereal. Immediately drinkable and attractive now, but can hold, too.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pasos de San Martín is the wine produced with Garnacha from the cooler zone of San Martín de Unx in Navarra where they have 11 hectares of 40-year-old vines on a southeast exposure where the soils are rich in limestone and silt. As has been the case in the last few years with Artadi's reds, it had a short élevage of only nine months in 500-liter French oak barrels, including malolactic. The climate and soils are quite similar to Rioja, maybe a bit more extreme here, cooler in cool vintages, warmer in warm years, so this 2018 shows a little like the range from Rioja, elegant and with more freshness. It's quite pure, clean and with very fine tannins. It was bottled in November 2021. They skipped the 2017 vintage of this wine.
Other Vintages
2019-
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
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Wine
Spectator
Artazu's top wine is called "Santa Cruz". It is produced from mostly 100+ year old hillside vineyards of Grenache. The winery also produces a line of wines with the name Artazuri that is made from slightly younger vines. These represent tremendous value.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
Just north of Spain’s famous Rioja region, Navarra excels in the production of full and fruit-dominant reds and good quality, dry rosés. Garnacha holds most of the land under vine, with Tempranillo coming in second place.