Food Pairing
Invigorating varietal nose with intriguing floral traits. On the palate this white wine dances to life with lively stone and citrus fruit. Scintillating texture. Amazing Chardonnay from Spain.
- Country
- Spain
- Region
- Navarra
- Grapes
- Chardonnay
- Vintage
- 2019
- ABV
- 14
- Code
- 10946
- Style
- White
- Methods
After five days, 15 vineyards and innumerable U-turns on our latest journey through Spain, Bodegas Maximo Abete will always stand out. Run by Maria and Yoanna Abete alongside Juanma Lerga (Yoanna’s husband), it is the quintessential family winery with product rather than profit at the core of their ethos.
Many of the wineries we visited were happy to whisk us around there winery and cellar before getting down to business in the tasting room. Not so here. Maria and Juanma immediately hustled us to their rickety old 4x4 and drove us around some of their 15 different plots of land.
Maria and Yoanna Abete of Bodegas Maximo Abete are amongst the youngest and most dynamic winemakers we’ve come across in Spain. Alongside Joanna’s husband, Juanma Lerga, this tightknit group are the quintessential family winery with product rather than profit at the core of their ethos.
Dotted around the highlands of Navarra’s western most Baja Montana and Ribera Alta subzones, the vineyards are hidden up treacherous mountain paths or buried deep amidst garrigue-like scrubland with rosemary and lavender in abundance. Here, alongside Spanish regulars Tempranillo and Garnacha, they grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay.
These French varieties excel on their high-altitude vineyards, which benefit from the tempering influence of the Atlantic westerlies. But perhaps the most striking effect on us, aside from the wines, was their work ethic and pride in what they create. As Maria put it, “we don’t try to ‘correct’ anything in the wine because we want to make it as naturally as possible.”
"This typifies the kind of wines found in Wines Direct’s list — made in a remote part of Navarre by two sisters (and a husband), from vines grown up a mountain. If you haven’t had a chardonnay in a while I recommend this one — pears, peaches and lilies on the nose, complex and supple on the palate with a lovely nervy dry finish."
"Succulent sweet tropical fruit nose, ditto palate, lemon curd taste and texture, good length."
"This stuff is revolutionary and utterly gorgeous. The fruit is as clean and as clear as a whistle (greengages, but that may be just me). It's as far from the syrupy, oaky stuff of yore as you can get. A revelation."
"For decades, Spanish white wines played second fiddle, or no fiddle at all, to her better known reds such as Rioja. Then along came Albarino from Galicia and the world was hooked. But theres more to Spanish white than Albarino, as this delightful Chardonnay from Navarra proves. Immediate, gluggable appeal is backed up by elegance and some restrained richness leading to an impressive finish. Excellent balance also gives it enduring appeal."
Bodegas Maximo Abete
In total we have 14 plots of our own and one belonging to a great winegrower friend of ours, Julian Palacios , who takes care of it with the same care or more than we do. All of them are distributed in different points around San Martín de Unx . Each one
Related products
-
Domaine des Terres Dorées ‘Chardonnay Classic’Chardonnay
Beaujolais AOC, France
€21.55 -
Domaine de Nancelle Mâcon-Villages
Chardonnay
Macon Villages AOC, France
€17.95
