Today the winery has 143 hectares (350 acres) of vineyard in the area around Olite.  It produces about 600.000 liters per year and has a full range of wines; rosé, white, young reds, crianza, reserva and a top wine - Vendimia Seleccionada.

My visit to the winery was a clear winner. Besides tasting the full range of Ochoa wines I also managed to taste some barrel samples of the newer wines. On the picture you can see Javier Ochoa pouring wine for me.

And we (the group I was traveling with) stayed for lunch at Ochoa’s. The lunch was held in the vineyards with a rustic grill from where we got some lovely lamb chops. Can you imagine a better place to taste and drink the wine?

Some recommended wines from Bodegas Ochoa:

Ochoa Tempranillo Crianza 2001 is a straight-forward, pleasant and medium-bodied wine. It’s structure is silky and it exhibits hints of tobacco, strawberries, and cherries.  I scored it 86/100 pts. and it’s a everyday wine to a price at €10 / $12.

The Ochoa top wine is Vendimia Seleccionada 2000 made from equal parts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The color is intensely deep red and you find nuances of cherry, plums and black currant. It has a velvety structure, is lovely silky but also has dark chocolate and vanilla notes. It’s one of the top 10 wines in Navarra and for the price of €30 / $38 its worth the money. I scored it 91/100 pts. Try it with lamb or a good steak.

Marco Real is a new venture established in 1988. It has about 200 hectares (500 acres) of vineyard and it produces the “standard” wines in Navarra; a young wine, crianza and reserva. These are OK wines but nothing special.

However they have just invested a lot of money in a new winery to produce a top quality wine called Senorio de Andión. And this effort will be exciting to follow over the next couple of years. The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo and Graciano from old vines. I tasted the vintage 2001, which had been aged for 15 months in French oak and had a light clarifying with egg whites (no filtering).

The wine itself has a dark cherry-red color. In the nose you’ll find ripe fruit, blackberry, minerals and some vanilla. It is full-bodied with a good concentration, fine structure and soft tannins.  I scored it 89-90 pts. It’s not that easy to find but the price should be around €30 /$38.

If you find it - buy it!

But also if you are a wine lover Pamplona is the perfect place to stay if you are visiting the vineyards of Navarra. All wine producers are within reach in 30-90 min. and in the evening you’ll find top restaurants or small informal Tapas bars.

From my visit I can recommend Hotel Maisonnave which is situated in the center of the city. You are within walking distance from all the famous bull-running-street, the "bar-area" and the restaurants. The hotel is nice, the rooms are clean and OK and the service is excellent. And the prices are from Euro 70 to 90 ($85 to $110) for a double room.

I visited two top restaurants during my visit - both 1-star Michelin restaurants. For a Dane the prices were moderate. About Euro 50 ($60) for a gourmet menu with 7-8 courses and moderate wine prices. The top wines from Navarra is about Euro 40 ($50) per bottle  - only marginal higher than the local retail prices.

The best restaurant in Pamplona is Restaurante Rodero. Rodero is a family driven business. Its an innovative and new kitchen which combines the traditional products from the Navarran region with imagination and creativity. I loved the food and the atmosphere. I can strongly recommend this place.

A more traditional restaurant with local dishes is Restaurant Europa. The standards are also high but the dishes more local and rustic.  Also a visit worth…

If you are interested in more information about a visit to Pamplona you are welcome to e-mail me.

It is situated in a privileged geographical area, between Bordeaux and Rioja, and its climate and soils are especially suited for cultivating grapevines. Just south of the Pyrenees it has very hot days but cool nights which benefits the grapes.

During the next couple of days I will take you on a small virtual trip to Navarra. We will visit wineries, restaurants and of course taste some wines.  But before we start I will just give you some background of the history of Navarra and wine:

Navarra Wine History
Not very long ago, a group of researchers were able to identify in Navarra, plants of the primitive and original “vitis silvestris”. This vegetation matter, whose antiquity may be evaluated in five million year, has been identified in only a few places in the whole world. The first documents witnessing the cultivation of the grapevines and the production of wine in Navarra come from the times of the Rome domination. The building of the first monasteries and the road to Santiago de Compostela during the 9th. and 10th. centuries, were the two main factors which contributed to the progress of the vine culture, since the pilgrims brought with them new winegrowing varieties.

Also, the monasteries were one of the main focal points from which the renewal of the techniques used to produce wine expanded to other areas. During the 14th. century, Navarra was already an important producer and exporter of wine. The beginning of the 15th. century was undoubtedly the period at which the cultivation of vine reached its greater expansion, even surpassing the limits of Pamplona, to the north.

The main form of cultivation of the city’s farmers was the vine, to such an extent that it became necessary to limit the extension of the growing lands in order to enable cultivation of the necessary cereals to feed the inhabitants of the Kingdom. However, these northern limits were not maintained for very long time because the cultivation of vine increased considerably toward the south.

Paradoxically, the 19th. century witnessed the greatest prosperity in Navarrese viticulture but at the same time, it was also the most disastrous period. The phylloxera appeared in France from 1856 and the destruction of the vineyard of the neighbouring country brought about a genuine outburst of wine production and export to France. Nevertheless, several years late, the phylloxera also arrived in Navarra, this ravaging the Navarrase vineyards. 48.500 hectares out of the 50.000 wine growing hectares in Navarra were devastated.

Today a total of 16,224 hectares, 40,000 acres, are planted with wines and the production is made from 114 bodegas (producers). And the region is a prosperous and beautiful region, problably best-known for its bullfighting festival, San Fermin, immortalized by Ernest Hemmingway, that takes place from July 6 to 14 every year. Its the festival where the bulls run through the streets of Pamplona and various would-be "toreros" run in front of them.