Makatzak Ghaur 2022 Gipuzkoa Txakoli

Ghaur is 60% Hondarrabi Zuri and 40% Hondarrabi Zuri Zerratia (aka Petit Courbu) from organically and biodynamically farmed vines planted at 400m in a 2-hectare parcel in the Mendarte area. The soils are sandy loam with bands of sandstone. The grapes are harvested and dstemmed, then pressed to ferment in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks with native yeasts. After fermentation, the wine rested on its lees for ten months without bâtonnage in the same vessels. Bottled without fining or filtering and with only a small addition of SO2.

Aitor Irazu started his Makatzak project in 2019, farming an isolated inland parcel of Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Zuri Zerratia near the town of Aia. These wines are not the spritzy, inoffensive Txakoli that have come to dominate the Basque country in the past 50 years - instead, this recalls the herbal, dense, and acid-driven wines of Southwest France, with notes of orchard fruit, lemon, mountain herbs and salt.