Chivite, the oldest winery in Navarra, has just celebrated its 375th anniversary. Few wineries in the world can show off such a long history. The first to bear this surname arrived in the Ebro valley in the 16th century from Çibitz, a town located in Lower Navarra (France) and which at that time, devastated by the Calvinist wars, led to a large migratory current towards southern Navarre.
Its first document, dating from 1647, is a notarized loan document dated August 1647 according to which Juan Chivite Frías and his sister-in-law María Rubio, widow of Joseph Chivite, requested a loan from the Ana Sanz Foundation of 100 ducats from census whose return they endorsed with a winery and a vineyard. They came to supply pitchers of wine to Napoleon’s troops during the War of Independence (1808-1814) after the French invasion. Chivite also signed the first bottles of Spanish wine that could be obtained in Europe.
The light from a lit lantern is the essence of the Chivite emblem and the one that keeps it linked to its origins. It is the same lantern that announced the existence of a post house for travelers centuries ago, run by the ancestors of the banner. There are already eleven generations dedicated to making wines. The lantern continues to identify Chivite. They affirm that this light that has been burning for 375 years “is the guide for those who open the way, the lantern that illuminates the path that others often end up traveling on and that also symbolizes the legacy of their ancestors.” They remember that “each of the Chivite bottles proudly carries it on its label.”
But if there is a wine that has marked the modern history of the Cintruénigo winery, in the Tudela merindad, it is its Chivite Colección 125 Blanco. This winery ensures that without contributions such as this Chardonnay “it is impossible to draw a complete perspective of the best wines made in Spain.” The executive president of J. Chivite Family Estates, Julián Chivite López, reveals that this wine, which debuted on the market with the 1993 vintage (this year’s harvest will therefore be its 30th), was inspired by the great Chardonnays from the Burgundy.
The red Colección 125 was first released on the market in 1985 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the winery’s first export in 1860, initially baptized as 125 Aniversario Gran Vino 1981. It was the germ of the current Colección 125 Aniversario range. They brought in the oenologist Denis Dubourdieu, who advised wineries of great world prestige such as Château d’Yquem or Cheval Blanc, to make this wine. He worked with Chivite from 1993 until his death in 2016.
Julián Chivite assures that “he was a wise man, a great specialist in white and sweet wines”. In addition to numerous scientific distinctions, he was a Knight of the French Government’s Order of Agricultural Merit and Legion of Honor. And he was a professor at the Faculty of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux and general director of the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences at the same university. Julián Chivite recalls that “Dubourdieu took us to Burgundy and gave us a blind taste of our Colección 125 chardonnay, which no one could place in Navarra or in Spain.” He adds that he “always told us that the potential of a wine is measured by its aging capacity”. In Chivite, where he exclusively advised in Spain, César Muñoz succeeded him as director of oenology.
This white achieved its first great success by winning a blind tasting of Chardonnays from around the world organized in 1999 by the magazine Sibaritas and José Peñín. The 1997 vintage was proclaimed in that tasting as the best in the world after being measured against 22 other wines. The Colección 125 Blanco, which was born under the DO Navarra and is now marketed under the 3 Riberas Protected Geographical Indication seal, has also been the protagonist of a dinner at the Prado in Madrid by the architect Norman Foster Foundation or the dinner offered to royalty the night before the wedding of today’s kings Felipe and Letizia, with dishes by Juan Mari Arzak and Ferran Adrià and with the 2002 vintage. For the first time in its history, in 2013 the winery uncorked bottles of the last three decades of Chivite Colección 125 Blanco. The tasting was held on September 23 of that year in London and was directed by Julián Chivite and Denis Dubourdieu. The comments from the British critics confirmed that it was among the best white wines “for its elegance and aging capacity”.
According to Julián Chivite, this Navarran Chardonnay has found in the Finca Legardeta, with 103 hectares of vineyards located between Logroño and Pamplona, ??”a unique redoubt”, with perfect climatic and soil conditions to obtain “typicity, complexity and a great capacity for aging”. It is located at an altitude of about 480 meters, on a gently sloping hillside with a North exposure that protects it from excessive insolation and prevents dehydration of the berries.
The influence of the Atlantic-continental climate, in terms of temperatures and rainfall, allows the Chardonnay grapes to ripen at their own pace, slowly and gently, maintaining good levels of acidity, pH and aromatic potential, finally showing freshness and expressiveness. The soil contains significant amounts of clay and silt, with a water reservoir that allows the plant to have an adequate water regime and to mature gradually, without dehydrating or showing exaggerated grade increases. Usually, calcareous clay soils are related to obtaining fine, elegant and intense wines.
The vineyard has a high planting density, of more than 6,000 plants per hectare, which causes competition between the plants that results in a high quality grape. Julián Chivite has no doubts that “terroir and climate rule over variety.” And he adds that Legardeta is “very unique” and that his Chardonnay, despite acknowledging that there is a lot of it all over the world, is already an “almost native” variety for us.
It is believed that the Chardonnay was brought to the Kingdom of Navarre by soldiers at the time of the Crusades. Ties between Navarre and France were strengthened in the times of Teobaldo III, who was Count of Champagne and Brie and married Blanca de Navarra, daughter of the King of Navarre Sancho VI el Sabio and Sancha de Castilla and sister of Sancho VII ‘el Strong’. It has become the dominant white variety in the region and the hallmark of Navarre white wine. It occupies about 6% of the vineyard surface.
After the selection of the best grapes, they are harvested by hand in 20-kilo boxes that are not filled so that they arrive intact at the winery where they are again selected. After a short maceration, the grapes are pressed at low pressure, selecting exclusively the best quality bud juice, which is vatted in 225-liter barrels of fine-grained, medium-toasted French oak from Allier, where it ferments (with selected yeasts and indigenous) and is aged with its own lees in suspension for about 8 months. Half of the barrels are new, and the rest of a single wine. The production of this iconic white has always been between 14,000 and 15,000 bottles per year.
Beautiful and intense straw yellow color with golden reflections. On the nose it is already very expressive and complex, with notes of white flowers and tropical fruit such as bananas, but above all ripe dry peach. On the palate it reveals itself with a glyceric touch, with volume and notes of ripe stone fruit, bergamot and marked pastry cream with lemon, with a final hint of slightly bitter raw almond. It is unctuous (convincing evidence of the work involved in removing the lees), with perfectly integrated wood (the impact of the French oak and toasting has been reduced since the 2015 vintage) and a lively acidity. It is tasty and ample. It is a powerful white with great aging potential, as vintages like the 1996 attest today.
It is preferable to open the bottle half an hour before tasting to oxygenate the wine, without having to decant it. It evolves in the glass, becoming more expressive as the minutes go by. It’s a great white. It is also a wine with great gastronomic versatility. In his Chivite tastings he always serves it after the reds. Julián Chivite loves to harmonize this wine with Donostia-style or grilled turbot, Getaria style. But he also points out that it “holds even a good pularda”. It is also ideal to accompany a trout a la Navarra (stuffed with a slice of serrano ham), with a mackerel (mackerel) baked in the oven or with Roncal cheese from the Foral Community of Navarra.
Almost four centuries contemplate Chivite wines. They assure from the winery that “in all this time three values ??have survived: tradition, excellence and adaptation”. In addition, they have had a clear vision of the future. They currently make about 350,000 bottles a year. They export around 35% of their total production, mainly to the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Sweden. Navarra and the Basque Country, Madrid and tourist destinations are its main markets in Spain. They are part of the Perelada Group together with the Riojan winery Viña Salceda de Elciego (Álava), and maintain the exclusive export of Taittinger champagne to the Spanish market.
