Wine Advocate 95
"Both wines from 2018 showed very fresh and young, younger than you'd have anticipated. The 2018 El Terroir follows the path of previous vintages and is a Garnacha selection of their organic and biodynamically farmed plots (but not certified), fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in barrel for 18 months. It's clean and aromatic and has herbal freshness, a certain leafiness that even makes me think of Menca. The oak is neatly integrated and folded into the wine, which comes through as balanced and elegant, with a Mediterranean twist that is characteristic from San Martn. It has a medium to full-bodied palate with very fine, chalky tannins. 24,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2022."

The Wine
100% Garnacha from various parcels planted on clay-limestone in 1903 600m ASL fermented spontaneously in tank 24 months of elevage in neutral 500L and 600L French oak Practicing Organic

The Estate
Founded by native Pamplonans Enrique Basarte and Elisa Ucar in the mid-2000s as a vehicle for preserving Navarras patrimony of old-vine Garnacha in the zone of San Martn de Unx, Domaine Lupier has been quietly building its reputation in Spain as a leading source of expressively floral, juicy and succulent Garnachain a word, Atlantic.

This seventeen-hectare domaine, the majority of whose vines date to 1903, has now truly met its match in Ral Prez, whose ongoing search for a prime estate source of Garnacha ended here last year with his acquisition of the property. Thanks to our privileged position as the national importer for Rals home estate in Bierzo, Skurnik Wines is excited to introduce Domaines Lupier to a wider audience!

Extending over a number of different parcels varying in altitude from about 400m ASL to 750m over a basic substrate of clay-limestone, the estate boasts what are thought to be the oldest vines in the ground in the village of San Martn de Unx. While not certified, the 100% head-pruned and dry-farmed bushvines are farmed in emphatically organic fashion, producing beautifully ripe and healthy but balanced and crunchy fruit.

There are two cuves producedEl Terroir, the delicious estate blend, and La Dama, a showstopping single-parcel bottling from the highest altitudes of the estate. Both wines are fermented in a combination of tank and open-top barrel with some stem inclusion, and see elevage in a range of larger French barrels from 400 to 1500 liters, with about 10% of the cooperage new per year. (These 2018s were made by Enrique and Elisa, but were held in tank since early 2020 awaiting final blending, which was done by Ral Prez late last year.)

Farming Practice:Practicing Organic