Bodegas Irache, S.L. is a winery founded in 1891, and located in Ayegui (

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, Spain) at the foot of Mount Montejurra, about 2 km from the medieval city of

Estella Estella may refer to: People * Diego de Estella (1524–1578) * Estella Sneider (born 1950) *Estella Warren (born 1978), Canadian actress *Estella, the ''nom de guerre'' of Italian labor leader Teresa Noce Fictional *Estella Havisham, a charact ...

History

The original vineyards were donated to the Monastery of Irache in 1072 by King Sancho IV of Navarre. The monastery, which also functioned as a pilgrims' hospital on the Way of Saint James, was closed in the nineteenth century, but the tradition of viticulture continues. The Wine Museum contains over 200 pieces of historical winery equipment and many bottles of wine from famous vintages.

Wine Fountain

In 1991 the company built a wine fountain in one of the walls of the winery which is right on the pilgrims' route along the Way of Saint James. This spot was already known in the 12th century as a "land of good bread and excellent wine" according to the Codex Calixtinus.

Installations

The winery uses stainless steel vats with temperature control. It currently has twenty-three 70,000 liter vats and nine 25,000 liter vats. The bottling plant has a capacity of 6,000 bottles per hour. The 6,700 m² cathedral-like barrel room was inaugurated in 1991, and has a capacity for 10,000 oak barrels. One wall of this room is completely dedicated to holding over 3,000,000 bottles.

Vineyards and Grapes

The winery owns 150 ha of vineyards with the following red varieties:

Tempranillo Tempranillo (also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, Tinto Fino and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal, and several other synonyms elsewhere) is a black grape variety widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its ...

Grenache Grenache () or Garnacha () is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world. Niels Lillelund: ''Rhône-Vinene'' p. 25, JP Bøger – JP/Politikens Forlagshus A/S, 2004. . It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditi ...

(''Garnacha'' in Spanish),

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

Merlot Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of ''merle'', the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the ...

; and the following white varieties: Viura,

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

and

Malvasía Malvasia (, also known as Malvazia) is a group of wine grape varieties grown historically in the Mediterranean region, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and the island of Madeira, but now grown in many of the winemaking regions of the world ...

; all in the territory covered by the Navarra Denominación de Origen.

Wines

The winery makes many types of wine including the internationally recognized brands of Irache, Castillo de Irache, Prado de Irache and Fuente Cerrada. These wines are sold in 68 countries.

References

External links

* http://www.irache.com * http://www.navarrawines.com {{coord missing, Spain Wineries of Spain 1891 establishments in Spain Camino de Santiago