Tandem Ars In Vitro Tempranillo Merlot Navarra 2022
£11.75
The wine
The entry point to the Tandem range, and a good measure of the house approach: Tempranillo and Merlot from the Yerri valley, lightly oaked, made with as little intervention as the fruit allows. Ripe red fruit and gentle spice, with the mountain freshness that marks everything they make.
Ars In Vitro means art in glass. Tempranillo with Merlot is a Navarra combination rather than a Rioja one: the region has permitted French varieties for decades, which is precisely what distinguishes it from its more famous neighbour. Aged briefly in oak, in a supple, approachable style.
The producer
Tandem
View all Tandem winesTandem was founded in 2001 at Lakidain in Navarra by Alicia Eyaralar and Jose Maria Fraile, and the name says what it is: two people working in step, one in the vineyard and one in the cellar.
Navarra spent decades in the shadow of Rioja next door, which is unfair. It is a cooler, more varied region, running from the Pyrenean foothills down to the Ebro valley, and its willingness to plant French varieties alongside Tempranillo and Garnacha has given it a range Rioja does not have. The estate sits at around 600 metres, high enough for a long ripening season and cold nights.
The wines are made with a good deal of restraint for the region, and the range covers Garnacha rose, an unusual Viognier and Viura white, and a series of increasingly serious reds built on Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Macula is the flagship, released only after several years.
