Tandem Inmune Garnacha Navarra 2024
£13.75
The wine
A mountain wine with a powerful expression of terroir, showing intense blackcurrant and raspberry aromas enhanced by subtle hints of eucalyptus, dark chocolate, lavender and garrigue. The palate is fresh, broad and savoury, with appealing texture and a long finish.
Inmune is varietal Garnacha, unoaked and made for the fruit. Garnacha is Navarra's traditional grape, largely displaced by Tempranillo through the twentieth century and now returning to favour as growers recognise what old plantings can do. It gives pale colour, generous red fruit and a warm, spicy finish.
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.
