2017 Señorio de Sarría Reserva Especial Navarra

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Rachael Ryan

Rachael Ryan

K&L Buyer

Review Date: 11/2025

The 2017 Señorío de Sarría Reserva Especial is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with a small amount of Graciano, sourced from estate vineyards in the foothills of the Sierra de Lóquiz, on clay-limestone soils. This combination of varieties is not uncommon for Navarra, once an independent kingdom with historic close ties to France – in this part of Spain, Bordeaux varieties are common, as are French oak barrels. The overall impression of the wine however, is 100% Spanish, with dried mushroom notes and a savory dried green herb undercurrent. Full-bodied and very structured, the wine is really well-balanced by fine-grained tannins and fresh acidity that carry into a long, lingering finish. It is matured for 12 months in new French oak barrels followed by extended bottle maturation, offering up aromas of ripe blackberry and cassis, woven together with vanilla, cocoa, and toasted hazelnut. Now with several years of bottle age, this is a powerful yet polished Navarra wine, only just beginning to fully unveil its full character. It’s only made in what the winery deems as exceptional vintages, and this is clearly one of those vintages.

Notes

Navarra, which lies just to the north and east of Rioja, has long been overshadowed by its more well-known sibling. Much like Rioja, however, vines have been planted here since Roman times, and the region boasts a multitude of old vines and the ideal continental climate for them to thrive. While both Rioja and Navarra wines were widely exported to France during the late 1800s when the vine louse phylloxera was ravaging vineyards in Bordeaux, Navarra’s winemaking history has been closely intertwined with France since the Middle Ages, as it lies directly in the path of the “Camino Francés” – the historic pilgrims’ route that stretches from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. For centuries, pilgrims passed through the Navarra on foot. As a result, Bordeaux varieties are common in this region, co-existing with old vine Garnacha, and other French winemaking techniques, such as maturation in French oak barrels are typical. Señorío de Sarría, located on the outskirts of the town of Puente la Reina, which itself lies directly along the Camino, produces fantastic wines that are emblematic of this history. The Reserva Especial is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with a small amount of Graciano, and is aged for two years in once and twice used French oak barrels.