Exploring Bodega Enate: Where Art Meets Exceptional Winemaking.

In September, Laura Mayoral, Export Manager of Bodega Enate, hosted a special wine and tapas tasting at Wijnrestaurant Pinot in Breda, featuring the exquisite wines of Bodega Enate. We were fortunate to be invited to this exclusive event! Joining her were Michael de Rooij, owner and founder of the renowned wine specialty store De Gouden Ton in Oosterhout, and Martijn Roos, owner and founder of Wijnrestaurant Pinot, offering expert guidance on the wines and their perfect food pairings.

The Somontano Region

Bodega Enate is situated in Somontano, a DO (Denominaciones de Origen) in the province of Aragón covering roughly 4.000 hectares in the foothills of the Pyrenees (‘Somontano’ means ‘below the mountains’ in Spanish). In the wider context of Spain this region is quite unique, for instead of focusing on native grape varieties the region has over 80% of its hectares planted with international grape varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon (25%), Merlot (20%), Chardonnay (20%), and Gewürztraminer (7%). Especially the latter seems like an interesting choice, and might even be a strong candidate for the region’s signature variety. 

Laura notes that this influx of international grape varieties all came about when phylloxera hit the vineyards of France, and more specifically Bordeaux. It was due to this pest, which wiped out basically all vineyards in Bordeaux, that the Lalanne family decided to move from Bordeaux across the Pyrenees to Somontano in the late 19th century. During this process they brought their most promising French grape varieties, at that time being Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay, which all thrived in Somontano. And thus, the trend was established, with the Lalanne family still making wine as of today. 

Somontano has a warm, continental climate, allowing for the grapes (especially Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay) to comfortably ripen year in and out. The altitude of roughly 350 to 650 meters provides a welcome cooling influence, introducing more acidity and fresh fruit flavours into the wine. Adding to this, the cool breezes from the Pyrenees help to further moderate the temperature of the vineyards. Furthermore, cold air descends from the mountains at night, leading to grapes that achieve excellent ripeness due to the warm daytime conditions, but also maintain good acidity because of the significantly lower nighttime temperatures. This results in the style of wine being ripe, but often with good acidity due to the influence of the Pyrenees. The resulting wines are usually made in a modern, easy-drinking style, focusing on wines with ripe fruit flavours and good acidity, while also having solid price-quality ratios.

The soils of Somontano primarily consist of limestone-rich, dark sandy clays and sandstone, with more limestone and sandy soils found in the lower parts of Somontano, and stonier, poorer soils found higher up in the foothills of the Pyrenees. As with many other wine regions (Valpolicella, Alsace, Rheingau) the most interesting wines tend to be made in the foothills of the mountains. This is primarily due to the cooler conditions, allowing the grapes to develop more phenolic ripeness and aromas during the extended growing season. Furthermore, the soils tend to be poorer, resulting in smaller, more concentrated grapes. In the lower valleys of Somontano the climate is warmer and the soils richer, resulting in more fruit-forward, lighter wines. Especially with climate change producers are seeking more and more plantings at higher altitudes, with some vineyards in Somontano even reaching 800 meters – also greatly benefitting the quality of the wines as a side effect.

The New Wave Wineries

Especially since the 1980s there has been a significant wave of investment into the region, with ultra-modern, state of the art Bodega such as Viñas del Vero (1986), Bodega Enate (1991), and the co-operative Bodega Pirineos (1993) being founded. This initial investment was directly linked to the worldwide trend of that time, being affordable, ripe wines from popular international grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Chardonnay. These initial investments, perfectly playing on the trend of that time, provided to be quite successful, solidifying the position and the brand name of these estates for the future.

As of today, these three producers together make most of Somontano’s wine, with each having a separate nice in the market (nevertheless the international varieties are the vast majority of the production of each Bodega). Viñas del Vero has found a niche in some very old plots of Garnacha near Secastilla, while also producing relatively large amounts of Tempranillo. Bodega Pirineos has found a niche in bottling and promoting the extremely rare native black grape varieties of Somontano, being the difficult to grow Moristel and Parraleta. Bodega Enate on the other hand almost exclusively focusses on international grape varieties, with Tempranillo, their only Spanish grape planted, primarily being used for the entry-level wines (according to Laura, it often ripens too early in Somontano to make truly long-lived wines, but has produced some very interesting results in their higher-altitude vineyards such as in the Bachimaña valley). 

The Many Faces of Somontano

This brings us to our next point. With the recent trend in the world of wine being an emphasis on wines with freshness that show their terroir through local grape varieties, Somontano faces the challenge of finding a way to elevate the image of its wines beyond them being affordable, balanced examples of the (international) grape varieties they are made from. This causes them to directly compete with (often cheaper) Chilean, South-African, and Australian alternatives, which as of today is a tough market to gain a foothold in. Adding to this, with the local grapes of Moristel and Parraleta (and the even rarer, white Alcañon) only accounting for roughly 4% of the total vineyard area (and the Spanish grapes Tempranillo and Garnacha only accounting for roughly 13%), Somontano does not have a strong calling card for finding typicity and marketing potential through its local grape varieties.

However, as noted before, Gewürztraminer might offer the region something promising. In Somontano, Gewürztraminer tends to find a sort of mid-way style, perfectly combining the rich and complex nature of Alsatian Gewurztraminer with the fresher, more fruity nature of German Gewürztraminer. This results in a style that is both aromatic, dense and complex, but also offers freshness and elegance. Laura proudly notes that Enate’s first ever production was even exported to Germany, one of the most definitive proofs of its quality and potential in Somontano. Furthermore, more and more producers are using international grapes (such as Cabernet Sauvignon) and subject them to the traditional winemaking practices of Spain, including long aging in seasoned oak barrels and bottle. This gives a rather unique style of wine, combining the French influences of the grape variety with the Spanish influences of the maturation process – yielding a style of wine somewhere in between of Bordeaux and Rioja (geographically speaking, approximately in line with where Somontano is located).

Bodega Enate

This is where Bodega Enate comes in. Besides producing great examples of the above-mentioned two styles of Somontano (Gewürztraminer and Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva), Enate has fully embraced the notion that Somontano is the perfect place to grow international grape varieties instead of focusing on local ones. As Laura notes, Somontano is a bit too warm to produce very long-lived Tempranillo, and instead perfectly fits Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonnay, and Gewürztraminer. To distinguish themselves from the competition of bottlings of these varieties grown in Chile, South-Africa, and Australia, they use their innovative, art-inspired labels, diversity of wines produced, and great value in order to win over customers – and quite successfully so.

But let’s start with the beginning. Bodega Enate was founded in 1991, when businessman Luis Nozaleda Arenas followed his dream of starting a winery together with his brother, Juan Carlos. Because of the popularity of international varieties at that time, and Somontano’s perfect climate to ripen these varieties while retaining freshness, they chose the Enate Valley in Somontano to start their project – appropriately named Bodega Enate. However, they did not start off alone, but instead partnered up with local winegrower Jesús Sesé. As of today, both families are still united and working on the future of this project, with Jesús Sesé Martínez (son of Jesús Sesé) being head of the viticulture department. At first some experimentation was conducted with local varieties such as Moristel and Parraleta, but after obtaining very promising results with micro-vinifications of more modern varieties, they decided to further pursue this path instead. 

The success of Enate was further guaranteed when they decided to employ winemaker Jesús Artajona, who with his experiences at both Château Margaux in France and Bodega Torres in Spain was perfectly able to marry the two worlds of French varieties and Spanish winemaking. As of today, Enate farms roughly 500 hectares of vineyards – just over 10% of the entire Somontano DO. These economies of scale help keep their costs of production per bottle relatively low, resulting in great price to quality ratios across all the wines. 

Bodega Enate: Where Art Meets Wine Inside and Outside the Bottle

Art has always been a strong part of Enate’s identity. Since Enate was founded, the Bodega has contained a large museum, housing a privately owned contemporary art collection of over 400 works – with both national and international artists represented. Furthermore, each of the wines is associated with an artist, with the label showing a work of the artist made exclusively for the winery – with the first artist to ever do so being the famous Antonio Saura (for the barrel fermented Chardonnay). Adding to this, since 1997 Enate has given out a bi-yearly scholarship to local, upcoming artists, supporting their career and the Spanish art industry as a whole. 

The polished, clean quality of the wines combined with the incredible diversity in wine styles Bodega Enate produces, while still being able to transmit both the terroir and climate of Somontano, perfectly matches with the concept of art – in itself one of the most diverse concepts of the world, but always rooted in local traditions and history. Furthermore, the winemaking of Enate focusses on combining freshness and ripeness, along with marrying the origin of grapes to the maturation they go through. For example, in the Crianza bottling (70% Tempranillo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon), the Tempranillo is aged in American oak, while the Cabernet Sauvignon is aged in French oak. According to Laura, these two types of oak perfectly marry to the respective grape varieties used – and when tasting the wine, we tend to agree.

The Wines

However, one of Enate’s most popular bottlings is the Chardonnay 234, almost a brand name on its own in Spain due to it its dangerous drinkability and clean, fresh fruit notes, imparted by reductive aging in stainless steel. Contrary to this bottling is the Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, which is fermented (like the name suggests) and aged in new oak barrels – yielding a rather opulent, Burgundian style of Chardonnay. Essential here is that enough freshness and acidity is present to balance the richness, which winemaker Jesús Artajona has no problem achieving as evidenced by our tasting notes below. Besides Chardonnay, one of Enate’s most exciting bottlings is their Gewürztraminer, which seems to combine Alsatian richness and perfume with German freshness and precision. Besides a dry bottling, a sweet late-harvested Gewürztraminer is also made, being able to stand shoulder to shoulder with excellent Gewurztraminer Vendanges Tardives styles from Alsace. 

Moving on to the red wines, besides the Crianza mentioned above a Reserva is also made – using 100% Cabernet Sauvignon which is aged in oak and bottle for significant amounts of time, only released when deemed ready to drink. This wine especially strikes a perfect balance between the influence of the French grape variety and the Spanish way of maturing the wine, combining the best of both countries. The prime parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah are used for the Cabernet-Cabernet, Merlot-Merlot, and Syrah-Shiraz bottlings. The names of these wines might raise an eyebrow or two, but have quite a logical background. Enate originally started with the Cabernet-Merlot bottling, naturally being a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. As the vines grew older and the wines kept getting better, winemaker Jesus Artajona also decided to produce varietal bottlings of these varieties to showcase their unique styles in Somontano. When inquiring about batches of Merlot for the varietal bottling, employees always used to ask if the batch was to be used for the Cabernet-Merlot, to which Jesus jokingly replied that it was for the Merlot-Merlot, and thus the name for these varietal wines was born. 

In a league of their own are the Uno Tinto (Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah) and Uno Chardonnay bottlings, occasionally being produced when the vintage is perfect. While Enate produces roughly 3 million bottles per year, both colours of the Uno only see around 600 to 1,000 bottles – if produced at all. The oldest parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Chardonnay of Somontano as a whole (!) are used for these wines, and even then, only a few barrels make it through the strict selection process. Furthermore, just like the rest of Enate’s wines, the Uno bottlings are only released when deemed ready to drink. As of 2024, the Uno Chardonnay 2019 and Uno Tinto 2016 are still aging in bottle at the winery, showing the sheer commitment for quality of Enate. We can only commend such thorough efforts to guarantee the best product possible. 

Enate Chardonnay ‘234’ 2023 

One of the estate’s most emblematic and popular wines. Harvested at night, fermented at low temperatures, aged in stainless steel tanks, and malolactic is blocked for optimal freshness. ‘234’ refers to the original vineyard it was first sourced from – starting from its maiden vintage in 1996. A few hours of skin contact is used to impart a bit more structure and texture. The wine opens up with gentle aromas of lemon, wet stone, rosemary, peach, and yellow pear being present. Good acidity and length, with a very precise balance between the natural weight of Chardonnay and its fresh fruit character. Lovely to drink now.

Fresh, friendly, and appealing to everyone, all at a great price. A democratic wine according to Laura, being affordable and widely appealing. We fully agree. 

We reward this wine with an 87-point DWA score. Drink 2024-25.

Paired by sommelier Martijn Roos with pickled haddock, eel, and verjuice – perfectly matching the relatively lighter but round style of wine and focusing on the freshness of both the wine and the pairing. 

Enate Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2022

The other side of the 234 bottling. Fermented and aged in new oak, giving pronounced toast, vanilla, clove, hazelnut and dill notes. Bi-weekly bâtonnage gives additional weight and bread dough notes. Very Burgundian. Intense notes of butter, yellow pear, honeysuckle, ripe peach, grapefruit, yellow apple, and fresh lemon balance the intense oak notes. Has the structure and potential to develop in bottle, but already approachable. Burgundy meets Spain. 

We reward this wine with a 91-point DWA score. Drink 2024-27.

Paired by sommelier Martijn Roos with mussels, chervil, and dashi – we never tried mussels with oaked Chardonnay before but this pairing beautifully matched the rich, dense nature of the wine with the intense flavours of the mussels and dashi, with the chervil note finding harmony with the dill note in the wine. 

Enate Gewürztraminer 2023

Gewürztraminer from Somontano, striking a lovely midway between the richer Alsatian style and the fresher German style. Aged in stainless steel with a few hours of skin contact to extract all the natural rich aromatics and flavours from the skins. Rich, oily mouthfeel, with intense perfumed notes of rose, lychee, apricot, allspice, lemon, ripe peach, and honeysuckle. Good grip and texture due to the skin contact, but with a lot of freshness and transparency. Potential to improve in bottle. Highly typical of the variety and according to us, one of the wine styles of Somontano with the most potential of being the region’s calling card. Great value, must-buy. As Laura says, they can produce Gewürztraminer, but not pronounce it. 

We reward this wine with an 89-point DWA score. Drink 2024-29.

Paired by sommelier Martijn Roos with sea bass tartare, thinly sliced Maminha beef, and hazelnut – complementing the more bitter, umami-like spice flavours and grip found in the wine, with the elegant citrus element of the Gewürztraminer finding its match with the raw sea bass.

Enate Reserva 2017

100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in partial new French oak for around a year. Intense aromatics, with cassis, tobacco, ripe black cherry, tomato leaf, vanilla, leather, earth, and bramble. Very polished and elegant, despite having aged in bottle for roughly six years – in line with the traditional Spanish practice of long aging in barrel and bottle. Velvety smooth, but with underlying strength and power. Feels like a bridge between Bordeaux and Rioja. According to us, one of the wine styles of Somontano with the most potential of being the region’s calling card. Very complete and balanced, and great value. Notably, the Cabernet Sauvignon used for this wine is aged in the barrels where the Barrel Fermented Chardonnay has finished maturing. In this process, roughly 1.5 liters of Chardonnay is left in the vat in order to mix with the Cabernet Sauvignon and give an elegant, aromatic lift to the wine. A bit like the practice of co-fermenting Viognier and Syrah in Côte Rôtie, Laura adds. This results in roughly 1% of the wine consisting of Chardonnay, which might be one of the few instances in the world where Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay appear in the same wine. Unique, exciting, and delicious. 

We reward this wine with a 91-point DWA score. Drink 2024-32.

Paired by sommelier Martijn Roos with tender beefsteak, carrot, and rösti – with the tannic, powerful black fruit and beefsteak being a classic combination, and the subtle green notes of the Cabernet Sauvignon finding its match with the carrot element. Classic and timeless pairing.

Enate Syrah-Shiraz 2019

100% Syrah sourced from the top plots of Enate. The ‘Syrah’ and ‘Shiraz’ part of the name refer to both French and Australian clones of Syrah being used for this wine, and this wine being a combination of the two worlds. Fermented in a small, wide tanks in order to have more contact of the wine with the grape skins, resulting in greater extraction of flavour and tannin. Afterwards the wine of the French clones of Syrah are aged in French oak, and the wine of the Australian clones in American oak, much like the local traditions of both countries – and consistent with the philosophy behind the Crianza bottling. Pronounced notes of black pepper, violet, clove, olive, ripe bramble, vanilla, cured meat, and tobacco. Dense, broad, and intense. High acidity keeps the wine fresh and drinkable, despite its impressive concentration. The tannins are of very high quality, being pixelated and ripe. Great example of Spanish Syrah, and like all the other wines, great value. Will keep for a long time in bottle and become even better. 

We reward this wine with a 93-point DWA score. Drink 2024-39.

Paired by sommelier Martijn Roos with… Manchego! The strong umami flavours of both the cheese and the wine, especially its olive and cured meat notes, complemented each other perfectly. 

Enate Gewürztraminer Dolce 2021

Made by Jesús Artajona as an experiment back when Somontano did not allow sweet wines to be labelled under the DO. We can see why this wine changed that notion. The wine is made with overripe grapes, being left on the vines for as long as possible, until the autumn rains set in – after which the wine is aged for a year in American oak barrels, imparting coconut and vanilla notes to the wine. Roughly 80 grams of residual sugar per litre, comparable to Vendanges Tardives bottlings from the Alsace. Pronounced notes of rose, mango, lychee, pineapple, coconut, jasmine, honey, toast, vanilla, lemon, biscuit and peach are present. Medium plus acidity keeps the richness in check, creating complex, balanced layers of sugar and acid. Long finish. Lovely! 

We reward this wine with a 91-point DWA score. Drink 2024-26.

Paired by sommelier Martijn Roos with apricot, ginger ice cream, and chocolate – with the apricot and ginger perfectly matching with the flavours as found in the wine, and the subtle addition of chocolate being a beautiful match with the coconut and vanilla flavours of the wine, all while creating an exciting counterplay between sweetness and acidity on the palate. Delicious!

Final Thoughts: A Perfect Blend of Art and Wine at Bodega Enate

All in all, we look back on a great afternoon spent in the cellar of Wijnrestaurant Pinot, where we indulged ourselves in the wines of Enate and the perfectly matched food pairings of sommelier Martijn Roos. We can only conclude that Laura Mayoral of Bodega Enate conveyed the story and philosophy of the estate beautifully. The proof was definitely in the glass, with each wine showing the Enate house style of freshness, the terroir and typicity of Somontano, and above all great value. We can only conclude that at Bodega Enate, art is truly present both inside and outside the bottle, and look forward to the future projects of the estate. 

This article is written by our own Martin Bronkhorst. The wines of Bodega Enate are imported in the Netherlands by Résidence Wijnen, and sold through various wine specialty stores, amongst which De Gouden Ton in Oosterhout. 

We would like to thank Martijn Roos of Wijnrestaurant Pinot for the generous invitation, and Laura Mayoral, Jesús Artajona and Jesús Sesé Martínez of Bodega Enate for their time and dedication.