Azul y Garanza

Carcastillo, Navarra, Spain

Azul y Garanza is a project that began its life in 2002 when Dani Sanchez and siblings Maria and Fernando Barrena (all in their early twenties) took over an abandoned cooperative building in their village of Carcastillo, Navarra, located at the edge of the desert Bardenas Reales.

At the time they only had a small parcel of vines and hence they renovated just one concrete tank in order to vinify all of the grapes they had. Fast-forward eighteen years and the whole building is now fully operational, and big enough to process fruit from the 40 hectares of vines they are working with. 

It is impressive that throughout their growth and expansion they never compromised their ideals when it comes to the farming or the cellar methods. Their commitment to biodiversity is inspiring. In and around their parcels they planted different species of vegetation, aromatic plants, shrubs, and fruit trees but using only indigenous varieties. This was done both in isolation and in hedges, with vines occupying only 40% of their total available land area. 

Here in the desert, the soils are shallow with minimal water, there is hardly any rainfall, and the diurnal range is very pronounced – there are extreme contrasts in temperature between day and night. Their vines have had to adapt and generally produce very few, though quite concentrated and beautifully balanced healthy grapes. It goes without saying that the farming here has been organic from day one, going above and beyond the requirements of their organic certification. They rarely spray copper in the vines, relying mainly on infusions, some biodynamic preparations, and if necessary a small amount of sulphur.

 

As the project continues to grow, so does their vision. They are currently rescuing various old, abandoned parcels of bush vines in the desert, and doing more micro-vinifications of old plots as well as vinifying with amphoras.

It has been an eye-opening experience working with the three of them, and witnessing how a project of this scale can remain completely family-run, obsessive about its ethos, always evolving, yet never losing its dynamic energy and excitement.