Bodegas y Vinedos Nekeas

“Bodgeas Nekeas has emerged as one of the world’s best value wineries and it is hard to believe the prices of some of their wines.”
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate

In the late 1980s, eight interrelated families who all owned land in the valley in the same valley in Navarra, decided to pool their resources and establish a quality wine estate. ‘Nekeas’ is a Basque word, the name of an area of land some distance from the winery, traditionally regarded as difficult to work – the name translates roughly as ‘knackering’.

Nekeas has 200ha of vineyards planted in Viura, Chardonnay, Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. There are also scattered parcels of very old Garnacha vines. A state-of-the-art winery has been built in the village of Añorbe. There are just 12 workers in the fields and nine in the winery.

Red varieties are planted on the valley floor at an altitude of about 500m in clay soils; whites are at about 600m on chalky soils. Nekeas takes yields of about half of that permitted by the DO regulations, a great indicator of quality. No part of the vineyard is more than 20 minutes from the winery, so newly-harvested grapes arrive fresh.

The winery contains much stainless steel and sophisticated control equipment. Hygiene is of paramount importance, as this allows the use of sulphur to be kept to a minimum. Fermentation is in stainless steel, except for the barrel-fermented Chardonnays: American and French Allier oak is used. Barrel-aged reds are matured in American and French oak.

The winemaker is Concha Vecina, a biologist by training, then trained at EVENA, the renowned official research station of the Navarra wine industry. She is very highly regarded as one Spain’s leading winemakers.