Artazu Pasos de San Martin Garnacha 2018 – 750ml Terroir

95pts James Suckling

Tangy and spicy with attractive Mediterranean herbs to the vivid, dark strawberries with hints of cigar box, flowers and iodine. Medium-bodied and quite elegant on the palate, with juicy red and blue berries coated by vertical yet well-honed tannins. Almost a bit ethereal. Immediately drinkable and attractive now, but can hold, too.

93pts Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

The 2018 Pasos de San Martín is the wine produced with Garnacha from the cooler zone of San Martín de Unx in Navarra where they have 11 hectares of 40-year-old vines on a southeast exposure where the soils are rich in limestone and silt. As has been the case in the last few years with Artadi’s reds, it had a short élevage of only nine months in 500-liter French oak barrels, including malolactic. The climate and soils are quite similar to Rioja, maybe a bit more extreme here, cooler in cool vintages, warmer in warm years, so this 2018 shows a little like the range from Rioja, elegant and with more freshness. It’s quite pure, clean and with very fine tannins. It was bottled in November 2021. They skipped the 2017 vintage of this wine. 

Winemaker Notes

The Garnacha we find at Pasos de San Martín has a bright red ruby colour which creates light and transparency in the glass. In the nose we notice forest floor aromas and blue flowers; it is clean and penetrating. In the mouth is energetic and fruity, with delicate and fresh tannins. It is a wine full of power and authenticity.

Blend: 100% Garnacha