Wine from Baja Montaña
In the East-Central of Navarra
Navarra, the Spanish DO wine region that practically extends over the whole southern half of the Navarre autonomous community is well-known among the worldwide wine lovers for its Rosado wines.
In the recent years, this wine region is also producing some quality red and white wines as well.
This important DO wine region of Spain has five distinct sub-regions, each with a distinct identity producing their own characteristic wines.
The Baja Montaña is one of the five sub-regions, which forms the east-central of Navarra.
In this article, we are going to learn about this sub-region of Navarra.
Location and Landscape of Baja Montaña
The sub-zone of Baja Montaña, part of Navarra DO, is situated in the east central part of the DO and is covering a total of 22 municipalities. In the middle, this sub-region is reaching up to the River Aragón.
With a total surface area of 1,520 hectares, this sub-zone is marked by a pronounced relief along with an abundant mountainous scrub.
Unlike the other sub-regions of Navarra, Baja Montaña is producing only very low quantities of wine.
As it’s high and cool, there are only a few areas of cultivable land in Baja Montaña and these areas are found to be dominated by the vineyards. As such, this sub-region represents around 16% of the vineyards of Navarra.
Important Winemaking Municipalities of Baja Montaña
Viticulturally speaking, the important winemaking municipalities of Baja Montaña are present in the valleys of Romanzado and Urraul Bajo.
They are namely:
- Aibar
- Cáseda
- Eslava
- Ezprogui
- Gallipienzo
- Javier
- Leache
- Lerga
- Liédena
- Lumbier
- Sada
- Sangüesa
- San Martín de Unx
- Ujué
- Arboniés
- Domeño
- Rípodas
- San Vicente
- Tabar
Of all these, Sangüesa is the main town of Baja Montaña.
Climate and Soil Conditions in Baja Montaña
Just like several other wine regions, Baja Montaña also contains mixture of soils based on the altitude and substrata composition.
We can see the soils with varying depths in the northernmost part of Baja Montaña. These are highly free of stones and also heavily textured.
They are found to be containing grey marls from the marine “Eocene period” in the “Lumbier basin”.
In the remaining parts of the slopes, the depth of the soil, as well as the size of the particular differ and are found to be containing layers of fine or silty loam interspersing with marls and sand.
On the other hand, the vines those have been planted on the alluvial valley floors and on the alluvial terraces of the rivers of the region contain round gravel and loamy soils with some outstanding drainage capacity.
When climatically seen, the Baja Montaña zone is lying between the sub-humid zone (in the north) and dry zone (in the south).
As such, the average temperature in Baja Montaña is found to be 12 degrees Celsius, while the average rainfall is 683 mm.
Of all the five sub-zones of Navarra, Baja Montaña is known to be experiencing the most continental influences through the Pyrenees.
Because of the differences in altitude, the region’s growing seasons are found to be varying between 205 and 234 days with a minimum growing period in Lerga and the maximum growing period in San Martín de Unx.
Grape Varieties in Baja Montaña
Practically, only the cultivation of red grape varieties is possible in the Baja Montaña sub-region.
As such, the principal red varieties grown here are Garnacha, which represents more than 60% of the total production followed by Tempranillo representing about 25% of the production.
Although the wine production is low compared to other sub-zones, I would say Baja Montaña is producing the best Rosados.
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Tharani Rajamanickam
Winewriter
I am Tharani, I have Bachelors degree in Biotechnology. I am passionate about the wine industry and continue to explore, learn and share and I bring in a wealth of knowledge and expertise to help you keep updated with best wines in the world. Stay tuned..
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