Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, Mácula, Tandem 2016
Tim Atkin MW 92; James Suckling 89
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Why this wine
Navarra is better known for everyday rosé, and Mácula is the corrective: a Bordeaux blend grown high in the Yerri Valley, fermented without pumps and given eighteen months in French oak. Fraile and Eyaralar are among the region's most respected winemakers, and both Tim Atkin and James Suckling have scored the wine. Nine years on from the vintage it is already showing savoury, tertiary depth.
At a glance
- Grape
- Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 40%
- Region
- Navarra, Spain
- Alcohol
- 15.00%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Cheese
How it tastes
Cloves, black pepper and pipe tobacco on the nose, with dark chocolate, balsamic notes and a scrubland, herbal edge behind them. Powerful without being heavy, it has firm tannins, fresh acidity and a long, concentrated finish. Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 40%.
The producer
Tandem is the project of José Maria Fraile and Alicia Eyaralar, two established names in Navarra winemaking whose wines critics have called the region's cutting edge; the estate was certified vegan in 2019 and carries the European Vegetarian Union's V label. The vines lie in the Yerri Valley, on clay loam soils and trained to Guyot, dry-farmed to save water and green-harvested for lower yields, with treatments limited to sulphur and copper and the tractor used just twice a year. The two varieties were fermented separately over thirty days at 30-31°C, the cap plunged rather than pumped, then racked by gravity into underground concrete vats for malolactic conversion and natural fining by settling, and matured for eighteen months in 300-litre French oak casks.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16-18°C with roast beef, venison, slow-cooked lamb shoulder or a hard sheep's cheese. It is drinking well now and has another four or five years ahead of it; an hour in a decanter suits it. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.