Climate

A single wind explains more about Navarra than any map ever could. It's called the cierzo, comes from the northwest, sweeps cold and dry down the Ebro valley, and blows at three to over six meters per second nearly all year round. Fungal diseases stand little chance when the leaves never stay wet for long.

Two climate zones collide here in a remarkably tight space. In the north, around Baja Montaña, Valdizarbe, and Tierra Estella, Atlantic humidity still reaches over the Pyrenean foothills into the vineyards. Heading south, in Ribera Alta and especially Ribera Baja, a dry Mediterranean climate takes over, with markedly less rain and hotter summers. The vineyards themselves sit at elevations between three hundred and five hundred fifty meters.

The difference can be measured in millimeters. In Valdizarbe, the wettest zone, up to eight hundred seven millimeters of rain fall per year. In Ribera Baja in the south, it's often just three hundred sixty. There, the vines' annual water deficit exceeds three hundred millimeters, which is why the Pliego de Condiciones explicitly permits targeted drip irrigation in that zone.

Yet the acidity holds, thanks to the swing in temperature between day and night. The annual average sits at twelve to fourteen degrees, and in the hottest month twenty-one to twenty-five – warmer during the day than in many coastal regions, but noticeably cooler at night, since Navarra lies further north than most Spanish wine regions. This swing locks in the freshness of the grape, at a point where the acidity would have long since faded elsewhere.

Drive through the five zones and you can watch the harvest shift. In the hot, sun-drenched Ribera Baja, with up to two thousand seven hundred hours of sunshine a year, picking starts earliest. Up in Tierra Estella and Baja Montaña, cooler and rainier, winemakers often wait weeks longer. The first autumn frost arrives on average between November 10th and December 1st – late enough for a long ripening autumn, early enough to spur the harvest crews into action.