Pago de Cirsus

From director to winemaker

Spanish director and successful producer Iñaki Nuñez has fulfilled his dream of owning his own winery and, with his Bodega Pago de Cirsus, has joined the ranks of famous actors and directors who have turned their passion for wine into a second profession. But by no means all of them succeed in producing wines of such convincing quality as Nuñez does. On around 140 hectares of vineyards, the filmmaker, who became known among other things as co-producer of the hit movie "The Nine Gates" with Jonny Depp, creates outstanding wines from Tempranillo, Garnacha, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Moscatel. None other than Jean-Marc Sauboua has been cellar master at the bodega since 2003, so it's no surprise that the combination of Spanish and French grape varieties succeeds so perfectly here. He began his global career near Bordeaux in the famous Chateau Haut-Brion and now combines the power of Spanish wines with the French sophistication virtuoso in the winery Pago de Cirsus. 

Top wines from the foot of the Pyrenees

Iñaki Nuñez bought the winery with the characteristic white Iberian tower in the late 1990s and immediately began growing his vines. Since 2002 he built his modern bodega Pago de Cirsus. It is located on the highest point of the estate, from which most of the vineyard can be seen. The underground cellar, with state-of-the-art production and bottling facilities, ensures ideal temperature and humidity levels throughout the year.

The bodega is located in the south of the Navarra region, at about 400 meters above sea level. Here, winters are cold and summers are long and dry. More than 75 percent of the precipitation falls between November and April, and so the soil is very moist in winter and completely dry in midsummer. To keep the vines vital during the hot season, the winery uses a sophisticated irrigation system. The terrain, the microclimate, the grape varieties grown and the craftsmanship in the cellar give the wines of Pago de Cirsus their unique character. The bodega produces wines of the "Vino de Pago" quality level, a classification introduced in 2003 that is even higher in quality than the DO and DOCa classifications. In the vineyard, the principles of integrated viticulture apply, in which the winegrowers promote a self-regulating ecosystem that does not use chemical pesticides and low-solubility nitrogen fertilizers. 

Varietal diversity from Navarre

Geographically, the Navarre wine region is divided into five sub-regions. The red wines are pressed here to 60 percent and the rosé wines to 30 percent. For the small proportion of white wines, the varieties Viura, Garnacha Blanca, Malvasia and Moscatel de Gran Menudo, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are permitted.