Navarra to launch Spain’s most expensive wine ‘by far’

Navarra will soon be the source of Spain’s priciest wine when Bodega Otazu launches a Cabernet blend costing €2,000 a bottle – and there’s already demand.

Vital, at €2,000, is more than double the price of Spain’s most expensive labels from Pingus to L’Ermita

The wine, which is due to hit the market in September this year, is called Vitral, and is made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Merlot grapes grown on the Bodega Otazu estate near Pamplona, in Spain’s DO Navarra.

Speaking to the drinks business at the winery last week, Guillermo Penso, who is the director of Otazu – and son of the owner and founder of the bodega – said that he was creating “the most expensive wine in Spain by far.”

Confirming that the wine would sell for €2,000, he said that just 688 bottles were being made using grapes from the 2013 vintage.

Vitral comes with a label designed by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez (pictured below), who has also created a triangular wooden box for the new product.

Although Penso’s father was originally from Pamplona, Guillermo was brought up in Venezuala where his father runs a business making iron t-bars for construction, and hence the selection of a Venezualan artist for Vitral’s design.

Carlos Cruz-Diez is a Venezuelan artist. Picture source: WikiArt

Guillermo also told db that despite the high price, the wine is already almost sold-out, with Otazu’s network of private customers placing advance orders, particularly those from China and Venezula, two of Otazu’s largest export markets.

Otazu – which was bought for investment purposes in 1989 by Guillermo’s father as a 250 hectare farm without vines – is now home to one of Spain’s 15 Vinos de Pagos, and already produces one of Navarra’s most expensive wines with its ‘Altar’ Cabernet Sauvignon, which sells for almost €40 in Spain.

However, Vital, at €2,000, is more than double the price of Spain’s most expensive labels, which include Pingus and Vega Sicilia Unico from Ribera de Duero, L’Ermita from Priorat, and La Faraona from Bierzo.