The red 2020 Santa Cruz de Artazu is a Garnacha from ancient small plots on the slopes of Artazu, mostly around the Santa Cruz Hermit. It was produced very much in the Artadi way for reds, with fermentation in open vat and nine months in barrel, 500-liter ones here. It has 14.65% alcohol and very good freshness and acidity, which translates into a balanced and tasty varietal red. It's clean, aromatic, open and expressive, with lots of fruit. The palate is juicy and round, with abundant, fine-grained tannins. 4,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2022.

The red 2019 Santa Cruz de Artazu was produced with Garnacha grapes from old vineyards on the slopes of the village of Artazu from a low-yielding vintage marked by some hailstorms. It fermented in open-top vats for 10 to 12 days after a 48-hour cold soak and matured in 500-liter French oak barrels for nine months, including malolactic. It's 14.65% alcohol and has good acidity and freshness coming through as soft and tender. Garnacha takes heat quite well in Navarra. They harvest in October, and the wine shows riper fruit; there's more complexity and structure than the wine from San Martín, which tends to be the case from the low yields of the very old vines. It's juicy and creamy, round with sweet, silky tannins. 4,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2021.

One of the finest vintages produced in recent years is the 2018 Santa Cruz de Artazu, a pure Garnacha from the oldest vineyards on the slopes of the village of Artazu, most of them close to the Santa Cruz Hermitage. The vines are often 90 to 100 years old and are planted on very white, limestone-rich soils at 450 to 600 meters in altitude. It fermented in open-top vats after a 48-hour cold soak and matured in 500-liter French oak barrels for nine months. It's quite austere; the wine is very young and was just bottled before I tasted it. It's a cool vintage with enough rain (almost 200 liters during spring), similar to Rioja. The ripening was slow, and the grapes were picked very healthy. So, the wine is fresh and clean with red fruit and very good tension, following a little in the style of the 2016, sharper and drier than the 2017, with contained ripeness. It's very harmonious and balanced, and it has very fine chalky tannins, long and narrow rather than round and ample. The grapes ripened well and developed full flavors, very Garnacha. 4,000 bottles were filled in December 2020.

The 2017 Santa Cruz de Artazu is a lighter style, more elegant with better freshness (it has a very good pH), keeping the typicity of the Garnacha from the zone. This comes from small plots planted with old vines that survived the "concentración parcelaria" (a land consolidation exercise that destroyed the majority of old vineyards). It has a fine palate with vibrant flavors, great purity and very integrated oak. Really great showing for this bottling, one of the best I remember. It matured in 500-liter oak barrels for 10 months. It's very drinkable. 6,000 bottles were filled in September 2019.

The 2016 Santa Cruz de Artazu comes from a six-hectare plot of extremely old vines. It fermented in open-top stainless steel vats and matured in barrique until it finished malolactic. 2016 was an unusual vintage that had moderate temperatures and enough rain, and it delivered a large crop; it's a year of good quality, perhaps with less structure and tannic structure. An explosion of fruit and flowers, this wine is more approachable, fresher and, ultimately, my favorite of the vintages I've tasted from this single-vineyard bottling. 6,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in early September 2018.