Irouléguy Tradition

What the RVF says in its 2018 Guide: "Antoine-Marie Arena produced his first wines in 2014. Antoine Arena's youngest son has been working and making wine at the family estate for years. He now signs his own cuvées, taking charge of Hauts de Carco in white and Carco in red, and made his entry in the 2017 edition. The reading of the wines and the sensitivity of the new blended wines confirm the talent of this young winemaker. The coherence and depth of his wines are beyond doubt: we award him a well-deserved second star. The wines: they give a lot of emotion, show both precision and accuracy. Hauts de Carco has great purity, a powerful yet firm mouthfeel. Bianco Gentile is a model, with the maturity of this grape variety, without its drawbacks: full-bodied, it is well managed by bitters that reframe it. Bianchi, a blend of vermentino, biancu gentile and muscat, is subtle. It exhales notes of rose and cumin, and delights us with its harmonious mouthfeel, its quality length; for a lemon chicken. Carco, not very extracted and infused, is distinguished by its right substance and finesse. Memoria is chubbier and fuller, but retains the precision of the fruit and the quality of the tannins. Finally, San Giovanni, still very young, offers spicy nuances and a quality substance. It seduces by its dimension"

Thérèse and Michel Riouspeyrous, who are now quietly handing over the estate to their sons Iban and Théo, can be proud of their success on their family estate. They have become the reference for Basque wines and perhaps even for the whole of the South West. They own 8 hectares of vines on a very particular terroir which mixes poor soils and altitude (sometimes 400 metres!). Soils of sandstone, ophite, schist, ampelite... which, when worked in parcels with local grape varieties (courbu, petit manseng, tannat...), show the full potential of this land. Great terroir wines are born here, full of minerality.