Context is everything.

Teasing out terroir through élevage or adding a bit of panache to a wine’s best self with oxygen is nothing new. Unless, of course, you’re in Spain's deeply green Basque Country, where the expectation is clear: slender green bottles of fresh, lightly carbonated wine. This style defines Txakolina.

But in that world, Alfredo Egia’s work is radical.

In a sea of commercially farmed vineyards, his are biodynamic. Where his neighbors default to stainless steel and force-carbonation, Alfredo makes broad, phenolic wines of serious consequence — wines that feel more at home alongside the fine wines of the world than the fizzy apero the region is known for.

At their heart, these are mostly no-sulfur wines, made from whole-cluster pressed Izkiriota Txikia (Petit Manseng) and Hondarrabi Zerratia (Petit Courbu). They ferment spontaneously, ease through malolactic in old wood, and rest there for about a year before a smart six-month finish in tank.

The result reshapes any idea you had about this place or its wines: velvety but with the drive you expect from Manseng. Anjou-like wines that speak pure Basque. 

Wines like the two below simply redefine Txakolina.

2022 Alfredo Egia 'Izaki', Bizkaiko Txakolina $45
This is Alfredo's newest wine, the first vintage being 2020 coming from a blend of vineyard of Izkiriota Txikia and Hondarrabi Zerratia. The sites all become officially biodynamic in 2021. Less of an entry wine in the lineup and more of a little sibling to his flagship 'Rebel Rebel,' with half of the wine seeing the same regimen with wood (see below) and the other half raised in tank. And unlike Rebel Rebel, bottled with a kiss of sulfur. 

2021 Alfredo Egia 'Rebel Rebel', Bizkaiko Txakolina $70
Alfredo's flagship wine is a similar blend of Izkiriota Txikia and Hondarrabi Zerratia but harvested later or riper, more phenolic fruit. Which is why he treats the juice in an oxidative way, fermenting in barrel (and a touch of amphora, also very porous) and then raising the dry wine in wood. A portion is not topped up, allowing for oxidative notes to inform a dense, powerful expression of his terroir. The final wine is difficult to describe: a surreal blend of Anjou and Andalucia’s newest guard but the tension you’d expect from a food-driven appellation. Beautiful. 

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