Egiategia represents a counter-current adventure born on the French Basque Coast. Emmanuel Poirmeur, an agricultural engineer and oenologist, chose in 2008 to establish an estate where no winemaking tradition existed: between the ocean and the mountains. A blank slate, embraced as such, to invent a different way of conceptualizing wine.

Egiategia's uniqueness stems from an intuition that became reality: the aging and secondary fermentation of wines underwater. As early as 2007, Emmanuel filed a patent for submarine immersion. Some vintages are thus aged 15 meters deep in the Bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where pressure, darkness, and thermal stability provide an unparalleled environment for the wine. This is an experimental, yet well-considered approach, never a mere gimmick.

The first Chardonnay vines were planted in 2009, followed by the rehabilitation of an 18th-century building into a winery in Socoa in 2011. Emmanuel approaches viticulture without dogma and ... Read more