Egiategia

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, and in 2011, an old 18th-century building in Socoa was renovated into a winery. Unbound by dogma, Emmanuel views viticulture and winemaking as a long creative process in which every step counts. Wine is not an end in itself, but the visible culmination of a broader journey.

Egiategia offers wines that seek not so much to convince as to inspire. These wines are designed to make time stand still, evoke emotions and memories, and invite reflection. An experience in its own right, to be discovered on-site by appointment—yet another reason to return to the Basque Coast.