ARTOMAÑA BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN

Eugenio Alava Ugarte was the visionary and first generation of the project to revitalize txakoli in the 1980s and 90s, becoming the first producer in the region when twelve growers began recovering the tradition of producing Txakoli wine in Álava and established the denomination of Arabako Txakolina in 2002. Up to this point, the tradition of making txakoli was mostly lost throughout many of the Basque provinces. He was responsible for the vision of replanting the txakoli vineyards he remembered as a boy with his original 15 acres of hondarrabi zuri in 1988. In 2005, Eugenio’s two sons, the Alava brothers, furthered the family project by striking out on their own as Artomaña Txakolina. Together they founded a new cellar, combining their vineyards to achieve the current 52 acres and with the rebirth of the txakoli tradition, passing Eugenio’s vision onto the third generation.