Ulibarri Artzaiak

Ulibarri is their last name and Artzaiak means “the shepherds” in Basque. Before anything, these brothers consider themselves shepherds. As the name implies, they herd sheep. Those sheep make cheese. Not themselves but you know what I mean. Those sheep also graze the vineyard and compost the soil. You see where I’m going with this? It’s a circle of life. Both the wine and cheese are a product of the sheep and therefore, “the wine is in the cheese and the cheese is in the wine”. They’re one of the few, if not the only, certified organic producers in the Bizkaiko D.O. Simply put, their sheep add more to the vineyard than they do. In the cellar, they’re not making the type of Txakoli I think most people are accustomed to. Ulibarri is fermented in stainless steel and aged on the lees with almost daily stirring, bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal SO2 added.