Spanish Vacation: Talai-Berri Winery

Day Six Begins...

After leaving our hotel, Jose drove us into the Basque region to our first stop, the Talai-Berri Winery located in the town of Zarautz.

Talai-Berri was built in 1992, though its wine making extends back four generations. The winery is located on the sunniest slopes of Mount Talai Mendi, surrounded by 12 hectares of vineyards.

The winery is a family run operation, led by Bixente Eiagirre Aginaga. He is the head winemaker and was our guide for the tour and tasting of his winery. His daughter, Itziar, is his second in command and his wife and other daughter also work full time. You can see Bixente in the picture below. He is the gentleman on the right hand side.

Talai-Berri is one of the leading producers of Txakoli, also called Txakolina. Txakoli is usually a white wine, with a slight effervesence, made from the Hondarribi Zuri varietal. It is only made in three main villages in the Basque region, including Getaria, Zarautz and Aya. Txakoli is considered a "Vino de Aguja", meaning there is a slight fizz to it but not quite sparkling. Txakoli wines are also very high in acidity and low in alcohol. After the creation of Txakoli de Getaria Guarantee of Origin in 1989, Talai-Berri became the first winery built exclusively for manufacturing Txakoli. Most Txacoli is drank in Spain though a small portion is exported.
Bixente first led us through his wine-making area and then into the vineyards where the harvest was currently going on. Such an amazing landscape. It was a sunny day anyways, and was just the perfect time to be in the vineyard. We got to taste some of the sweet grapes off the vine.

Interestingly enough, there were roses at the end of some of the lines of vines. These roses have an important purpose. They are more suspectible to certain plant diseases than the vines. So, if the roses start to get ill, they will be able to protect the grape vines from the disease before it becomes a problem. The roses are an early warning system, like a canary in a mine.

For our wine tasting, Bixente had a table set up on his rear porch which overlooked the vineyards. There were plates of food including tuna and various ham slices. To sip wine, in that beautiful setting, was certainly amazing. The first wine was the 2006 Talai-Berri Oreka, a white Txakoli made of 90% Hondarribi Zuri and 10% Hondarribi Beltza. "Oreka" means "balance" or "equilibrium." The wine is only 11.5% alcohol. It is made to be consumed within one year of bottling. I very much enjoyed this wine. It is very crisp and has excellent citrus flavors. The slight effervesence adds an interesting element to the wine. It is a very refreshing wine and would be a perfect summer wine. It is also a good food wine, especially with oily foods.


Tiny amounts of red Txakoli are made with the Hondarribi Beltza grape. Talai-Berri is the only winery to commercially sell red Txakoli. We tasted their 2006 Talai-Berri Txakolin Beltza. It has 12% alcohol. It is also made to be consumed within one year of bottling. I enjoyed this wine very much. It has a fruity nose and the fruit comes out on the palate as well. The slight fizz reminded me of an Italian Lambrusco. I could sit outside in the summer drinking this wine all day.

Both of these wines are easy drinking, casual wines. They have a lot of character though and are excellent value wines. They should cost $10 or less. They are available in the U.S, through Ole Imports. You might also see it available at local Spanish restaurants. During the rest of my time in the Basque region, I ordered Txacoli several times because I enjoyed it so much.

Talai-Berri also makes another interesting drink, a digestive called Lamin Ura "Aguardiente de Orujo" ("Firewater"). It is much more potent, with 40% alcohol. It is distilled from the wine juice left over after the first pressing of the grapes. It is mainly clear in color. I took a bottle of this home and recently shared it with some friends. It is a powerful drink, but smooth. It has some subtle flavors reminiscent of Txacoli and lacks any bitterness. It would be a good after dinner drink. Or it could be carefully sipped during the evening.

Bixente was a wonderful host! As he did not speak English, our guide Jose translated for us. Bixente was welcoming, personable and charming. It was very obvious he was a passionate man. And the winery was very impressive. Our visit at Talai-Berri was such an excellent time. I would highly recommend this winery for a visit. And check out their Txacoli!