PAMPLONA, Spain — Lying just northeast of more familiar Rioja, Navarra has been a center of wine production for some 20 centuries. Without a doubt, this northern province of Spain is best known for its excellent rosé wines. Many feel the rosés from the fertile lands draining into the Ebro River are even better than those made on the other side of the Pyrenees in southern France.

Navarra used to be planted mostly to garnacha, or as it’s called in the Rhone, grenache. But in the past few decades, tempranillo — the indigenous grape integral to lush Rioja blends — has made rapid gains here, along with such international varieties as cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay.

As is the case in Rioja, tempranillo has made the greatest inroads,  particularly in the more Atlantic-influenced north while garnacha remains king of the plantings in the south, making fruity, accessible wines with slightly less complexity.

While Navarra rosados remain an important part of both domestic and export markets, modern-day blends of traditional varieties — coupled with serious offerings of newly planted cabernet and merlot and any number of new blends — are getting notice at home and abroad.

Vineyard experiments dating back nearly two decades are bearing fruit as a young generation of cellarmasters takes winemaking to a new level in this land painted with the broad brush of Basque Country.

Storied past

In order to understand the region’s wines, one first has to look at both history and geography of this diverse region of the Iberian peninsula.

Fiercely independent and proud of their heritage, the residents of Navarra lay claim to the foundations of the Basque culture, although they maintain they are separate and apart from their neighbors in Pais Vasco to the west.

During the Roman Empire, this territory was inhabited by the Vascones, a pre-Roman tribe that populated the southern slopes of the Pyrenees and managed to maintain its language and customs even under Roman rule.

Never fully subjugated by marauding Visigoths or Arabs, the Basques laid claim to their lands in 824 when they elected chieftain Iñigo Arista king of Pamplona, establishing what would become the kingdom of Navarra.

In the early part of the 16th century, the southern part of the region was absorbed by the Kingdom of Castile, thus becoming part of the unified Kingdom of Spain. The northern stretches remained independent for some time, but eventually become part of France in the late 1500s when King Henry III of Navarra inherited the French throne as Henry IV of France.

Today, the former Kingdom of Navarra belongs to two nations, Spain and France, depending on whether it lies south or north of the Western Pyrenees. Although Spanish is the official tongue, the ancient Basque language is still spoken in most of these provinces. The area is governed as an autonomous region with its own parliament. It consists of 272 municipalities with a total population just over 600,000, a third of which live in the capital, Pamplona, best known for the annual San Fermin Festival — the traditional running of the bulls.

Navarra leads Europe in its use of renewable energy technology, and plans on reaching 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2010. Today, nearly three-fourths of the region’s electricity is generated by renewable sources, mostly from its 28 wind farms.

The province of Navarra is also famous for its inimitable Piquillos de Pimiento — a key ingredient for a gourmet paella, as well as for chorizos and stews.

Vines and wines

Navarra’s climate is as diverse as its terrain, mixing influences from the Pyrenees mountains and Ebro River valley, exhibiting considerable difference between north (much more humid with frequent rainfall) and south (more Mediterranean with higher temperatures in the summer and less precipitation). In a few hours, one can drive from humid northern valleys to arid steppes above the Ebro River valley near the border with Aragon.

Grapes are planted on 17,753 hectares (or about 42,000 acres) of land in five distinct regions (Baja Montaña, Tierra Estrella, Valdizarbe, plus the more heavily planted Ribera Alta and Ribera Baja), according to Jordi Ragout, who heads up the vintner/grower organization in the region, Vinos D.O. Navarra. The trade group is based in the wine-centric town of Olite, a Gothic gem that’s the site of The Royal Palace (one of the most luxurious in Europe) and home to the Church of Santa María with its exquisite altarpiece.

With vineyard plantings equivalent to those in the Napa Valley, Navarra has about 4,500 growers, Ragout says, averaging about 10 acres per farmer. The changing face of the grower population ranges, he advises, from modern-day co-ops to young nursery owners, even a former attorney general from Madrid whose crops are grown using biodynamic methods.

There are more  than 100 bodegas (wineries) in this relatively small but important grape-growing region, and Ragout’s organization is aggressively marketing its wines with new consumer thrust that explains how tradition and experience are linked to 21st century innovation.

The 75-year-old trade association is busy updating brand images, is touting a whole new line of cellar offerings (including the international grape varieties now grown here) and targeting 25-to-40-year-olds as the consumer group most likely to add wine to the weekly shopping list.

Vinos D.O. Navarra has also adopted new rules governing viticulture and cellar practices and has set up a battery of tests finished wines must be subjected to before they can receive the organization’s seal of approval.

In addition to established plantings of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay, syrah, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc are about to be added to the official varietal planting list, says Ragout.

A very small percentage of vineyards are planted to white grapes — about 6 percent. The rest are red grapes, of which 70 percent are domestic varieties — tempranillo (now the largest planting at 38 percent), garnacha (25 percent, the adaptable varietal that accounts for the success of the region’s rosados, which at one time accounted for 80 percent of the plantings), plus smaller amounts of graciano and mazuelo. Cabernet sauvignon and merlot, at 14 and 12 percent respectively, account for the largest share of the international varieties.

As for annual output, red wine accounts for the lion’s share at about 70 percent, with rosés coming in around 25 percent of production. The rest is white wine, with distinctly sweet muscat blanc wines accounting for around 1 percent of annual cellar offerings.

The domestic market accounts for 70 percent of annual wine sales, with exports taking up the rest. The largest export markets for Navarra wines are Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.