Dena-Dela Blanc

Egiategia is an unconventional adventure born on the French Basque Coast. In 2008, Emmanuel Poirmeur, an agricultural engineer and oenologist, chose to establish a winery where no winemaking tradition existed: between the ocean and the mountains. A blank slate, embraced as such, to invent a new way of thinking about 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 underwater immersion. Some cuvées are thus aged 15 meters deep in the Bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where pressure, darkness, and thermal stability provide an unprecedented environment for the wine. An experimental yet well-considered approach, never a gimmick.

The first Chardonnay vines were planted in 2009, followed by the renovation of an 18th-century building into a winery in Socoa in 2011. Without dogma, Emmanuel conceives viticulture and winemaking as a long creative process, where every action matters. Wine is not an end in itself, but the visible culmination of a broader journey.

Egiategia thus offers wines that aim less to convince than to challenge. Wines designed to suspend time, evoke emotions and memories, and invite contemplation. A complete experience, to be discovered on-site by appointment, serving as another reason to return to the Basque Coast.