Introduction
Bixente Eizaguirre, son of family with a great wine-production tradition (five generations) and founder of the Talai Berri winery, already had a vast professional career on the wine-production area. After many efforts for achieving the Guarantee of Origin for a product whose ancestors, as well as himself, had been working for (he was the one who actually encouraged and took the initiative), he decided to build a winery to meet all the requirements a Guarantee of Origin demand.
This way, after the creation of Txakoli de Getaria Guarantee of Origin (1989), Talai Berri became the first winery built exclusively for manufacturing and distributing Txakoli (1992), complying with all the dispositions of the law regarding Guarantees of Origin and according to the parameters required for a Chateau. From the very beginning of the Guarantee of Origin, Bixente Eizaguirre is member of the Txakoli de Getaria Guarantee of Origin Control Board.
Winery
The construction of Talai Berri building, on the Talai Mendi slopes, in Zarautz, was performed by an architect and a work force with large experience building wineries, because it was clear the building should be made having its purpose in mind.
As for the technical elements featured in the cellar, Talai Berri pioneered the settlement and use of most innovative techniques: air pneumatic press, stainless deposits with refrigeration sleeves, temperature control.
The cellar also includes a little lab with the essential materials for monitoring exhaustively the various production processes. This is one of the singularities of Talai Berri winery.
Vineyards
At the winery beginnings, new plantations were added to those which had existed for centuries. This was made in order to settle new hectares of vineyard with indigenous grapes: new conduction systems, new plantation orientations for places where there already had been vineyard more than a century ago and, for some reason, they had ended disappearing.
Traditionally, vineyards were settled facing the see and following the Spanish grapevine system, taking for granted that that orientation and system where the most suitable. However, it was not taken into account that solar irradiation in the Basque Country was lower than in other traditional wine-production areas in Spain, and the rain was higher than the Spanish average. This is why the decision was taken to plant the vineyards facing south and following the high trellis system.
Even with all these changes in vineyard orientation and conduction, the characteristic indigenous types of grape for making Txakoli have been maintained: the Hondarrabi Zuri and the Hondarrabi Beltza are two grape varieties which fully adapt themselves at the land and climate of the area. Land, climate, grape, and also the combination of tradition and innovation in its careful elaboration, offer as a result a young yet with character type of wine, dry but fresh, light but fruity and persistent and slightly sparkling.
Production
Winery production capacity was set before construction at hundred thousand liters per year: the purpose was achieving a quality production, not a massive production. According to the winery's philosophy, it is really important to monitor and control the product up to its slightest details, so as the human factor (care, love, monitoring, control) predominate on the technician during all the production process, from caring the grapes until the final product. Tali Berri features all the singularities of a familiar winery. Three members of the family work in Tali Berri. One of them has business studies, the other two are Oenologists. There are also an agricultural technician and two workers hired for viticulture work.
It began with a modest production (25.000 bottles), both because it was a new winery and because it was decided to use only vineyards able to guarantee the quality intended for the winery. Meanwhile, new vineyards have been settled in other property terrains surrounding the winery: Now all the vines are in full production.
