2018 Suertes del Marques La Solana (750ml)

These are some of the very exciting wines coming from Tenerife (Canary Islands). Suertes Del Marques farms their vines organically (very old, pre-phyloxera ungrafted vines braided along steep slopes) and have a "natural" approach to winemaking.

"The single-vineyard Listán Negro 2018 La Solana was produced with the grapes of a centenary plot that tends to achieve high ripeness. It fermented with 50% full clusters and indigenous yeasts in concrete vats and matured in second-use 4,500-liter oak foudre and used 500-liter barriques for 10 months. This has a more reductive style, flinty and a bit ashy, but the palate is incredibly elegant and balanced, and feels like it's going to age nicely. It has to be the finest vintage for La Solana. 8,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2019." 94 points - Luis Gutierrez (Wine Advocate, Aug. 2020)

"Jonatan García has now taken full responsibility for the production of the wines at Suertes del Marqués, and winemaking consultant Luis Seabra from Portugal no longer works with him. García already fermented and aged the 2018s without his advise. He's planting Listán Blanco in the higher part of the property and Vijariego Negro in the middle of the slope. The number of wines don't stop growing! They now own nine hectares, rent a further two and work a further 17 with growers from Los Realejos and La Orotava. Total production is 115,000 bottles. The 2018s have very good ripeness, very complete, but keeping fantastic acidity, which points at wines with very good aging potential. Since 2016, they have been harvesting earlier; they are also controlling the extraction with a softer vinification and use a majority of full clusters for the fermentations." - Luis Gutierrez (Wine Advocate)