(2024) The island's most distinctively packaged wine in its tall, conical blue glass bottle is 100% Malvasía Volcánica, from selected farms on the island. A little like the El Grifo I guess, it's a very good and well-made wine, with yellow apple fruit touching on something more tropical, and just hinting rather than fully expressing its volcanic island credentials. It slips down easily without the distinction of some.
(2024) The first vintage from a very new bodega, and this one of only 800 bottles produced. Tenesar is an area on the western coast, the 100-year-old vineyard less than 2km from the sea. An early manual harvest results in alcohol of just 11.5%, softly pressed whole bunches then transferred to 500-litre barrels for eight months of aging plus time in concrete eggs. Fabulously pure and mineral, with a little sheen of almond and honey, presumably from the barrel, but the clarity and acid drive, the saline sweep of intensity, is what powers this energising wine.
(2024) A fascinating wine. Made from Listan Blanco and Diego, with a little of the black Listan Negro, it has a buttercup yellow colour and comes from an area further south than many. Made from old vines grown in the typical little hollows, one vine per hollow, scooped out of the lava and volcanic sand. So heavily reductive that it took me a while to get my head around it, realising that, mixed in to the reductive, gunflint aromas, were the volcanic/mineral aromas, and I wondered if perhaps some flor ageing - but can find no evidence of that from researching the wine. I really enoyed this, and the unsettling impact of the aroma eased on the palate to leave an intriguing and enjoyable wine from this always interesting operation.
(2024) Where Lanzarote goes full hipster, we're firmly in natural wine territory here, a blend of Malvasia Volcánica, Listan Blanco, Diego and Listan Negro, fermented with natural yeasts and spending 11 months in concrete, oak, and chestnut barrels. Vines are between 25 and 120 years old, grown at altitude up to 415 metres. Copper-gold in colour, aromas are of wheat beer, parcel string and lemon, some bitter orange oil notes too. In the mouth fabulous salinity and tons of citrus: orange again and lemon zest. There's plenty of leesy texture here, that wheat and hay-luke impression continuing, in a long and delicious wine in the 'natural' idiom.
(2024) Made from 100%, ungrafted old vine Malvasia Volcanica from the Las Palmeras vineyard, this is aged in French oak for four months resting on the lees. That certainly imparts a richness, a sheen of vanilla and almond, but the clear apricot, yellow apple and lemon fruit soon powers through. Texturally it has a little more weight too, but finally the oak seems to float away in the expected fruit and light saline character of the grape variety. It's interesting to taste barrel-aged Malvasia Volcanica, and though very good indeed, the argument for it doesn't seem compelling.
(2024) This is 100% Malvasia Volcanica from ungrafted centennial vines planted 300 metres above sea level, the wine fermented with indigenous yeasts. It sees no oak, but spends 18 months on the lees. A deep, yellow to gold colour, aromas are creamy, with yellow apple and straw, a hint of buttered toast but there's a wheat beer nuance here too. In the mouth it is really very vivacious: a bursting, nectarine ripeness and generous lime acidity drive the wine, tangy with flinty overtones emerging. Note there was some yeast sediment in my bottle, a by-product of the unflitered, unfined and natural. If you see this, the idea might be to shake the bottle to distribute it. Only 1,200 bottles produced.
(2024) Hand-harvested, organic Malvasia Volcanica from a single vineyard parcel. Spontaneous fermentation followed by 12 months on the lees and "very ittle added sulphur." The hand written front and rear labels declare that my bottle was number 950 of 1092. Young Tenerife winemaker Pablo Matallana has produced a natural wine, hazy and buttercup yellow, it has yeast, floral and soft, leafy herb aromas with golden yellow apple. A touch of kaolin clay. The palate has texture and lots of salty, mineral intensity. The fat, limey fruit almost touches on peach, but then the saline core pushes through to a long, mineral finish.
(2024) The "Miracle of Magma and Malvasia", this comes from young woman winemaker, Amor Lopez. Amor is a third generation of winegrowers, but her label is new, launched in 2021. From pre-phylloxera vines, spontaneous fermentation is followed by 11 months on the lees, with a semi-oxidative winemaking approach. The colour is straw to pale yellow, the nose giving a little hint of crushed oatmeal, Cox's pippin apples and fine herbs. There's a sense of stony salinity, which carries through to the palate. Lemon drives this, but the salty, ozone breeze character is unmissable. Delicately flinty, it finishes with bracing acidity but no lack of mid-palate fruit.
(2024) Feom Chupadero near the centre of the island, this is 100% Listan Blanco (Palomino), grown in volcanic soils rich in iron and magnesium. Whole bunches are pressed into concrete eggs for natural fermentation and a year of ageing. It's a heavily reductive style, smoky flint on the nose, touching on struck match from the extreme volcanic terroir. It has a feather-light weight too, riven with a zesty lemon on the palate. That combination of intense, smoky flint and citrus, free-flowing towards a saline finish, is distinctive and powerful. Certainly a wine made with intent, that some will like more than others.
(2024) From the Don José Núñez plot, a single vineyard of ancient Malvasia Volcanica that is 60 to 80 years old, only 1,632 bottles were produced. The wine is made with skin contact in concrete vessels. Quite a golden colour, there's is obvious richness with just a hint of honey to the flinty and lightly earthy apple and citrus aromas. Plenty of weight and texture on the palate with that edge of phenolic grip and hint of Italian bitters, the wine is a little bit different and expresses it's volcanic terroir so well. Not available in the UK.
