Winemaker: Iñaki Garrido
Where: Valle de Güimar, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Size: 1 tiny vineyard only!
Main Variety: Listán Blanco
Viticulture: Beyond natural, no spray, volcanic!!
Quick note: 200-year-old vines, ungrafted, volcanic and 1400m elevation
Iñaki Garrido makes some of the most ethereal wines. Literally they're grown in the clouds. High above the world at 1400m, Iñaki fell in love with an old plot of Listán Blanco. Mostly ungrafted, and mostly around 200 years old, the vines sit on the side of the mountain, in the famous black volcanic soils of the Canaries.
His winemaking honours the intensity of this site, creating the cuvée Las Toscas. Perched on the site of the mountain required obvious hand harvesting, indeed any work must be by hand, followed by gentle pressing focusing on the free run, spontaneous and slow fermentation, he uses imported Austrian and French 500 L oak barrels. Based on the very small quantities of grapes he receives, Iñaki normally only gets 1-2 barrels a year to work with.
Given the scale of the production, it is no wonder the wine has rocketed into fame, the wine itself is beautiful, all the intense fruit structure and complex mouth feel blend with the stunning acidity and freshness to form a truly unique wine. It is a gift to work with an artisan like Iñaki, and he is yet another reason we are obsessed with the volcanic terroir of the Canary Islands.
