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A land of Heroic Viticulture

Bodegas Viñátigo's vineyards are in the north-west of Tenerife; a lush, green, part of the island, swept by the trade winds and exposed to brilliant sunshine. Since 1990, Juan Jesús Méndez has been studying and recovering the almost-extinct grape varieties of the Canary Islands, and has made of Viñátigo the reference winery in the region.

Embark upon an epic adventure to the Canary Islands and take your Wine Adventure to New Heights.

Viñátigo Listán Blanco de Canarias 2023
  • White Wine
  • Listán Blanco
  • Sustainable, Vegan-Friendly, Volcanic
  • Dry
  • Light Bodied
  • 750ml
  • 12.5% alc./vol

Viñátigo Listán Blanco de Canarias 2023

Canary Islands, Spain
$32.95per bottle ($395.40per case)
12 bottles per case
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Crisp & Salty

Juan Jesús, who is a 4th generation winemaker, founded Viñátigo in 1990 and has worked tirelessly since then identifying, recuperating the native grapes of the Canary Islands. The grape Listán Blanco de Canarias was brought to the Canary Islands in the 18th century by the Andalusian conquers. Viñátigo cultivates it in the high-lands that sit at 500 meters of altitude.

The vines are trained in ‘parrales’, a training method inherited by the Portuguese community that settled on the northern part of the island back in the 15th century. These vertical structures adapt to the hills and ravines created by the last eruptions of Teide volcano towards the north of the island. This wine is very fresh and has a vibrant acidity. On the nose, it has fragrant aromas of fennel, dried fruits and fig tree leaves; as well as a distinct mineral quality that is a result of the volcanic soils.

This crisp white calls for grilled fish, potatoes and 'mojo verde', a typical sauce from the Islands made of garlic, cilantro and olive oil.

About the Winery

Viñátigo

Juan Jesús is a proud native of Tenerife and the fourth generation of growers. During the thirty years that he's overseen Bodegas Viñátigo, he has considerably increased its holdings, planting varieties that he and his team recuperated from near extinction.

Driven by passion and love for his homeland, Juan decided to revive and work to save the native grape varieties that were brought to the Canary Islands by the conquers back in the 15th century and that had survived on the islands for centuries. He is a hero of contemporary Canarian viticulture. The wealth of knowledge that his work has created has helped underpin the significant expansion of wine styles that are now available throughout the archipelago, and his wines have achieved a calibre of class that many doubted the Canaries would ever produce again. (The Epic Wines of the Canary Islands, written by Santo Bains).

Press Reviews

Wine Align

92 points - David Lawrason

From high altitude volcanic-soiled vineyards in the Canary Islands this is from the local listan grape, also known as palomino fina, related to the white grape grown in Jerez to make sherry. It is light to medium bodied, fresh and lively with trace minerality. Not tart acidity but enough to keep it in ballast. The fruit is pear, guava, lemon amid the reductive mineral notes, plus a distinct sourdough yeastiness on the nose that immediately recalled fino sherry. The length is excellent. Tasted December 2022.

91 points - Michael Godel

Viñátigo Listán Blanco 2021 initially emits this unusually funky and exotic perfume of wet basalt or concrete mixed with washed manchego cheese rind but quickly comes together as one inviting scent. Preps the palate for wanting a taste to see what comes next and the clarity shines right away, of gemstones and the salty sweat of craggy wet stones. There is some orchard fruit but what matters most is the saline-mineral comport. It's like a compôte of imagination built on fruit and volcanics melted into a salad that spoons straight on down. Bloody delicious and well-made. Drink 2023-2027. Tasted December 2022.

91 points - John Szabo, MS

2021 marks another fine vintage for this reliably intriguing and interesting, complex wine from own-rooted listán blanco (aka palomino fino), quite ripe, showing pineapple and quince, baked apple and apple blossom flavours, less immediately flinty-reductive than the previous vintage and with more fruit. The palate is mid-weight and creamy, with balanced acids and very good length. Really delicious now, though should continue to gain in non-fruit complexity over the next 1-3 years, or hold into the mid-'20s. Tasted December 2022.

Viñátigo Vino de Parcela Camino de La Peña 2022
  • White Wine
  • Listán Blanco
  • Sustainable, Vegan-Friendly, Volcanic
  • Dry
  • Medium Bodied
  • 750ml
  • 13% alc./vol

Viñátigo Vino de Parcela Camino de La Peña 2022

Canary Islands, Spain
$58.95per bottle ($353.70per case)
6 bottles per case
/

Mineral & Vibrant

Juan Jesús, who is a 4th generation winemaker, founded Viñátigo in 1990 and has worked tirelessly since then identifying, recuperating the native grapes of the Canary Islands.

Camino de la Peña represents the Portuguese influence on viticulture in the area. The traditional vineyards, cultivated on vines, are located in the Icod Valley, a place marked by recent volcanic eruptions that have created stony and sandy soils. At about 450 meters above sea level and with direct exposure to the trade winds, this wine offers surprising freshness and acidity.

Pre-fermentative oxidation. Not controlled-temperature fermentation. Fermented and aged in stainless steel.

All the whites age statically. No batonnage. Barely no racking at all.   

About the Winery

Viñátigo

Juan Jesús is a proud native of Tenerife and the fourth generation of growers. During the thirty years that he's overseen Bodegas Viñátigo, he has considerably increased its holdings, planting varieties that he and his team recuperated from near extinction.

Driven by passion and love for his homeland, Juan decided to revive and work to save the native grape varieties that were brought to the Canary Islands by the conquers back in the 15th century and that had survived on the islands for centuries. He is a hero of contemporary Canarian viticulture. The wealth of knowledge that his work has created has helped underpin the significant expansion of wine styles that are now available throughout the archipelago, and his wines have achieved a calibre of class that many doubted the Canaries would ever produce again. (The Epic Wines of the Canary Islands, written by Santo Bains).

Press Reviews

Robert Parker

92 points

The 2022 Camino de La Peña is one of the new single-vineyard certified wines from the DOP Islas Canarias, Tenerife appellation. It was produced with Listán Blanco grapes from a plot of vines in Altos de Icod in the Icod Valley in the northeast of Tenerife and pruned in the traditional parral, or pergola, way on terraces on young volcanic (basalt) soils with sand and minerals. The juice from the pressing with part of the stems was let to settle and fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, where the wine matured with static lees (not stirred) for nine months. Despite the moderate 12.7% alcohol, this has a riper nose than the other whites, with notes of yellow fruit, plums and peach, and a gentle and polished palate with soft acidity and a bitter twist in the finish. 2,835 bottles were filled in August 2023.

Viñátigo, the project from Juan Jesús Méndez, was one of the pioneers of the local varieties in the Canary Islands, where he's been recovering forgotten varieties since 1990. He's now joined by his son Jorge, who is giving a more modern profile to the wines. In 2017, there was a new range of single-vineyard and lieu-dit wines that go one step beyond in 2022, with three new whites from the north of Tenerife. They are all produced with Listán Blanco from different zones and altitudes, climates and soils. They have 12 hectares of vines in the north and northeast of Tenerife, and their production averages 150,000 bottles per year.

Published: Nov 30, 2023

Viñátigo Vino de Parcela Pino Valois 2023
  • Rosé Wine
  • Listán Negro
  • Sustainable, Vegan-Friendly, Volcanic
  • Dry
  • Medium Bodied
  • 750ml
  • 13% alc./vol

Viñátigo Vino de Parcela Pino Valois 2023

Canary Islands, Spain
$47.95per bottle ($387.70per case)
6 bottles per case
/

Mineral & Vibrant

Juan Jesús, who is a 4th generation winemaker, founded Viñátigo in 1990 and has worked tirelessly since then identifying, recuperating the native grapes of the Canary Islands.

Pino Valois is a place of old vineyards in parral located in the highlands of the town of Icod de Los Vinos, northwest of the island of Tenerife. It is a unique area, traditionally known for its old vine crops on vines. Strongly influenced by the Portuguese and Galician colonizers who arrived in this area of the island in the 16th century.

Whole clusters go in the press, and sit there for 2 hours before pressing. Fermentation happens at 18/19 degrees. Aged for five months with fine lees.

About the Winery

Viñátigo

Juan Jesús is a proud native of Tenerife and the fourth generation of growers. During the thirty years that he's overseen Bodegas Viñátigo, he has considerably increased its holdings, planting varieties that he and his team recuperated from near extinction.

Driven by passion and love for his homeland, Juan decided to revive and work to save the native grape varieties that were brought to the Canary Islands by the conquers back in the 15th century and that had survived on the islands for centuries. He is a hero of contemporary Canarian viticulture. The wealth of knowledge that his work has created has helped underpin the significant expansion of wine styles that are now available throughout the archipelago, and his wines have achieved a calibre of class that many doubted the Canaries would ever produce again. (The Epic Wines of the Canary Islands, written by Santo Bains).

Press Reviews

2020 marks a terrific vintage for Viñátigo's own-rooted Listán Blanco, vinified and aged in stainless, from the north side of Tenerife. There's a marked reductive, sulfhydric character in the best sense, where grapefruit meets smoke, meets lemon zest. The palate is distinctly saline, either from the volcanic soils, or the salt-laden Alisios winds from the North Atlantic, or both. Whatever the case, this is compelling, dense and quite concentrated white wine, with marked freshness and individual character. Lovely stuff.

John Szabo, Master Sommelier

The volcanic midlands of Tenerife’s northwest section is THE place on the Canary Islands for growing and producing the highest quality of Listán Negro. The fourth and fifth generations of Juan Jesús’ family are the custodians of these pre-phylloxera vines at 500-1000m and the wines they gift. Just a kiss of oak does little to adulterate the precocious sentimentality and unknowable delight for a wine that you warm up to without knowing how or why. By now and with the 2019 vintage this unique red has come into its own at a perfect knife’s edge volatility and discreet if sumptuous behaviour. A must try and twice, each year for the next three to six.

Michael Godel, Wine Align

A REFERENCE WINERY IN THE CANARY ISLANDS

Bodegas Viñátigo

Juan Jesús is a proud native of Tenerife and the fourth generation of growers. During the thirty years that he's overseen Bodegas Viñátigo, he has considerably increased its holdings, planting varieties that he and his team recuperated from near extinction.

Driven by passion and love for his homeland, Juan decided to revive and work to save the native grape varieties that were brought to the Canary Islands by the conquers back in the 15th century and that had survived on the islands for centuries. He is a hero of contemporary Canarian viticulture. The wealth of knowledge that his work has created has helped underpin the significant expansion of wine styles that are now available throughout the archipelago, and his wines have achieved a calibre of class that many doubted the Canaries would ever produce again.

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