2021 Suertes del Marques 7 Fuentes Valle de la Orotava Tenerife 750 ml

Suertes del Marques farms land on Tenerife, the most important of Spain’s Canary Islands, where wind whips off the Atlantic at all hours of the day. The Listán Negro vines struggle to find purchase in the fractured volcanic soils of their slopes, as their roots sink deep into the earth hunting for water that rarely falls from the sky.

Grown at over 1,800 feet above sea level on vines up to 150 years old, the Medianías comes from the Orotava Valley on Tenerife. Volcanic soils abound here, and the vines have to be trained in an unconventional braided cordon, so that they can be easily moved out of the way during the spring and early summer season to make room for other crops. They look like no other vineyard you’ve ever seen, and they’re all own-rooted, as phylloxera has never come to these isolated islands.

Suertes del Marques makes wines that are as lyrical and nuanced as the island is inhospitable. A good friend—who happens to be a Master Sommelier—also loves these bottles:  

“Every so often you come across a grape that reminds you of so many other wines that you love, but is unique unto itself,” he declared. 

He went on to compare Suertes del Marques wines as having “clarity reminiscent of Burgundy, a peppery meatiness of Côte-Rôtie, a fine-grained tannin profile of an elegant Barbaresco, and a fresh liveliness of great Cru Beaujolais — yet it has its own soul. These wines and this place on the Earth show great potential as the next undiscovered wine, from a far off place.”