🌋VOLCANIC VICKI 🌋

Hey Hey, Fionn coming to your inbox this Thursday!

It’s been a grey, miserable week and when the weather is as such I like to travel the world through wine vicariously. In my mind, I can really be anywhere I like. Sicily, the South of France, but this week I’ve been basking in the sun of the Canary Islands. La Palma to be precise. All thanks to the remarkable wines of a certain Victoria Torres Pecis.

La Palma is the most northerly of the Canary Islands and geographically speaking is closer to the Sahara than Spain. So whilst it may be incredibly hot down here our good friend altitude means these wines all buzz with an electric freshness! We are talking around 1000m above sea level on average with some vineyards rising up to almost 2000m. Crazy, crazy stuff.

The remote location also means that pesky little phylloxera never made it this far. Therefore, there are ungrated vines here dating back to the 1800’s. All of this is on top of the island's Volcanic soils and a myriad of different individual terroirs which adds up to some of the most compelling, enchanting wines I’ve had the pleasure to drink. Unicorn level good. Sadly, not much of this reaches the UK, but I’m very pleased we managed to pick up a few different wines for you lucky lot.

Las Migas is Listan Blanco sourced from 15 different plots, all over the island all with their own unique locations! Each is painstakingly picked at different times for optimal ripeness meaning harvest takes up to 3 months. Jeez, talk about dedication. Well worth it though, this has citrus and salinity in abundance. Jerónimo is from a particular plot of old vines planted in the 1940’s. Short bath on skins introduces a touch of phenolics before being rounded out in Chestnut. Moriesh stuff! Her T mas D introduces a little bit of Diego into the mixer. A new grape for me too which adds in some pleasing herbal complexity. The last of the whites could well be my favourite though. Malvasia, which as you’d expect has the aromatics taken up a notch, but still nice and restrained. It’s a real riot in the glass that deserves time to breathe and good food.

Before moving on to the proper reds we have a Clarete. Why aren’t there more well-done Claretes out there? These are usually field blends in which the grapes all get fermented together. Often more rose-like, this firmly feels like a lighter red. Victoria sources fruit from different parcels and the wine changes from year to year. Mainly red for 2021 and the resulting wine is a crunchy, juicy thing that you could pair with a whole heap of different foods. Doesn’t matter where it falls on the colour spectrum when it tastes this good.

Something for you red drinkers too. Negramoll in the form of a multivintage blend and a 2020. Both have an insane amount of earthy red berry fruit fruit alongside serious smokey spice. They feel truly volcanic as if you crushed basalt in your palms. Lastly, The Tión is pretty much all Listán Negro with a touch of Blanco for a little lift. Named after the specific site which is nestled right next to a volcanic crater sitting at 2,000m of altitude. That's some hell of a commute! Well worth it for the resulting wine though. Absolute ripper.

Really wish we had more of these wines. Truly unique, not much quite like them. I know these won’t be around long so I do hope they end up in happy homes!

Take it easy and enjoy the rest of your week!

Fionn
xoxo