2021 Tameran Vijariego Blanco Canary Islands

David Silva won four Premier League titles with Manchester City and a World Cup with Spain. He was born on Gran Canaria, and in 2019 he bought an old wine estate in the center of the island with six hectares already planted. Then he called Jonatan García from Suertes del Marqués, the producer who did more than anyone to put Canary Islands wine on the map, and asked him to make it.

The Canaries sit 2,000 kilometers from mainland Spain, off the coast of Africa. These vines grow between 600 and 700 meters on south-facing volcanic slopes, sheltered from Atlantic humidity by the Pico de las Nieves. They are own-rooted, because phylloxera never reached the island. Everything is worked by hand with no herbicides or systemic treatments.

Vijariego Blanco is a native Canarian grape and the last variety picked every year. Almost nobody outside the islands grows it. It gives high acidity and low alcohol even in a hot place, which is the whole reason to plant it there.

The fruit ferments on native yeasts in 500-liter barrels and rests nine months on its lees before bottling.

Expect pear, cantaloupe, and mandarin with baked peach underneath, then a lively palate with real acid and a saline finish. Jamie Goode scored the 2020 vintage 93 points.