2022 Canary Island offerings from Envinate

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Year after year, we fall in love with the wines of Envinate, a collaborative project founded by four winemakers and friends who met while in enology school in Alicante. Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and José Martínez make wines from choice plots in the Canary Islands, Ribeira Sacra, Murcia, and Almansa, intending to express the unique terroirs of each region. They have eliminated all invasive chemical treatments in the vineyards and are  producing wines with methods in the cellar that transmit the character of their plots. To this end, they pick by hand, ferment with native yeasts, and ferment and age in old wood and concrete.  As they progress on their journey, they have been honing their winemaking skills, and deepening their relationship with the vineyards they tend, and the unique terroirs and grapes they work with.

Collectively, the Envinate team decided in 2020 to stop using temperature control in the cellar, and they started to work with shorter macerations with their wines. The change from using temperature control reveals the confidence that they have in their work, and in their parcels, which they have now tended for many years. To some degree, the shorter macerations may be in response to the challenging conditions, such as drought in their vineyards, but seems to clearly also be an approach towards a delicate style. Since the 2020 vintage, the wines are a touch more "ready" and graceful, and the 2022 vintage seems to us like the most remarkably "approachable" vintage ever for their Canary Island wines. The wines are notably open and charming, with more balance and less of the funky reduction-related aromatics or the tightness of previous vintages like 2019 and 2020.

For a bit of a look at past vintages, for those who are holding bottles, or for those curious about Canary Island vintages, here is a summary of the past 9 years, written by our former colleague and member of the José Pastor imports team, Ben Fletcher.

2023: Tenerife’s fire year, and an intensely dry and hot vintage. The Arafo fire will have consequences for the vintage that aren’t yet clear, but hopefully the wines will be very good. All grapes were harvested before the fire started.

2022: A dry and difficult vintage in Orotava and Taganan, but at least the ground water had been restored in ’22, so yields were not so seriously reduced as in ’20, and the wines are perhaps less intensely informed by the lack of water. An excellent year in Santiago del Teide.

2021: The drought finally broke, with winter rains replenishing ground water. Disease pressure in Taganan. An outstanding  vintage in Orotava - particularly Palo Blanco, but also a really exceptional vintage for Migan.

2020: Brutally dry. Continued drought led to changes in pruning and steep yield reductions. Earliest harvests ever. Depletion of water reserves really started to hit a point of concern in 2020 - all of my notes from Roberto Santana are concerns about water and the future. Santiago del Teide is always least affected by heat and drought, but even there this was a notably dry year.

2019: Another dry and hot vintage. I’ve really enjoyed the wines from Santiago del Teide in this vintage.

2018: A dry and hot vintage, but one with very good results in Taganan owing to a somewhat cooler growing season than ’17 and ‘19.

2017: A very dry vintage, and also hot and sunny. Another year where the Santiago del Teide wines really shone, and also the wines from Taganan.

2016: A dry vintage, but not as hot as the following years. A very good vintage in Orotava and in Santiago del Teide - the Benje Blanco is a particular favorite.

2015: The first year in a punishing dry cycle. Tenerife never gets lots of rain, but 2015-2020 was unheard-of in terms of drought, with basically no rain in spring/summer and only very limited replenishment in the winter. Pressure on the vines steadily increased.

Envinate 2022 Tenerife Benje Blanco 1.5L

Listán Blanco from high elevation (1000-1200m) vineyards on the sunny, dry and continental north-west side of Mount Teide, near the town of Santiago del Teide. The vineyards range in age from 70-110 years old, and are farmed either by the Envinate team, or one of 15 local families who work with them. Vineyards are untrained (traditional for the area), and worked by hand without any chemical treatments used. The grapes see up to 1-2 days of skin contact during fermentation, which is in concrete. The wines rest on the lees in a mixture of used French oak, and concrete tanks. A little flor developed in one of the concrete vats, so there is a hint of an oxidative note to the wine. Listan Blanco is also known as Palomino and the profile is unmistakable here, as Palomino (much like Savagnin in my opinion) has an oxidative lean even without the development of flor/voile. The 2022 is fresh and balanced, a very friendly Benje Blanco!  -EL

  • white
  • 2 in stock
  • $84.99

  • Organic
  • Low Sulfur

Envinate 2022 Tenerife Benje Tinto 1.5L

  • red
  • 2 in stock
  • $84.99

  • Organic
  • Low Sulfur

Envinate 2022 Tenerife Vidueno de Santiago del Teide

Vindueno is from a "single parcel of 90-year-old vines on volcanic soils in the Valle de Arriba at 1000-1200m above sea level. The vines are trained en vaso, and no chemicals are used in the vineyard" (Jose Pastor website).  In 2022 the blend was 55% Listán Prieto (aka Pais, Mision, etc.) and 45% Listán Blanco. I found it to have silky texture, high energy and an almost Lapierre Morgon-like quality this vintage. A lovely, delicate wine, with notes of dried herbs and red fruit, and a long mineral finish.  -EL   *** LIMIT 1 bottle PER CUSTOMER ***

  • red
  • 1 in stock
  • $43.99

  • Organic
  • No Sulfur

Envinate 2022 Tenerife Vidueno de Santiago del Teide 1.5L

  • red
  • 2 in stock
  • $89.99

  • Organic
  • No Sulfur

Envinate 2021 Tenerife Migan Tinto

The vineyards for this cuvée are located near La Perdoma in the north-central part of Tenerife. Migan is in fact an old name for the town of La Perdoma. This is 100% Listán Negro, from four parcels in the Valle de la Orotava that are over 100 years old and planted on volcanic soils with substantial amounts of clay, sand and basalt. There is some stem inclusion here. Fermentation is in concrete, and aging is for one year in neutral French oak and foudre. Bottling is without fining or filtering, and with just a touch of sulfur. -BF // Starting with the 2021 vintage, Migan is now a wine that will be held back, released a year later than other Canary wines from Envinate, when it is more "ready to drink." The folks at Envinate feel that the character of the wine deserves an extra year before release, which allows a mellowing of any sharp angles, and a less pronounced reduction that is associated with Orotava wines.... We think this was a great idea, and the proof is in the bottle! The 2021 is probably the first vintage in memory that was this open and pretty on arrival to the US, with more floral and red fruit aromas jumping out, and a noted subtlety of any reductive notes. This will undeniably improve with more time in bottle, but it is charming now too! 

  • red
  • 3 in stock
  • $58.99

  • Organic
  • Low Sulfur

Envinate 2022 Tenerife Migan Tinto 'Chingao'

While Migan is an amalgam of several parcels, the Chingao is a single section of a parcel called "Tio Luis," which is a 100 year old plot that the Envinate folks consider to be quite special. Compared to some other sites, the Tio Luis parcel has a bit more clay in the soil, perhaps yielding a slightly more concentrated expression. Grapes are typically fermented with a high percentage of whole cluster, with aging in concrete. The wine was bottled directly from tank without filtration, fining or any SO2 additions. The Envinate team has said on one occasion that they find the DO La Orotava to be the most volcanic, and this certainly comes as no surprise with the Migan Chingao!

  • red
  • 7 in stock
  • $48.99

  • Organic
  • No Sulfur
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Envinate 2022 Tenerife Benje Blanco

Listán Blanco from high elevation (1000-1200m) vineyards on the sunny, dry and continental north-west side of Mount Teide, near the town of Santiago del Teide. The vineyards range in age from 70-110 years old, and are farmed either by the Envinate team, or one of 15 local families who work with them. Vineyards are untrained (traditional for the area), and worked by hand without any chemical treatments used. The grapes see up to 1-2 days of skin contact during fermentation, which is in concrete. The wines rest on the lees in a mixture of used French oak, and concrete tanks. A little flor developed in one of the concrete vats, so there is a hint of an oxidative note to the wine. Listan Blanco is also known as Palomino and the profile is unmistakable here, as Palomino (much like Savagnin in my opinion) has an oxidative lean even without the development of flor/voile. The 2022 is fresh and balanced, a very friendly Benje Blanco!  -EL

  • Out of Stock
  • white
  • 0 in stock
  • $34.99

  • Organic
  • Low Sulfur

Envinate 2022 Tenerife Benje Tinto

Like the other 'Benje' wine, this wine comes from several vineyards around Santiago del Teide in Tenerife. The Tinto is a blend of mostly Listán Prieto (90%), with Listan Blanco and Tintilla, from vineyards at around 1000-1200m. Climactically, this region is dry, windy, and continental in character, shielded from Atlantic influence by Mount Teide and by the elevation. The grapes are harvested by hand and fermented with indigenous yeasts before aging for 8 months in concrete and used French barrels. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with a touch of sulfur. The 2022 is energetic, with bright red fruit, bing cherries and herbs. It's also charming right now, perhaps the most charming that Benje Tinto has ever tasted on release.

  • Out of Stock
  • red
  • 0 in stock
  • $34.99

  • Organic
  • Low Sulfur