Ignios Orígenes

10/1/19 -

The Ignios Orígenes wines are striking and intensely memorable expressions of the terroir and indigenous grapes of Tenerife. These wines are smoky, mineral, and salty - seemingly capable of transporting the taster to the volcanic island from which they come. For me, these are some of the most exciting wines from the Canary Islands, and among the best examples of what winemakers there are capable of.

They are also fascinatingly expressive of vintage. Compared to the 2016s, the '17 vintage clearly shows the dry heat of the year. Northern Tenerife received less than half the typical amount of rain (only about 250mm), and endured a massive heat wave in March. Borja harvested early, and the grapes were perfectly healthy. The resulting wines are particularly intense, even for Ignios: exuberantly aromatic, bright and pure.

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Borja Pérez González, a native of La Guancha in Tenerife, organically farms the indigenous varieties Listán Negro, Baboso Negro, Vijariego Negro, and Marmajuelo on his family’s farm in the Ycoden-Daute-Isora DO. He purchased the farm and began the Ignios Orígenes project in 2011, and has been steadily improving the vineyards and his agricultural practices since. As is often the case on the Canary Islands, Borja Perez’s vines are own-rooted (rather than grafted on American rootstock), farmed entirely by hand, and untouched by chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. In the cellar, Borja employs sulfur only at bottling and uses very little.

Today we are excited to offer the full line of 2017 wines in both 750ml and 1.5L bottles. We are also lucky to have a small amount of the 2016 Baboso Negro, a favorite from the last vintage. I think that it would be fascinating to drink this wine next to the 2017: the ’16 vintage was far less extreme than 2017 and the 2016 Baboso is more restrained. All of these wines are very gastronomically friendly, great with fully flavored fare of all sorts and any and all grilled foods.

In addition, we want to highlight the 2017 Artifice wines. These are made in the same method as Borja Pérez‘s other wines, but from purchased grapes (where the Ignios bottlings are entirely from estate fruit). This vintage of the Artifice is the best I’ve experienced - these are true Canary Islands wines, showing the classic notes of sea salt and volcanic ash and earth. 

-Ben Fletcher