Viñatigo - Vijariego Negro, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (2020)

TASTING NOTES

This wine is smoky and saline, with aromas of blackcurrant and fine tannins on the palate.

Viñatigo's Vijariego Negro plot is in El Palmar valley, a rural and protected area in the very north-west of Tenerife. The slopes of this valley have resulted from the erosion of Teno's massif, Tenerife's first volcanic land that emerged from the Ocean 11 million years ago. At 700 meters above sea level, the weather is more extreme than by the Ocean, this range of temperatures ensure a deep concentration in the grapes. Vijariego Negro ages for 10 months in barrels.

Juan Jesús, who is a 4th generation winemaker, founded Viñátigo in 1990 and has worked tirelessly since then identifying, recuperating the native grapes of the Canary Islands.

Driven by passion and love for his homeland, Juan decided to revive and work to save the native grape varieties that were brought to the Canary Islands by the conquers back in the 15th century and that had survived on the islands for centuries. He is a hero of contemporary Canarian viticulture. The wealth of knowledge that his work has created has helped underpin the significant expansion of wine styles that are now available throughout the archipelago, and his wines have achieved a calibre of class that many doubted the Canaries would ever produce again. (The Epic Wines of the Canary Islands, written by Santo Bains).