2022 Puro Rofe Tinasoria Blanco

WINEMAKER: Carmelo Pena
REGION: Canary Islands, SP
VARIETY: Malvasía Volcánica
VITICULTURE: Organic

EXTREMELY LIMITED. "The 2022 Tinasoria is a new white in 2022. It is named after the highest volcano in La Geria, a place that was mostly abandoned by most growers due to the steep terrain and high altitude. It's also a very windy place, and the winds make the grapes ripen early and keep very good health. The grapes were harvested very early, the 19th of July. The variety is 100% Malvasía Volcánica, and the wine is ashy, stony and mineral; and there are no traces of exuberance or even the tiniest concession to perfume. It has a moderate 11.5% alcohol and is saline, sharp and austere beyond the character of the year. Only 350 bottles were produced in this first vintage." - Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate

Lanzarote lies less than 100 kilometres from Western Sahara and, of all the Islands in the Canaries, it feels and looks the most like an extension of the African continent. Unlike Tenerife or La Palma where a single volcano dominates the landscape, Lanzarote is composed of literally hundreds of smaller volcanoes, which have tended to erupt simultaneously in the past, creating a moonscape littered with volcanoes and craters.

The last major eruption here in the 1730s blanketed the entire island with small, black, aerated pebbles, like jet black pumice, which the locals call ‘rofe.’ It’s these pebbles that give the island its unique appearance and altered the terroir of Lanzarote so dramatically that viticulture only became possible after the 1730s eruptions. The rofe fittingly provides the name for our producer here, Puro Rofe, winemakers attempting the expression of pure volcanic stone.