Iñaki Garrido ‘Las Toscas’ Blanco 2020

Location: Spain, Canary Island, Tenerife, Valle de Güimar

Winemaker: Iñaki Garrido

Grapes: 200-year old Listan Blanco!

Soil: Volcanic and clay

Winemaking: the fruit is pressed gently, then ferments the juice spontaneously in barrel, racks it from the gross lees and returns it to rest on the fine lees in barrel for 6 months.

From Us at M&L: From 1400 meters above sea level in the Valle de Güimar, some of the oldest vines of Listán Blanco grow in the Canary Islands. It is from these relics of nature’s history that Basque native Iñaki Garrido crafts one of the most captivating, shimmering white wines I’ve ever tasted. Iñaki, born and raised in Pais Vasco, a Basque community in northern Spain, originally pursued art and industrial design in his college years, but switched to a career as a sommelier and ultimately received his degree in viticulture and enology at school in Rioja. The inner call of the vigneron caused him to hunt for vines of his own, all the way to the ancient mountains of Las Dehesas, the highest zone of the Valle de Güimar on the island of Tenerife. There he found the stuff of legends: 150 to 200-year-old Listán Blanco grapes growing on poor volcanic soils over clay.

Iñaki drew the label fro ‘Las Toscas’ himself, inspired from an old engraving. This is melting, with a subtle tang like cultured butter, fennel frond, kiwi skins, beads of condensation, fresh dew and fresh honeydew. Drink with the bottle nestled in the snow. light some sparklers in the middle of the day. This is joyous crystalline wine of the highest echelon; drink when you’ve had some really good news or a friend from the annals of time comes to visit. Life is short and stressful: wines like this make pleasure live up to its name.-Lennie