The interest in and consumption of Canary wines in Asian markets has been growing significantly in recent years. As a result of this trend, it has become increasingly common for renowned journalists, influencers, and wine industry influencers from these countries to visit our islands.
One such visitor is Japanese wine expert journalist Yoshiko Akehi. The influencer had already been to the islands a few years ago, and this time she stayed for five days to delve deeper into our history and winemaking tradition, visiting several wineries on the islands.
One of the chosen ones for Yoshiko Akehi was Viñátigo. So, we shared a morning with her where she visited the winery, our "Canarian Varieties Garden," tasted our creations, and discovered our new project of unique plots and our philosophy based on the defense of Canarian varieties, environmental respect, and sustainability. The visit ended with a seaside lunch featuring the best of our gastronomy, paired, of course, with some of our creations.
We share Yoshiko Akehi's views and impressions on this visit to our winery in a report published on her blog a few days ago, not without expressing our deep gratitude for her interest in the Viñatigo Winery project.
Yoshiko Akehi.- November 15, 2023 - REPORT ON WINERY VISITS IN THE CANARY ISLANDS
Since I visited the Canary Islands for the first time in a long time, "It hasn't changed in 23 years!" It seems my first visit was in the year 2000.
The flight from Madrid to Tenerife North Airport in the Canaries takes approximately three hours. On this occasion, I used Air Europa. Like in the UK, the Canary Islands have a one-hour time difference with the Spanish mainland. Although they are Spanish territory, geographically they are closer to the African continent and Morocco. When the warm and dry wind from the Sahara Desert, known as "Calima," blows, visibility is affected, and flights can be canceled.
The residents seem to have a feeling of being in a "ground zero," that is, in an intermediate position that does not belong to either Europe or America. The Guanches, the indigenous people (each island had its own name for the indigenous people), lived on these islands, and in ancient times, explorers from Phoenicia, Greece, and later from Northern Europe and Italy, also visited. Finally, after disputes over sovereignty between Portugal and Spain, in 1479, through the Treaty of Alcazovas, Portugal acquired the Azores and Madeira, while Spain kept the Canary Islands. Therefore, Portuguese influence still persists.
On this occasion, I visited four islands in five days: Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and La Palma. Tenerife has five Designations of Origin (DO), while the other islands have their own DO for wine. In addition, all the islands are included in the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Canary Islands - Canary Wine.
Tenerife has Spain's highest peak, Mount Teide, and is surrounded by five DOs: Tacoronte-Acentejo to the northeast, Orotava Valley to the west, Ycoden-Daute-Isora to the west, Abona to the south, and Güímar Valley to the east.
We visited "Viñátigo" in the municipality of La Guancha. It is a family that has been involved in winemaking for generations, and Juan Jesús Méndez has been in charge since 1990. When I last visited the winery, it belonged to the Ycoden Daute Isora DO, but now it is under the Canary Islands PDO. This PDO covers all the islands, which expands the variety of wines and is also considered advantageous for international marketing by using the denomination "Canary Wine" in English.
Elena Batista, the wife and winemaker, guided us through the vineyard just in front of the winery. There was a trellis system and also terraced vines called "parral." Since the islands are of volcanic origin and space is limited, they used to plant grapes above and vegetables below. Although they no longer plant other crops below, they adjusted the terrace height to three levels: high, medium, and low, to accommodate the height of the people working on them. Additionally, due to the slope of the terrain, they plant different varieties at different altitudes. By receiving the sea breeze, the wines acquire a saline touch. The Atlantic Ocean stretches out in front of us.
"We have 83 local varieties here, and we are working to revive them," Elena told us. In addition to blended wines, Viñátigo produces many single-varietal wines. In addition to the typical Tenerife grape varieties, Listán Blanco (also known as Palomino) and Listán Negro, they also produce wines with Marmajuelo (unique to El Hierro and Tenerife, with the Tenerife strain brought by Juan Jesús from El Hierro), Gual (from Madeira), Vijariego Blanco, Aromatic Malvasía in whites, and Negramoll, Tintilla, Vijariego Negro, and Baboso Negro in reds.
Additionally, we tasted a sweet and dense wine made with the black Tintilla variety, aged using the solera system in old barrels.
We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the sea. In Tenerife, white sandy beaches are only found in the southwest of the island, and those looking for beaches use Tenerife South Airport. Unfortunately, the north coast of the island, where most wine-related activities take place, is mainly dark cliffs.
Original article on "Wines of Spain and More" (Japanese) at this link.