So excited to have discovered these wonderful wines from Suertes del Marqués, Tenerife. (Website here.)
Based in Valle de la Oratova, Tenerife, Suertes del Marqués was founded as recently in 2006. The work here is as natural as possible. They farm 9 hectares of vineyards, split into 21 plots, with altitude ranging from 350–700 metres, on the slopes of Mount Teide, an active volcano. Some of the vineyards are very old indeed, and are trellised with a system unique to the Canary Islands: el cordon trenzado (the braided cord), which is a multiple cordon with a number of the vine’s branches braided together.
The main varieties here are Listán Blanco and Listán Negro. The former is the same as Palomino, the main Sherry grape. These are truly brilliant wines and are well worth checking out. The white in particular is quite remarkable.
Suertes del Marqués ‘Los Pasitos’ Baboso Negra 2011 Valle de la Orotava, Tenerife, Spain
From ungrafted vines, this spends 13 months in old 500 litre French oak barrels. Amazing aromatics: fine, very peppery, with fresh cherry fruit. Perfumed and sweet but really peppery. The palate is precise but elegant with a silky texture and lovely bright cherry fruit, with some peppery bite. It’s just so beautiful, with real personality and presence. 94/100
Suertes del Marqués 7 Fuentes 2011 Valle de la Orotava, Tenerife, Spain
From a mixture of 100+ year old ungrafted vines and more modern plantings, this is 90% Listán Negro and 10% Tintilla. It’s aged in 90% concrete and 10% 500 litre barrels. Very fresh and lively with red cherry fruit and a distinctive peppery edge. The palate is light and juicy with supple, sappy notes and pepper spice brightness. Amazingly vivid and drinkable. 93/100 (£10.95 The Wine Society)
Suertes del Marqués ‘El Ciruleo’ Listán Negro 2011 Valle de la Orotava, Tenerife, Spain
A mixture of 90+ year old vines and some younger vines, aged in old 500 litre barrels for 12 months. Very fine, fresh, peppery and aromatic with floral cherry fruit on the nose. The palate is elegant, supple and sweetly fruited: ripe, rounded yet fresh, with peppery cherry fruit and some herbal notes. Tight and expressive. 94/100
Suertes del Marqués ‘Vidonia’ Listán Blanco Viñas Viejas 2011 Valle de la Orotava, Tenerife, Spain
From ungrafted vines over 100 years old, this is 90% Listán Blanco plus some other local varieties. Full yellow colour. Wonderful minerally, matchstick nose with reductive characters plus citrus, peach and nuts. The palate is fresh, textured and reductive with some minerally notes under the waxy, nutty, appley characters. Amazing presence, concentration and complexity, holding reductive and oxidative characters together in amazing tension. Profound. 95/100
See a film of me tasting two of these wines:
UK agent is Indigo Wine
Find these wines with wine-searcher.com
5 Comments on The remarkable Tenerife wines of Suertes del Marques
Is the white anything like the Musar Blanc as your description leads me there
yes, awesome wines. I tasted several at Fenavin wine fair back in April this year, and have also tried others from the Canaries. Canary Island wines seems to be a great unknown these days, though they have a long history of winemaking and exporting, ie Canary Sack, as mentioned by Shakespeare, Samuel Pepys, etc. I wonder what happened?
I hope you won’t mind a bit of well-intentioned nitpicking. Instead of “Or-a-t-o-va”, it should read “Or-o-t-a-va”, and the right spelling is “baboso”, not “ba-R-boso”. Just mentioning it in case they are genuine mistakes rather than mere transcription errors. Otherwise, profoundly happy you give these amazing wines what I believe is due credit. Great job.
Was lucky enough to try the whole range at the vineyard today. Very much agree with your tasting notes and general comments. Extremely bright and often a little “sappy”, with a real point of difference and slight “natural” tendencies. Not crowd-pleasers perhaps, but for the right wino these would be brilliant.
Had the 7 Fuentes Listan with Sunday lunch this week – Lumme! A massive mix of flavours that our fine wine bretheren would probably call rustic. Really developed over an hour or so from opening ( it wasn’t going to hang around any longer than that in our household. Maybe a touch of Brett but I have absolutely no problem with that. Fantastic.