2022 Envinate 'Benje' Tinto - Canary Islands, SPAIN. 750ml
Envínate Benje is a wine made from Listán Prieto and Tintilla from different old vineyards aged between 70 and 120 years old, located at 1,000 metres of altitude, planted on volcanic soils.
They are manually harvested and placed in 16-kg boxes, with grape selection in the vineyard. When they arrive at the winery, each plot is vinified separately. The grapes, without destemming, macerate in cold before they ferment with native yeasts in different kinds of deposits (cement, open vats, French oak barrels). After fermenting in French oak barrels, this wine is aged for around 8 months. It is bottled without adding SO2, without clarifying or filtering.
94 pts Drink 2024-29
The bottled 2023 Benje, which has 9% Listán Blanco and 1% Tintilla grapes to complement the Listán Prieto, comes from a very warm and dry year in Santiago del Teide when the vines got blocked and suIered a lot, as they also did in 2019. With the experience from that year, they did a softer vinification, with shorter macerations and extraction. Here, it was an even warmer and earlier year than 2022, with more immediate wines, approachable and open from the very beginning. It's floral, aromatic and expressive, fine-boned and harmonious, with good freshness. 18,000 bottles and 250 magnums produced. It was bottled in May 2024.
