Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The entry-level red is the 2017 7 Fuentes, a Listán Negro blend with some 10% Castellana Negra sourced from up to 25 vineyards from the La Orotava village. This represents a high percentage of their production with 67,000 bottles, which is more than half of their annual output. There were multiple fermentations, some in concrete, some in stainless steel, with around 10% full clusters and always with indigenous yeasts. Seventy percent of the volume was kept in concrete while the remaining 30% matured in used 500-liter oak barrels for nine months. This is a good barometer for the style, character and quality of the vintage, and it shows a little mellower and more approachable than the 2016. It's a little juicier within the pumice and black pepper style that always defines this wine. There are up to eight bottlings from the same master blend.
Rating: 92+
The Canary Islands are the southernmost Northern Hemisphere wine region. Because of such a dry climate, grape vines grown on the island are coiled in small craters in the volcanic soil which shelter them from the strong, sun-baked winds. This is the perfect climate for Listan Negro, which is vinified in several styles, from delicate, food-friendly rosés to light and fruity reds made by carbonic maceration (the technique used to make Beaujolais Nouveau), to traditionally-vinified reds aged in oak.
Set of islands off the coast of Morocco and south of Madeira that host a wide range of indigenous and unique grape varieties. Soils are volcanic and recent subsidies from the local government has led to a revival of the islands’ old vines.