2020 Suertes del Marqués Valle de la Orotava

97% Listán Negro, 3% Listán Blanco. Old ungrafted vines with the traditional ‘cordón trenzado ’ training system. It is a single vineyard facing north at 480–520 m elevation – an intermediate  elevation appraised by winemaker Jonatan García Lima as the most interesting. Sandy loam soils. 80% whole bunch, alcoholic fermentation with ambient yeasts in concrete vats and maceration for 20–28 days. Malolactic conversion in used 500-litre French oak barrels and aged on its lees for 11 months. This wine used to be called El Ciruelo, but it was changed due to a name-registration issue. Tasted blind.  Very fresh red fruit on a delicate and pure nose. It is vibrant and very Canarian. On the palate, marked acidity, precise and light tannins. More elongated and deep than powerful. Freshness in my glass. A wine of fun and joy, and very high quality. (FC)

The second vintage of the single-vineyard Listán Negro from El Ciruelo is under its new commercial name, the 2020 Las Suertes. From a centenary cordón trenzado vineyard, this fermented with 90% full clusters in concrete without temperature control and indigenous yeasts and macerated for 21 days. It matured in used 500-liter oak barrels for 11 months. It's slightly lower in alcohol (at 12.5%) than the 2019, with a pH of 3.52 and 5.64 grams of acidity. It's a tad fresher. There is great finesse here, as well as complexity and depth and incredible texture from super elegant tannins. It has finesse but structure and bones. It can be drunk, but it should be able to develop in bottle. This is the finest Listán Negro here. And one of the finest, if not THE finest Ciruelo (Las Suertes) so far... 4,100 bottles were filled in December 2021.