Suertes del Marqués, “Medianías” Listán Negro

Ever since my visit to the Canary Islands a few years ago, the wines from there have become an obsession of mine. Whether white or red, these wines bear such an indelible “volcanic” stamp that they’re easy to identify blind, but beyond that, they continue to get better and better from a qualitative standpoint.One of the modern-day greats of Canary Island viticulture is Jonatan García Lima of Suertes del Marqués, whose jewel-box winery on the island of Tenerife is my suggested first stop for anyone looking to dive into the world of Canary Island wine—a dive I cannot recommend highly enough, by the way. Heirloom vines in Tenerife’s Valle de la Orotava—in this case, 80- to 150-year-old plantings of Listán Negro, the region’s premier red variety—supply Jonatan with superior raw material, and in 2019 the Listán Negro was so good he decided to showcase it on its own (the composition of “Medianías,” which is produced in collaboration with Rioja icon C.V.N.E., changes from year to year based o