Suertes del Marqués, “Trenzado” Blanco

If Burgundy was hurled into the deep waters of the Atlantic, today’s offer would likely be one of its insular creations. And yet in the same breath, I find that the wines from Suertes del Marqués are so unique, so wholly their own thing, that comparison isn’t necessary—or even fair. If you have yet to experience a bottle of “Trenzado” Blanco, prepare yourself for a wine that shouts its “somewhere-ness” from the craggy volcano-top of Mount Teide!The exotic setting is Tenerife, the largest island of the Canarias, where vinous raw material clings to steep hillsides that spill into the ocean. But the vine’s individual makeup is the strongest attention-grabber for me: Many of these ungrafted trunks are 1-2 centuries old, and the “arms” of the grapevine are painstakingly fashioned into gnarled, winding braids that can stretch as far as 80 feet! As for the taste? Listán Blanco is a singular crash course on smoky, flinty minerality in liquid form, with a generous helping of plumply textured fr