SORTEVERA

 

“The message to the world is that Tenerife wine is nothing new,” says winemaker Jonatan García Lima. “The thing is the gap of 200 years when it was in decline.” Firmly in the vanguard of the Canary Island’s vinous renaissance, García Lima is best known for his work at Suertes del Marqués, the estate he owns with his father. Sortevera is a more recent passion project, borne out of his relationship with grower Jose Angel Alonso Ramos, whose Taganana vineyards produce fruit García Lima wanted not just to blend but to shine a spotlight on. A collaboration between the two men, the wines of Sortevera are made at Suertes del Marqués under their own label, with 2018 the first vintage. 

 

It’s an exciting enterprise for an island that is gradually shaking off the less than glowing reputation created by the popularity of its package holiday dominated south, in favour of the wine-producing heritage of the wetter, more tropical north, which goes back centuries. A key stopping point for British ships en route to the Empire, business boomed until the mid-nineteenth century, when banana plantations took over. Any remaining vines subsequently served the domestic market, and the rest of the world rather forgot that Tenerife was useful for something other than holidays.

 

“That Tenerife didn’t export wine for 2 centuries has benefits,” says García Lima. “Merchants couldn’t demand indigenous grapes be replanted with international varieties, which helped to prevent phylloxera from ever getting here.” Those varieties, all grown in the rich volcanic soils of Mount Teide, now give Tenerife a point of difference as a winemaking region. And it’s not just local grapes and ancient vines that have survived, but methodologies too, such as the cordon trenzado technique of training the vines into thick, coarse plaits along the soil, which must be seen to be believed.

 

Located on the northeastern tip of the island, Sortevera’s Taganana vineyards are farmed organically, with many vines over 100 years old. Harvesting is done by hand and only indigenous yeasts used in the winery, producing a compact collection of field blends that give a true taste of the land. All spend 10 months in neutral 500-litre French oak barrels.