2018 Benje, Tinto, Envínate, Tenerife, Spain

The red varietal Listán Prieto (a.k.a. País, Criolla Chica, Mission) 2018 Benje Tinto is from different vineyards in Santiago del Teide in the south of Tenerife at altitudes ranging between 900 and 1,000 meters. Half the wine was kept in concrete tanks, and the rest in well-seasoned, neutral 228-litre oak barrels for eight months. When you open the bottle, there are some flinty/gunpowder aromas, giving it a slightly reductive personality, but it’s perhaps the volcanic character coming through. This is spicy, wild and characterful, with flowers and blood orange notes. It has a light to medium-bodied palate with bright flavours, a wine with lots of light, very fine tannins and a mixture of wild fruit and herbs with the volcanic soils. This is the benchmark Listán Prieto/País and the Santa Cruz de Coya from Roberto Henríquez from Chile. 16,000 bottles were produced. It was bottled in July 2019.Drink 2020 - 2025Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (August 2020)