2021 Envinate 'Benje' Tinto Tenerife Canary Islands

Winemaker Notes: This savory Listan Prieto-dominant wine is loaded with textured flavors of dark fruits, red currants, cracked black pepper, and crushed flower petals. Serve slightly chilled with grilled mushrooms, eggplant dips, or Spanish-inspired tapas at home.

Envínate (translates as "wine yourself") is the brainchild of 4 friends, winemakers Roberto Santana, Alfonso Torrente, Laura Ramos, and José Martínez. This gang of 4 formed back in 2005 while studying enology at the University of Miguel Hernandez in Alicante. Upon graduation, they formed a winemaking consultancy, which evolved into Envínate, a project that focuses on exploring distinctive parcels mainly in the Atlantic-inflected regions of Ribeira Sacra and the Canary Islands. Their collective aim is to make profoundly pure and authentic wines that express the terruño of each parcel in a clear and concise manner. To this end, no chemicals are used in any of the Envínate vineyards, all parcels are picked by hand, the grapes are foot-trodden, and the wines are fermented exclusively with wild yeasts, with a varying proportion of whole grape clusters included. For aging, the wines are raised in old barrels and concrete, and sulfur is only added at bottling, if needed. The results are some of the most exciting and honest wines being produced in Spain today.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - "The 2021 Benje comes from a very warm and dry year in Santiago del Teide when the vines got blocked and suffered. They did a softer vinification, with shorter macerations and cooler temperatures, and they also bottled it a little earlier. The wine is a bit more reductive with a slight touch of rusticity. 25,000 bottles and 300 magnums produced. It was bottled in June 2022.""