2019 Benje, Tinto, Envínate, Tenerife, Spain

Lots of dark berry, walnut and stone characters to this. Earthy and lightly funky. Black pepper, too. It’s medium-to-full-bodied with medium, round tannins and a flavorful finish. Plenty of complex characters to this. Solid and agile. Drinkable now, but it will be better in a year or two.

15,000 bottles and 150 magnums were produced. It was bottled in July 2020.

The red 2019 Benje was produced mainly with Listán Prieto with some Listán Blanco 4%) and Tintilla 2%) from different old vineyards in Santiago del Teide in the south of Tenerife at altitudes ranging between 900 and 1,000 meters, where sandy soils are covered by volcanic ash from the eruption of the Chinyero Vulcano in 1909. 2019 was extremely dry, and they had to reduce yields to avoid blocking the vines, so they only got 50% of the usual crop.

The wine was fermented by a plot with indigenous yeasts and spontaneous malolactic and matured with fine lees in well-seasoned and neutral 228-litre oak barrels for eight months. They didn’t use any added sulfur during the vinification or upbringing. It’s light to medium-bodied with 12% alcohol. It’s a textbook example: precise, expressive and characterful with the fruit, the peppercorn, the gunpowder and very tasty flavours with fine-grained tannins. 

Drink 2022 - 2026