2020 Benje, Blanco, Envínate, Tenerife, Spain

Listán Blanco from volcanic slopes on Tenerife.

Seriously hard work – sour but pure. Really austere!

Drink 2022 - 2024

15,000 bottles and 150 magnums were produced. It was bottled in June 2021.

2020 was also very dry, like 2019 in Santiago del Teide in the south of Tenerife. The grapes for the 2020 Benje Blanco were picked earlier than ever, starting in mid-August. The wine was fermented by plot in concrete with indigenous yeasts, and 20% of the volume matured in an oval 2,500-liter oak foudre and the rest in concrete, where half of it developed a thin layer of flor yeasts that give it a sharper texture rather than aromas or flavours, as these yeasts eat glycerin and make finer wines.

So, the flor is only in 40% of the wine, less than in 2019. The difference here is that they stopped controlling the temperature something they already did with Palo Blanco), stopped using 228-litre barrels and moved to 350-litre barrels from Chassagne-Montrachet. It makes the wine more expressive of the soil and with less fruit character. All this has increased clarity and definition in the white wines from Tenerife. This is livelier. 

Drink 2022 - 2027

An unworldly nose, where the first impression is one of reduction, but then it comes around with hot stones, minerals, apricots, honeydew melon, metallic notes and spices, too. 

Pretty challenging on the palate, with high acidity, but the creamy mouth-feel and a slightly chewy structure make it a full-bodied, palatable white that calls you back for more—a mouthwatering finish. 

Listan Blanco. 30% is aged under flor. 

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