Frontón de Oro, Listán Negro, Tinto "Traditional" Vega de San Mateo, Gran Canaria, Spain 2022

Made from estate-grown Listán Negro. Grapes are de-stemmed and cold-soaked for 24 hours before pressing. Vinification in stainless steel tanks, after which the wines are moved to mostly used American oak barrels (about one out of eight new) and aged for three months.

This wine delivers a lovely bouquet of bitter cherry, pepper, volcanic soil tones, tree bark and a lovely array of sweet botanicals. On the palate the wine is elegant and nicely transparent, with a good core of fruit, tangy acids, modest tannins and a long, complex and beautifully balanced finish.

The brothers Ramirez, Pedro and Antonio, have been running Frontón de Oro since the early 2000s. Their estate on the hills of La Lechuza, a small town on the island of Gran Canaria, was created by their dad in the 1970s. Today the brothers mainly focus on cultivating the local varietals, Listan Negro, Listen Prieto, Negramoll, Maramajuelo, and Tintilla (also know as Trousseau), all in very poor volcanic/clay soils. Their vineyards are planted on some of the highest-elevation sites in Gran Canaria (many above 3,000 feet) and in many cases on terraced slopes, although some are cultivated wildly and untrained.

The name of the estate “Fronton de Oro” refers to a huge rock that shines with sunlight (the one that adorns their label) known locally as “El Frontón”. Their entry-level wine, Fronton de Oro Tinto, is one of the most easily recognizable wines from the Canary Islands.