Suertes del Marques • El Ciruelo 2018

Über das Weingut Suertes del Marques

Suertes del Marqués ist ein Familienweingut, das erst seit 2006 Weine produziert. Die Winzer-Tradition der Besitzer-Familie reicht jedoch über zwanzig Jahren zurück, als sie ihre Trauben zwar anbauten, diese aber an andere Weingüter in der Apellation Valle de La Orotava verkauften. Geografisch befindet sich das Weingut im Norden der Insel Teneriffa im Valle de La Orotava, einem Tal in der gleichnamigen Stadt.

Ohne den Respekt vor der Tradition, dem Eckpfeiler der Weingutphilosophie, aus den Augen zu verlieren, greift man bei Suertes del Marqués so wenig wie möglich künstlich in die Herstellung der Weine ein. Es wird ausschließlich mit einheimischen Hefen gearbeitet und es werden nur minimale Mengen Schwefel verwendet. Alle Prozesse der Vinifizierung werden von Hand ausgeführt, von den Arbeiten im Weinberg bis zur Ernte.

Über den Wein El Ciruelo 2018

Der El Ciruelo stammt von einer einzigen kleine Parzelle, bepflanzt mit der auf den Kanaren autochthonen Rebsorte Listan, die mittelschwere Weine mit ausdrucksvollem Bukett und Aroma hervorbringt.

Der El Ciruelo ist der Grand Cru unter den Listan-Weinen und unzweifelhaft einer der großen Weine der Kanaren!

im Wine Advocate #250 vergab Parkers Verkoster für spanischen Wein, Luis Gutiérrez, die Weltklasse-Note von:

96/100 Punkte

Der Wortlaut der Lobeshymne lautet:

The 2018 El Ciruelo could very well be the finest vintage of this single-vineyard bottling, from a plot on very poor soils that has very balanced vines that usually give the more complex and deeper wine from the winery. It's a north-facing plot at 480 to 520 meters in altitude pruned in the cordón trenzado system unique to La Orotava. It fermented with 100% full clusters, no temperature control, indigenous yeasts and a 27-day maceration time. It matured in used 500-liter oak barrels for 11 months. This is incredibly elegant, though the nose is still a bit shy; it might take some more time in bottle to show further complexity, but the texture is just incredible. It has the ashy/volcanic/pumice mouthfeel and very fine, slightly chalky tannins. This is up there with the 2016, perhaps a notch above. The nose is nuanced, insinuating and complex. Unfortunately this wine will have to change the name starting with the 2019 vintage because of a problem with the brand, and it will be called Las Suertes, the name of the paraje where the vineyard is. 4,100 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2019.

Jonatan García has now taken full responsibility for the production of the wines at Suertes del Marqués, and winemaking consultant Luis Seabra from Portugal no longer works with him. García already fermented and aged the 2018s without his advise. He's planting Listán Blanco in the higher part of the property and Vijariego Negro in the middle of the slope. The number of wines don't stop growing! They now own nine hectares, rent a further two and work a further 17 with growers from Los Realejos and La Orotava. Total production is 115,000 bottles. The 2018s have very good ripeness, very complete, but keeping fantastic acidity, which points at wines with very good aging potential. Since 2016, they have been harvesting earlier; they are also controlling the extraction with a softer vinification and use a majority of full clusters for the fermentations. 2019 was more heterogeneous, warm and dry and their earliest harvest ever. The profile of the wines is very different from the 2018s.

It looks like 2020 is going to be the earliest harvest ever, as the plan is to start on the 20th of July, a full month earlier than in 2019—which was previously their earliest harvest to date, and before that, the earliest harvest had been 2017.