Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022 - 80

Top 100 Wineries
TENDING OlD VINES
TRaINED IN CORDON
TRENZaDO aT SUERTES
DEl MaRQUES IN THE
OROTaVa VallEY
SPAIN | CANARY ISLANDS
Suertes del Marqués
Jonatan García Lima transforms the fruit of cordón trenzado
vines into wines with subtle volcanic energy.
Jonatan García Lima's father was in the furniture
business, using his profits to buy up vineyards on the
steep incline of the Orotava Valley. Today, Jonatan oversees
his family's vines, which rise from 800 to 2,460 feet
in altitude, covering 27 acres, many of them trained
in the traditional cordón trenzado. From each trunk, a
braided stretch of vine crawls across (or even up) the
hill, many extending for 45 feet or more. These twists
are the product of time, 80 years, or, for some, close to
150 years. This north-facing hillside, below the island's
volcanic peaks, is crossed by the Atlantic trade winds,
circulating air through the braided canes. García Lima is
a self-taught winegrower, having helped his father build
their winery in 2006. Early on, Roberto Santana made
the wines, before García Lima took over in 2016, and
brought in Luis Seabra from Portugal's Douro to help
him fine tune his vineyard and cellar work. He crushes
the grapes by foot, including some whole clusters, allowing
it to macerate then spontaneously ferment in concrete
vats; he ages most of his wines in large, neutral
French oak barrels. This year, his white wines caught
our attention for their depth of fruit, including the new
Vidonia V.P., the most compelling of the Suertes wines
we tasted this year. Engaging and sophisticated, these
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whites show García Lima's remarkable talent for interpreting
one of the world's most extreme terroirs. -J.G.
2020 Valle de la Orotava Vidonia V.P. Listán Blanco
($90, 96 points) García Lima's selection from the top parcels
of estate, he aged Vidonia V.P. in new 500-liter Stockinger
barrels, which tend to give more subtle oak character
than French barriques. In this case, the oak only adds to the
grandeur of the wine, encouraging the fruit expression of ripe
white peach, the dusty tannins of fruit pith, the racy integration
of acidity that keeps it running lean and long.
2020 Valle de la Orotava Cordón Trenzado Listán Blanco
($26, 95 points) Proving the quality of the terroir and farming
at some of García Lima's favored sites, this 2020 is one of the
great values in the world of white wines. Listán blanco is palomino
from Andalusia that has settled into the Orotava Valley
since the 1800s. Its expression here is completely different
than in the limestone soils of Jerez. In García Lima's hands,
it produces a wine with plenty of volcanic soil reduction, the
most elegant kind of stink, here layered with yellow plum, lime
and orange richness. Then the finish is bathed in minerals.
Supple now, this needs years to fully realize its potential.
2019 Valle de la Orotava La Solana Cordón Trenzado Listán
Negro ($27, 93 points) This wine smells like rockrose
at the beach, in this case, a steep volcanic beach high above
the Atlantic. It's one of a range of single-parcel wines García
Lima makes from his estate. La Solana is a 3.7-acre parcel of
ungrafted vines, which he estimates were planted between
80 and 150 years ago. His 2019 is potently reduced, a pungency
triggered by the volcanic soils. Focused on earthy tannins,
it allows a view into the detail of those tannins and the
gentle fruit waiting to emerge.
FOUNDED:
2006
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:
Jonatan García Lima
OWNER:
The García Lima
family
ACRES OWNED:
27
ANNUAL PRODUCTION:
10,500 cases
ESTATE GROWN:
40%
IMPORTER:
Polaner, Mt. Kisco, NY
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022

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