Viñátigo Vijariego Blanco, Tenerife, Spain 2017 (£19.79, All About Wine) The hottest wines around at the moment are volcanic wines. Excuse the pun, but it is apt: wines grown on the sides of volcanoes have burst to prominence in the past couple of years. There is even a rather good book on the subject, by John Szabo, Volcanic Wines: Salt, Grit and Power, that explores the phenomenon. As the title suggests, wines made from grapes grown in ash-enriched soils have uniting qualities: salty minerals, wildness, intriguing textures and depth. Certainly that’s been the case in the wines I’ve tried from the black soils of Tenerife, with the latest producer to capture my attention being Bodegas Viñátigo. There’s an intriguing smokiness, custard, apples and pears in their vijariego blanco, while their 2016 negramoll (£22.99, All About Wine) is all spicy wild berries.
Gavalas Santorini, Santorini, Greece 2018 (£26, Southern Wine Roads) Another factor in the current interest in volcanic wines is that so many use unusual local grape varieties and very old vines. This is especially true on volcanic islands such as Tenerife, Sicily and Santorini, where the wine cultures developed in relative isolation from the mainland, and where it’s still possible to find vines that pre-date the phylloxera plague that all but wiped out most of Europe’s vineyards in the late 19th century. On Santorini, that means assyrtiko vines, aged up to 500 years in some cases. This adds an extra level of intensity and balance to crystalline dry white wines, such as the intensely complex nervy, mineral Gaia Wild Ferment Assyrtiko 2018 (from £29, Loki Wine) and the fuller but still pure and racy, lemon grove-scented version from Gavalas.
Masseria Setteporte Etna Rosso, Sicily, Italy 2016 (£15.99, The Vineking) Volcanic island wines are never going to be cheap: yields are low, producers small, and logistics not always convenient. When it comes to the high-profile volcanic wine region on the slopes of Etna, you can find wines that are pretty good value compared to some of their scarily priced equivalents from the mainland, such as Barolo. The great red grape variety here is nerello mascalese, often blended with its juicy relative, nerello cappuccio. At their best, these wines offer an evocative combination of haunting fragrance and red-fruited complexity that has many people reaching for comparisons with the pinot noirs of Burgundy. Witness the charming softness and cherry freshness of Setteporte’s example, or the elegant, mineral-racy intrigue of Passopisciaro Passorosso Etna Rosso 2015 (from £33.95, Hedonism).
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