Puro Rofe Lanzarote Rofe Vino Blanco 2023

70% Malvasía Volcánica, 20% Listán Blanco (Palomino) and 10% Diego Sourced from a variety of 60-100+ year-old parcels in pure black volcanic lapilli Fermented spontaneously Raised for 8-9 months in 50% tank and 50% neutral 500L French and Austrian barrels Unfined and unfiltered In Organic Conversion (ICCIA)

In 2017, Rayco Fernández had a problem. At the time, this native of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was running one of the Canary Islands’ most respected fine-wine distributorships (he was Envínate’s first distributor in Spain), so he knew the local terroir as intimately as anyone. Lanzarote island in particular captivated him, specifically the zone of La Geria: the iconic, lunar landscape of pure black volcanic lapilli studded with conical pits created to protect grapevines from whipping wind and funnel precious water down to their roots. It’s an incredible terroir, potentially a great one, and he wanted to represent a truly great wine from the zone. Trouble was… there wasn’t one. So he decided to create it. His bodega, Puro Rofe (rofe is the local term for the volcanic soil encountered in La Geria and the surrounding villages) is now, after seven vintages, considered to be the single highest-quality wine project on the island of Lanzarote. The recipe starts pretty simply: this is the only winery on the island that sources all of its grapes from old vines (mostly 60-100-plus years) cultivated organically in hoyos (the emblematic conical pits) and arenado (a lesser-known but equally traditional method in which volcanic lapilli are manually laid over organic soil and surrounded with U-shaped stone walls). The resulting wines are arrestingly unique: salty, ashy, laserlike, and concentrated.