Puro Rofe Tinto 2023

Rayco Fernandez and his team in Lanzarote launched the Puro Rofe project in 2017 and surprised the Canarian wine scene with their single-varietal and single-vineyard wines.

This Rofe, or simply his "Tinto" (red wine), is made from the native and main black variety of all the islands, the Listán Negro. 

For this wine, the grapes are grown in different areas of the island, in its characteristic pits ("hoyos") dug in the volcanic sand (rofe), and in other flatter plots with the traditional system of sanding, in short, different soils (calcareous, clayey) but always covered with volcanic sand. The grapes are harvested from the end of July to mid-August, and the wine is made in different ways depending on the plot and vintage. One part of the wine is fermented in plastic tanks (with a part of whole bunches, i.e. with stems), and the rest is destemmed by hand, with maceration on skins for between 10 and 30 days. At the end of fermentation, the wine is transferred to used 500-litre French barrels to be aged for 8 months. On the other hand, another batch of the harvest underwent carbonic maceration in stainless steel tanks, and after pressing was refined in used 650-litre barrels for 8 months. Different plots, harvest dates and winemaking methods give this wine a fresh, fruity and ‘crisp’ character.

Our impressions: the wine transports you to the vineyards surrounded by these volcanic sands, with notes of smoke, sulphur, lots of wild red fruit (such as cranberry, wild strawberry), along with notes of green vegetables and red flowers. The palate is very fresh with marked acidity, soft tannins, light bodied with a finish of the same fruits and a little saline.

A wine true to its origin! Ready to enjoy now or to cellar for a while.

94 Parker Points