Producer | Puro Rofe |
Country | Spain |
Region | Canary Islands |
Subregion | Lanzarote |
Varietal | White Blend |
Vintage | 2023 |
Sku | 12017376 |
Size | 750ml |
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.
The white blend 2023 Rofe Blanco mixes origins and varieties… It has a deep nose with more complexity and notes of herbs and aniseed, and it's very clean, with unnoticeable oak… a balanced mouthfeel, with more of everything, ripeness, acidity and intensity. It has a little more creaminess than the other whites from the 2023 vintage, but it still has a sharp and elegant profile.