Canary Islands

The Canary Islands make wines that resemble nothing else. Vines planted in volcanic ash, pre-phylloxera grapes that vanished from the rest of Europe over a century ago, and a landscape that changes from one valley to the next within the same island.

Malvasía, Listán, Marmajuelo, Vijariego… names you won’t find on the supermarket shelf. If you come from the Rioja–Ribera world, your assumptions fall apart here, in the best way. It’s one of the most exciting places to discover wine right now.

One tangle worth clearing up, because it trips up plenty of people: the Canaries have eleven appellations. Ten of them are island or valley DOs (Lanzarote, Valle de Güímar, La Orotava, Tacoronte-Acentejo…) and then there’s DOP Islas Canarias, covering the whole archipelago. That last one isn’t an umbrella over the other ten: it’s one more appellation, with its own rules, and each winery picks which one it bottles under. Which is why two wines made in the same valley, from the same grape, can carry labels that look nothing alike. Same place; different stamp.