Envinate
Envinate, which literally translates as “wine yourself,” is the project of four passionate young winemakers: Roberto Santana, Jose Martinez, Laura Ramos and Alfonso Torrente. The four met while studying oenology in Alicante in 2005 and formed a collective based on a shared philosophy of wine and a desire to explore the ancient, Atlantic influenced terroirs of western Spain.
In 2008, the group bought their first vineyard in Ribera Sacra, then took control of vineyards on the north of Tenerife and then bought a single patch of Tinta Amarela in Extremadura. Finally, in 2012, they began working a site in Almansa, planted with Garnacha Tintorera. In each place, the team care for old abandoned vineyards and move frequently around the country.
You may recall us offering you a set of wines from Envinate earlier in the year. They were all from their Canary Island project. Today, the wines we have on offer here are mainly from Galicia in the far north-west of Spain (plus a couple of wines from the Canary Islands which Envinate decided to hold back as they were not quite ready to be released back in May).
We tried these wines in early September and seriously loved them. Our notes on each wine are shown below. For now, some background information direct from the importer:
The 2017 harvest in Ribeira Sacra wasn't brilliant. Not quite as hard as the uneven temperatures and high disease pressure of the 2017 harvest on Tenerife but it was still marked by an intensely hot, dry summer. Despite the challenging warmth we're immensely happy with the quality of the wines Envinate have released, perhaps they aren't quite as effortlessly long as the ridiculously good 2016s but they are still fascinating wines, fluid, fresh and very precise. It's worth remembering in years like 2017 that one of the four guiding principles of the Envinate group is that the wines should express the vintage, for them recording the warmth of 2017 in a tannin profile that recalls dried straw next to the freshness and fluidity of the 2016s imparted by cool and even weather is just as an important part of winemaking as reflecting soil or any other aspect of place. As Alfonso likes to remind visitors, if you're not making slightly different wines every year, you're making Coke (or Moet!).
In 2008, the group bought their first vineyard in Ribera Sacra, then took control of vineyards on the north of Tenerife and then bought a single patch of Tinta Amarela in Extremadura. Finally, in 2012, they began working a site in Almansa, planted with Garnacha Tintorera. In each place, the team care for old abandoned vineyards and move frequently around the country.
You may recall us offering you a set of wines from Envinate earlier in the year. They were all from their Canary Island project. Today, the wines we have on offer here are mainly from Galicia in the far north-west of Spain (plus a couple of wines from the Canary Islands which Envinate decided to hold back as they were not quite ready to be released back in May).
We tried these wines in early September and seriously loved them. Our notes on each wine are shown below. For now, some background information direct from the importer:
The 2017 harvest in Ribeira Sacra wasn't brilliant. Not quite as hard as the uneven temperatures and high disease pressure of the 2017 harvest on Tenerife but it was still marked by an intensely hot, dry summer. Despite the challenging warmth we're immensely happy with the quality of the wines Envinate have released, perhaps they aren't quite as effortlessly long as the ridiculously good 2016s but they are still fascinating wines, fluid, fresh and very precise. It's worth remembering in years like 2017 that one of the four guiding principles of the Envinate group is that the wines should express the vintage, for them recording the warmth of 2017 in a tannin profile that recalls dried straw next to the freshness and fluidity of the 2016s imparted by cool and even weather is just as an important part of winemaking as reflecting soil or any other aspect of place. As Alfonso likes to remind visitors, if you're not making slightly different wines every year, you're making Coke (or Moet!).