Today, the high quality and distinctiveness of wines from the Canary Islands give them a preferential spot in the global market, and they are also very positively valued by the major critics in the United States and Europe. Juan Jesús Méndez Silverio, founder of Bodeas Viñátigo in 1990, has played an important role in developing this high quality and distinctiveness.

His winery began with his decision to rescue the many and exceptional grape varieties of the Canary Islands, which were, at the time, little valued and mostly all but unknown. He traveled the archipelago (especially places like the island of El Hierro or the massive rock of Anaga in Tenerife, where he found authentic, very old relict plants that are otherwise extinct), investigating and searching for grapes that would form part of his collection.

The estate on which the collection is located houses the plants that were used to build the many vineyards of his own winery (and those of others), and is a jewel of Canary viticulture, the source for his pioneering production of monovarietal wines from grapes that have now amply demonstrated their potential.

Juan Jesús Méndez began various R&D projects to carry out studies concerning the traditional grape varieties, their optimal cultivation conditions, production methods, and oenological potential

In 1990, the winery was put up in an old family house with roofs made out of wood and tiles. It would take another seven years before he could inaugurate his modern three-story installations (two of them underground) with their new concept of how to work and treat the grapes in the most delicate way possible: they are discharged on the upper level onto a hopper that deposits them in the macerator, equipped with a self-emptying system and gravity-driven transportation system that carries the crushed grapes to the press. The process continues with high-quality must, always following very thorough protocols and controls.

At the same time, Juan Jesús Méndez began various R&D projects to carry out studies concerning the traditional grape varieties, their optimal cultivation conditions, production methods, and oenological potential. That led to a mechanization of the viticulture, along with a controlled and computerized management that made him the first in Spain to obtain the ISO 9000 quality management system, which certifies that all stages of the production process fulfill the traceability law.

Viñátigo is the first in Spain to obtain the ISO 9000 quality management system, which certifies that all stages of the production process fulfill the traceability law

The winery’s current wide range of products is based Mendez’s extensive work and his promotion of commercially and internationally unique varieties, which are still being researched and developed with new microvinifications, the seed of future original wines.

As an example of their monovarietal wines, the vintner says of the grape, Gual: “It is the best white variety in Spain. It arrived on the Canary Islands from Madeira, but it didn’t mature properly there, and because of the climate they use it to make fortified wine, adding extra alcohol. Nowadays it can only be found in Madeira and the Canary Islands. It is a complicated variety that dehydrates quickly and is difficult to process, but our current Gual wines are collection items, and all the bottles are numbered. You notice its aromas, the jasmine, the tropical pineapple and the surprising smokiness: actually, it is the only white variety worldwide that generates whiskey-lactone,” the aroma that the wood barrels give off.

■ Bodegas Viñátigo Travesía Juan Dana s/n, 38440 La Guancha (Tenerife), Islas Canarias (España) Phone number: (34) 922 828 768 Email: vinatigo@vinatigo.com Home page: www.vinatigo.com ● Capacity: 350,000 liters. ● Average production: 250,000 bottles/year. ● Exportation: Spanish Peninsula, United States, China, Belgium and Germany. ♠ Visits by appointment from 8am to 1pm and 3pm to 5pm (7 Euros). ♣ There is a shop and a tasting lounge. ♥ Activities: harvest for children.