Atlante

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Country of Origin: Spain
Location: La Orotava, Tenerife
People: Jesús González de Chávez, Owner & Winemaker

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The Canary Islands may be a new wine region for many classic wine lovers, but it is a magical one, and there is nowhere better to start your journey than with the wines made by Jesús González de Chávez.

Jesús Gonzalez comes from a long line of winegrowers and agriculturalists in Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, and for years his family sold grapes and made bulk wines from their handful of hectares. Feeling that the fruit from these ancient, ungrafted vines deserved a better fate, Jesús founded Atlante in 2013, setting out to produce wines of minimal intervention and maximal expressiveness—wines which reveal the true uniqueness and power of his homeland’s terroir.

Atlante takes its name both from the nearby Atlantic whose influence deeply marks the wines, and from Atlantis, that mythic submerged lost continent whose highest peaks, some believe, make up the Canary Islands themselves. At 3,700 meters altitude, the archipelago’s highest point Mount Teide lies just 14 kilometers from Atlante’s vineyards.

Jesús has 3 hectares planted to Listán Blanco (known as Palomino Fino on the mainland) and Listán Negro, as well as numerous other lesser-known varieties. The vines are staggeringly old overall, with many exceeding 150 years of age, all ungrafted and planted in the heavily volcanic soils of the Valle de la Orotava. Tenerife possesses a distinctive training system known as cordon trenzado (braided cord) wherein numerous branches are intertwined in braid-like fashion and allowed to grow to great lengths. This prevents the need for potentially disruptive deep cuts during pruning, giving the vines a better chance of survival and improved productivity for years to come. Over 80% of Jesús’ vines are trained in such a way.

In the cellar, Jesús favors a light touch, informed by his ancestors. Fermentation is spontaneous and without temperature stabilization. The red wines are partly foot-trod and fermented in shallow cement vats to offer more surface area for the skin maceration. Pressing takes place in a traditional vertical wooden basket press, and the wines age in used 600-liter casks before being bottled without fining or filtration of any kind.