Listán Blanco

Listán Blanco is the white grape that half the Canary Islands plant, the very same variety Andalusia calls Palomino, the one behind the finos and manzanillas of Jerez. Out here, though, it’s a different animal: ungrafted, phylloxera-free, growing on volcanic soils and often on century-old vines that vanished from mainland Europe more than a hundred years ago.

It gives fresh, saline whites, with that volcanic-stone minerality you don’t learn, you inherit it from the ground. In the Valle de Güímar, up in northern Tenerife or in La Orotava, each one turns out different depending on altitude and the hand behind it. That it’s the same grape as sherry is no small coincidence: when someone ages it in an old manzanilla cask, the family resemblance shows up all on its own.