2023 Bodegas Los Bermejos, Blanco, Diego Ecológico, D.O. Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.
It was great to catch up with the latest Bermejos wines, especially this mineral driven and zesty Diego Blanco, which is a unique volcanic influenced wine that is easy to love and a great alternative to the crowds of generic Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio wines, it is a super Summer sipper and excellent with lighter seafoods. This wine, made from organic 100% Diego, a native grape to Lanzarote and La Palma, is high-acid varietal that has a slight bitter almond and loads of mineral character Bright and steely in the glass, this Bermejos, with its traditional carafe style bottle, is a fun citrusy lighter framed stony and spicy white wine with lemon/lime, tart peach, quince and green apple fruits, along with mineral, saline, faint florals, green leafy herbs and verbena. As mentioned in prior reviews, the Bodegas Los Bermejos, in the Canary Islands is one of the most interesting estates of this volcanic islands range, run by winemaker Ignacio Valdera, is located on the easternmost island of Lanzarote, that is just 125km from the African coast. This is one of the most extreme vineyard locations on the planet with vines fighting to survive by digging through lava rock in pits to keep the harsh Atlantic winds from ripping the canopy apart, but through all this Ignacio still hand crafts, as noted, an amazing set of wines. Interestingly, Diego, also known as Vigiriega, is a Spanish white wine grape almost only found in the Canary Islands, though was popular pre-phylloxera near Granada and was grown throughout the Andalusia region of Spain and was probably brought to the islands by the Missionaries, and Spanish explorers in the 1500 or 1600s to supply the ships going to the new world.
Based on the island of Lanzarote, Bodegas Los Bermejos is an old school winery making some of the Canary Islands most authentic wines that pay tribute to their history, traditions and extreme terroir, but never take themselves to seriously, even though this wines are remarkably delicious offerings. All of Los Bermejos’ vines are set in the crust of petrified lava and ash that runs 3-5 meters deep from an ancient eruption and six year lava flow that created these wild landscapes and each vine is individually hand tended using organic and sustainable practices without irrigation, making for tiny yields and excellent concentration of flavors in the wines, which include this quaffable crisply dry white and a carbonic red, made from Listan Negro, one of the original Mission grapes, as well as one of coolest Methode Champenoise sparkling wines in the world. The Canaries have been getting a lot of love in recent years, with serious stars of the Islands, like Envinate, this Los Bermejos, as well as Crater, Suertes del Marques and Fronton de Oro are all wines to try and discover. This Diego Blanco was all stainless steel fermented and aged, with just about three months of lees contact and was bottled quickly to preserve freshness, as well as promoting transparency in the finished wine, it is a wine meant to be enjoyed in its expressive youth, making it great for pool or beach side meals. I highly recommend checking out how these Bermejo vines grow and are set in the black lava, it is truly breathtaking in the moon like rocky landscape. I have enjoyed Bermejo for many years and usually drink their Malvasia Blanco, but I was thrilled with this Diego bottling, which I hope to have more of in the coming warm months. Bodegas Los Bermejos or Bermejo, is really an exciting estate, for all the reasons mentioned here, and worthy of chasing down, in particularly for the wine lovers that are looking for rare and adventurous things.
($30 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive