Bodegas Hermanos Mesa

Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, is one of the most dynamic locations in the wine world. Although wine production here dates back to the 1500s, over the last few years, it has seen a new generation of producers dedicated to preserving the unique viticultural heritage of this volcanic island and sharing these ultra-delicious wines with the rest of the world. Producers like Envínate and Suertes del Marques have emerged as international stars with prices and rarity to match.

Bodegas Hermanos Mesa might just be the next big thing from the Canaries. The wines are detailed, tense and beautifully mineral, but without the over-the-top reduction that some of the most famous Canary wines can exhibit. Better yet, they are available in decent quantities and with super friendly prices, especially with today’s newsletter only discount.

Bodegas Hermanos Mesa is a family estate founded by José Mesa right after the end of WWII, in his home village of Arafo on Tenerife's eastern coast. Back then, there wasn’t an export market for wines from Tenerife and the entire production was consumed locally.

Today, José’s grandchildren, Fernando, Tomas and Carmen are working with the very same parcels (now 70-80 years old) and are eager to share their terror with the rest of the world. The style of the wines is bright, crisp and lifted with careful use of stainless steel and oak barrels. The wines feel deeply rooted in the volcanic Tenerife terroir but never weighed down by overly earthy flavors.

What importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant has to say about this wine...

“Pelados” means “bare”—a reference to the Valle de Güímar’s dramatic, poor-soiled, rocky landscape—and this bottling comes from two parcels of 70-to-80-year-old Listán Blanco totaling 1.2 hectares, planted at a staggering 1300 meters above sea level and exposed southwestward. Vinified and aged for nine months in two-thirds used 500-liter French oak barrels and one-third stainless steel, “Los Pelados” offers a salinity more intense and visceral than “Locartas”, with fruit simultaneously exotic and crunchy. Though mouth-filling, it possesses a tautness that keeps it brisk, and in keeping with the best examples of Listán Blanco it is a tautness articulated through mineral clench rather than through overt acidity.