Alfonso Torrente, José Ángel Martínez, Laura Ramos, and Roberto Santana met while studying oenology in Alicante and discovered they shared a similar vision of wine. The result of their passion is Envínate, a project that combines wine consultancy with their own wines produced in the same regions where they provide advice, often using the facilities of their client wineries.
However, the most remarkable aspect of their work is that they have become the spearhead of a new way of winemaking in Spain. They are strong advocates of fresh and Atlantic-style wines that showcase the terroir and local grape varieties. It’s no surprise that their most important projects are located in (Canary Islands) and Ribeira Sacra (Galicia).
Roberto Santana is originally from the Canary Islands. The Envínate project in this area began in Taganan, within the Anaga region, in the northeast corner of the island. They work with very old vineyards that contain a wide variety of mixed grape varieties under the Táganan label, which revives the ancient name of the area. They produce two entry-level wines, a white and a red (with approximately 6,000 bottles for the white and 4,000 bottles for the red). They also produce wines from extreme and centenary vineyards worked by the viticulturist José Ángel Alonso, such as Parcela Amogoje (white) and Parcela Margalagua (red), with productions below 1,000 bottles. The wild character of the Canary vineyard (forest, damp soil, wild fruit) is very present in all of them; they are fresh wines, not highly structured but deep and persistent, marked by volcanic soils.
Since 2016, they have been working in the former regional winery of Santiago del Teide, an area located 1,000 meters above sea level in the northwest of the island, where there are no longer any wineries. What remains are bush-trained vineyards, many of which are 60-120 years old, with grape varieties such as Listán Prieto, Listán Blanco, and Tintilla. There, they work with various local viticulturists and produce a red wine called Benje (named after the Guanche word for the nearby crater next to Teide), and since the 2016 harvest, also Benje Blanco. Both wines reflect the continental climate of the area, with low humidity and abundant sunshine, much more akin to the Castilian region than Taganan.
They are currently collaborating with three viticulturists in La Orotava, a valley descending on the northern slopes of Teide, halfway between Taganan in the east and Santiago del Teide in the west. From there, they will produce a white wine from a plot they own in La Piñera, a shaded and cool area that yields vertical wines, as well as a red wine made from Cordón Trenzado-trained Listán Negro grapes, the traditional training system of the region. This red wine combines two plots: the fruitiness of San Antonio and the minerality of La Habanera.
Alfonso Torrente contributes to the Galician side of the project. The Envínate project in Galicia focuses on Ribeira Sacra, a region with extreme terrain and vineyards on terraces that slope down towards the Miño and Sil rivers. Under the brand Lousas (Envinate Ribeira Sacra Lousas Viñas De Aldea 2021) using grapes from 12 different plots spread across the subzones of Amandi, Ribeiras do Sil, and Bibei. They also have two labels for specific vineyards located in Amandi: Parcela Seoane and Parcela Camiño Novo (producing less than 1,000 bottles). The main grape variety used is Mencía, but there may be small percentages of Merenzao, Garnacha Tintorera, and others. Camiño Novo, for example, contains around 10% Tintorera in addition to Mencía. The style of their wines is juicy and fresh, with spicy and herbal notes, clean and persistent on the palate. Starting from the 2017 vintage, Envínate’s wines in this Galician region are outside the Designation of Origin (DO) classification.
Lousa (Lousa is the name for the slate soil that predominates in the Ribeira do Sil and Amandi subzones of the Ribeira Sacra region). The slate serves a great purpose, heating up during the daytime sun to help the grapes ripen, as well as imparting the minerality and intensely floral and spicy aromatics that are the trademarks of the Ribeira Sacra region’s wines. Aldea means “village” in the Galician dialect. In addition to focusing on single parcel wines, Envínate produces village wines in each region where they work.
In Extremadura, where they are in charge of the winemaking at Palacio Quemado, they produce T. Amarela Parcela Valdemedel from Trincadeira Prieta, a grape variety they consider perfectly adapted to the region’s climate. They achieve a juicy wine with floral and vegetal touches, deviating from the typically warm character of Extremaduran wines.
Considering that Laura is from Murcia and José Ángel is from Albacete, it’s not surprising that their latest project is located in the southeastern region of Spain, in Almansa (Albacete, to be precise). There, they produce a blend of Garnacha Tintorera and Moravia grapes, creating a fresh and highly enjoyable wine called Albahra (with 13,000 bottles produced).
The philosophy of Envínate focuses on working with unique vineyards and adapting their winemaking process to the characteristics of each vintage, which determines, for example, whether or not to use stems (and in what quantities) during fermentation. They use native yeasts and work in a reductive environment without racking after malolactic fermentation, protecting the wine with carbon dioxide. As a result, their wines may appear reduced when first opened and benefit from generous aeration. For aging, they use barrels ranging from 228 to 600 liters, aiming to minimize the evident influence of wood. Sulfur dioxide is only used prior to bottling.