The great Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) got it right when he lyricised about Fuerteventura as ‘this bony land… this red protrusion thirsting for water! Yet how beautiful it is! Yes, beautiful! But only for those seeking the innermost secrets of its shape.’

This ‘keeper of secrets’ is the second-largest island in the volcanic Canary Islands archipelago and was the first to begin rising from the ocean floor, about 20 million years ago. On the west coast at Ajuy, you can actually see the basal geological complex, which once lay just above the Earth’s mantle but has now risen to the surface.

Fuerteventura lies just southwest of Lanzarote. The closest landmass in the archipelago to the African continent, it’s blessed with year-round sunshine, more beaches than any other Canary Island (there are more than 150 of them) and – a lesser-known fact – it’s where the archipelago’s first grapevines were planted. Yes, the story of Canary Islands wine starts here.

Raw volcanic beauty

This rough guide to Fuerteventura is designed to help you appreciate the island’s stark beauty, its rugged coastline and its ancient history, along with the precious few winemakers and -growers working to revitalise its overexploited land – to show you the real island behind mass tourism’s plastic facade.

The basic route described here runs from Isla de Lobos in the north to Cofete in the south. To make the most of the guide, you’ll need a car and that rarest of gems, a designated driver.

Facing Isla de Lobos, Corralejo is the main port in the north and is a lively mix of bustling town and tourist destination. It has changed significantly in the last 10-15 years, with swathes of expats having moved there from sun-starved environs such as England and Ireland but, especially, Italy – such an influx that it has earned the nickname ‘Little Italy’.

It’s a great place to get your bearings and sample from the casual dining, tapas and seafood restaurants clustered around the harbour. For fantastic, no-fuss tapas and pinchos, and a laid-back vibe, try Gilda (@gildacorralejo) on Calle Delfín or, nearby, try lively La Pulperia on Calle Lepanto for lovely octopus tacos and a glass of house vermouth.

Small jewel

Corralejo’s expansive dunes are just 15 minutes’ walk or so from the town centre and offer a welcome escape from the hubbub – the perfect place for a sunset stroll, or to sit gazing over the water. In the near distance sits Montaña de La Caldera, the towering volcanic cone of your next destination: Isla de Lobos. This little islet between Fuerteventura and the southern coast of Lanzarote shouldn’t be missed. Ferries leave the port of Corralejo from around 9.45am for the 2km trip and return to the main island from the late morning to about 5.15pm, so you have the option to spend the full day exploring.

Plunge into the shimmering turquoise waters of the islet’s paradisal lagoons, relax in blissful isolation on its secluded beaches or take signposted hikes to observe the plants, birds, lizards and marine life of Lobos’ protected ecosystems.

Of lava and salt

By now a thirst for wine will no doubt have taken hold. Fortunately, from Corralejo it’s a 15-minute drive to the surfer town of Lajares – home to the most important winery on the island: Conatvs. The first wines released by owner Pedro Antonio Martín were from the 2015 vintage. A decade on, in May 2025, Conatvs (meaning ‘struggle’ or ‘effort’) marked a major milestone with the inauguration of a new, enotourist-ready winery, complete with wine bar and shop. Daily public tours in English last an hour and give you the chance to learn about Fuerteventura’s vinous history, tour the vineyard and stylish cellar – hewn from the lava terrain – and taste three of the estate’s wines, paired with local delicacies (from €35 per person).

Stirred by these sapid, saline wines, you then have the option of heading for the coast to El Cotillo, recently transformed from an anonymous fishing village to a vibrant surf destination. There you’ll find La Concha – the archetypal turquoise lagoon – if you’re still in a salty mood; if not, it’s time to head inland.

From hike to table

Driving south into the island’s more elevated interior, it’s just over 10 minutes from Lajares to the town of Villaverde, home to Hannelore von der Twer (hannelore@caminosano.eu). An always colourfully dressed German travel expert with a love of painter Frida Kahlo, Hannelore has lived on Fuerteventura since 1986. Now in her 70s, she knows more about the island than most natives. ‘Fuerteventura has soul – it’s not just sun, sand and sea,’ she says. ‘I like to show people what’s inside.’ Already respected for her pioneering work to promote responsible hiking on the island, two years ago she became its first unofficial enotourism ambassador.

Hannelore offers guided tours on as many as 28 hiking routes, which are to become part of an official Canary wine route programme. The established routes take in spectacular volcanoes and ravines, historic churches and other sites of interest, several now culminating with a visit to one of the island’s wineries, most of which are small-scale and otherwise not open to the public.

While in Villaverde, refuelling at Casa Marcos (@casamarcos2025) is highly recommended. New-generation Canary Island chef Dani Fajardo manages this rustic restaurant with aplomb. In this locally typical timber-roofed, lava-stone building, with lacquered old bushvine trunks for light fittings, choose from a bold menu created on a ‘zero-kilometre’ model. Dining outside on the terrace beside the kitchen garden is also an option, with the ochre tones of Montaña Escanfraga right in front of you.

To the root

Driving past La Oliva in the island’s centre-west, the next stop is one of the most beautiful towns in any Spanish territory. Founded by and named after the Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt, who arrived in the Canary Islands in 1402 and claimed them for Spain, Betancuria is a place whose historical importance far exceeds its modest size (it was the island’s capital from 1405 to 1834). Almost hidden within a rugged mountain landscape (its concealed position once served as a defence against pirate raids), Betancuria enchants with its quiet cobbled streets, traditional Canarian houses and the tolling bells of its 17th-century Iglesia de Santa Maria.

While here, be sure to visit the Museo Arqueológico (open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, entry free). Inaugurated in its present form in 2020 and packed with ancient exhibits, this is the place to learn about Fuerteventura’s indigenous civilisation, the Majos, a people who originated in the Berber territories of North Africa who ruled the island before Betancuria was established. Ancient Majo sites abound across the island and new ones are being uncovered all the time. The most important is Montaña de Tindaya in the island’s central northwest, with more than 300 podomorphs (foot-shaped rock carvings) around the summit attesting to its sacred significance.

Before you head south for the wild, windswept beaches and dunes of the Jandía peninsula, it’s worth a short stop in the island’s capital Puerto del Rosario, to dine at La Puipana. While most of the island’s restaurants are still in thrall to Rioja and Ribera, La Puipana is moving steadfastly against the grain. It’s another ‘zero- kilometre’ venue, with a smart, ingredient-led, Canaries-focused menu and a wine list that, improbably, is 90% Canarian wine.

Beaches and more: the emerging wine land of Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura is central to the history of Canary Island wine: the first grapevines to arrive in the archipelago from mainland Spain were planted in Betancuria in the island’s interior in the early 1400s.

The most important grape variety the European settlers brought was Listán Prieto. Other red varieties found on the island include Listán Negro (locally known as Hoja Moral), Tintilla and Baboso Negro.

White varieties include Malvasía Volcanica, Listán Blanco, Marmajuelo and Moscatel.

For wineries such as Conatvs and La Hubara, crisp, saline whites have the potential to become Fuerteventura’s signature style. Conatvs is also one of the wineries developing the red grape Majorera – a variety unique to Fuerteventura, discovered in 2016 by winemaker Alberto González.

Winemaking renaissance

It should be noted that, despite Fuerteventura’s seminal role in the viticultural history of the islands, there are just three wineries making wines under the Islas Canarias DO (Fuerteventura doesn’t have its own DO) – Conatvs in Lajares, Gavías El Sordo in Tetír and the newly minted Bodegas La Hubara in Toto – and only about 23 producing wine commercially across 26ha of vineyards.

‘It was in the 1950s that viticulture experienced a resurgence,’ notes respected local farmer and viticulturist turned winemaker Jacob Negrín of ARyGA. ‘The area that sustained the vineyards was the west-central part of the island – the Santa Inés valley and the plains of La Concepción. But long periods of drought and uncontrolled livestock grazing ended what could have been a prosperous future. Now, thankfully, it’s receiving a boost.’

Negrín makes a small amount of excellent natural wine from vines interplanted with organic vegetables in the rust-red volcanic soils of Casillas de Morales. He’s in the process of building a new bodega and hopes to be able to accommodate guests within the next 12 months.

As Negrín explains, water preservation is critical to Fuerteventura’s agricultural hopes. Crucial to any restoration is the island’s traditional farming system using gavias – fields with raised boundaries that help to capture the scant rainfall. The local association of wine-growers, Majuelo, is doing its best to educate its 120-plus members about the importance of such regenerative techniques.

One new project benefiting from this knowledge is Bodegas La Hubara in Toto. It now has 6,000 vines planted in gavias in a project started in 2021. Owner Guillermo Franquiz has built a new winery that will open to the public in spring 2026 – an important example of the green shoots emerging on Fuerteventura.

Spectacular scenery

From Toto it’s a short drive through the charming village of Pájara – stop for traditional Canary Island fare at the rural refuge of Casa Isaitas – and up through a majestic mountain landscape to the Mirador de Sicasumbre lookout. Drink in the spectacular scenery southwest towards the coastal town of La Pared and then watch the Atlantic shimmer into view as you descend. La Pared is also the name of the ancient wall that was built across the isthmus from Playa de La Pared to the tidal lagoon adjacent to Playa de Sotavento, remnants of which can still be seen. One theory goes that it originally separated the Majo territories of kings Guize and Ayoze.

Sotavento itself is a 9km-long beach of pale sand that’s definitely worth exploring. Helpfully, given its vastness, it’s split into sections. Playa de la Barca and Playa Risco del Paso are popular for kite- and windsurfers, while Mal Nombre, reachable on foot to the south at low tide, is good for a swim (check tide and conditions on the day), with calm turquoise water, gentle dunes and lava-stone windbreaks.

You’re now in full-on holiday resort territory, so tread with caution. Drive straight through Morro Jable – unless of course you’re dining at Salvaje, Marabú or El Pellizco. The original El Pellizco in Morro Jable was opened six years ago (there’s now also a bigger one in Costa Calma). Chef Rigoberto Almeida is Cuban and his food is a vibrant fusion of Cuban and Canarian influences. Local wines are offered by the glass or bottle.

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, when you leave Morro Jable, take a swerve right into Jandía natural park, signposted Cofete. It’s a 15-minute drive along an unpaved road with the occasional sheer drop, but the blissfully isolated 14km-long virgin beach at the end of it is worth the effort.

If you’re the kind of traveller who likes a challenge, who is prepared to dig a little deeper, giving the package-holiday crowd a wide berth, Fuerteventura is a place whose innermost secrets are just waiting to be discovered.

How to get there

Easyjet and Ryanair operate regular flights from most major UK airports. From Fuerteventura airport it’s a roughly 35-minute drive to Corralejo in the north and Betancuria in the centre, and about an hour to Jandía in the south.

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Grapevines are remarkably adaptable. They thrive on limestone, clay, chalk or gravel, and each soil type shapes a wine’s structure and flavour.

The chalk of Champagne, the terra rossa of Coonawarra, and the gravel of Bordeaux’s Left Bank have all become shorthand for regional identity.

Yet few soils capture the imagination like volcanic earth, which covers just 1% of the planet’s surface. Volcanic vineyards are among the rarest – and their wines among the most compelling.

The science beneath our feet

Volcanic soils are formed from cooled lava, pumice and ash. Unlike older sedimentary soils, they are geologically young and chemically active.

‘Volcanic soils are particularly distinctive in wine production,’ explains Michele Brusaferri, agronomist at Tenuta Tascante on Mount Etna.

‘They are rich in micro-elements such as sodium, potassium and magnesium, within a porous, draining structure that provides a balance of oxygen and humidity. The vines may struggle at first, but once the roots penetrate, they find everything they need for healthy growth.’

That struggle is crucial. On poor, stony volcanic soils, vines are forced to dig deep for water and nutrients. Yields are smaller, the berries more concentrated, and the resulting wines often display depth, intensity and an unmistakable mineral edge.

Tension on Tenerife

Jonatan García Lima of Suertes del Marqués, one of Tenerife’s leading producers, makes a key distinction: ‘I make a difference between acid volcanic soils and basic volcanic soils. In acid soils the wines are more mineral, higher in acidity and with greater tension, but they are also more reductive. Both types share salinity, which is also influenced by being on islands.

‘The vines adapt very well to volcanic soils as they are very rich and fertile, especially in areas with rain, mostly on the north face of the islands at high elevation – Tenerife, La Palma, Gran Canaria. For me, when I taste wines from Santorini, the Azores or the Canaries, the common factor is salinity and a feeling of purity.

‘On the Canary Islands, all vines remain ungrafted, which is something special. With centuries-old vineyards, continuous mutations and natural crossings, we have a viticultural heritage of more than five centuries – an inheritance for the world of wine.’

Elegance on Etna

Nowhere is volcanic viticulture more celebrated than on Sicily’s active volcano: Mount Etna. Vineyards here sit on a shifting mosaic of continuous lava flows, with more than 40 distinct soil types mapped across contrade, or single-vineyard districts.

‘The hallmark characteristics of wines from volcanic soils are freshness and, above all, minerality,’ says Brusaferri. ‘On Etna, Nerello Mascalese may appear pale in colour, but the wines have astonishing depth. They carry flinty, balsamic and even liquorice notes – aromas and textures clearly marked by the volcanic earth.’

Carlo Ferrini, renowned oenologist and founder of Alberelli di Giodo on Etna, emphasises the role of minerals: ‘The key feature of volcanic soils is their richness in minerals. The vines thrive here: their roots reach great depths without major obstacles, and the wines show an unmistakable minerality. These are wines that express themselves in length rather than width, with elegance as their ultimate goal.’

Survival on Santorini

Across the Mediterranean, Santorini’s vineyards grow on pumice and ash left by the Minoan eruption 3,600 years ago. Rainfall is minimal, and organic matter is almost absent, yet the porous pumice ‘aspa’ traps precious moisture, sustaining ungrafted vines that can be more than a century old.

‘The volcanic soil is crucial to the survival of our dry-farmed vineyards,’ says Stratos Guillame Xyrafis of Domaine Sigalas. ‘Combined with the sea fog that drifts in at night, the pumice allows the vines to endure extreme drought.’

The results are wines of remarkable purity. Assyrtiko from Santorini is renowned for its piercing acidity and saline edge. ‘It’s as if the volcanic character is etched into the wine itself,’ notes Yannis Valambous of Vassaltis Vineyards. ‘The struggle of the vine translates into concentration and purity, with tension and minerality you can taste a mile away.’

Why volcanic wines stand apart

So what makes volcanic wines special? It is partly science: mineral-rich, fast-draining soils that encourage deep roots and concentrated fruit. It is partly resilience: vines surviving heat, drought and wind on ungrafted rootstocks.

But most of all, it is sensory. Volcanic wines tend to be vivid rather than heavy, bursting with acidity, salinity and brightness. They capture, perhaps better than any other style, the drama of the landscapes from which they spring. Volcanic wines don’t just speak of place – they erupt from it.

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Phylloxera has been detected for the first time in the Canary Islands, with confirmed cases in two locations on Tenerife. The discovery has sent shockwaves through the archipelago’s wine community, where producers fear for their unique heritage of ungrafted old vines.

Own-rooted identity at risk

An emergency meeting was held in Tenerife on 8 August to devise a plan to isolate the affected sites, prevent further spread, and urge growers to monitor their vineyards closely.

Until now, the Canaries were considered one of the few viticultural regions in the world untouched by the pest, an insect that feeds on vine roots and leaves, causing fatal wounds to vitis vinifera plants. There is currently no cure or chemical control, neither are there mitigation measures for phylloxera.

The only possible response is grafting vitis vinifera plants on American rootstocks – phylloxera is native to eastern North America and American vine species developed natural defences to the pest – a practice that is now compulsory in most wine-producing countries. The majority of vines across the Canary Islands are planted on their own roots, making them particularly susceptible.

Producers believe the outbreak began when a local resident planted infected vines in their garden. The pest is thought to have spread from there to an abandoned vineyard in Valle de Guerra, where its presence was confirmed on 1 August. A second suspected case was reported last week in La Matanza de Acentejo, also in northern Tenerife.

With many abandoned vineyards across the island, there is concern that phylloxera could spread rapidly without swift action. ‘We are all very concerned, and hoping it is only a punctual case that can be contained,’ said Agustín García Farráis of Bodegas Tajinaste. ‘Almost all of our plantings are done by massal selection, and we have this strong heritage of taking vines from our neighbours. We could lose a huge part of our own-rooted viticultural heritage if not.’

The riskiest of times

Producers from all of the wine-growing islands attended last week’s meeting, and are now working together to establish protocols to contain and control the outbreak. The Association of Winegrowers and Winemakers of the Canary Islands (AVIBO) has already issued an emergency advisory to producers across the islands urging producers to immediately report any suspected cases and to avoid any potential contamination by disinfecting clothes, boots and tools, and not taking any leaves from the vineyards in the harvest bins. The harvest is already underway on the islands – marking the beginning of the most active – and risky – period of the year.

‘It is going to be a big challenge – perhaps the biggest of our careers – but we also have to take it as an opportunity,’ said Juan Jesús Méndez, the current president of DO Islas Canarias and the well-regarded winemaker and owner of Bodegas Viñátigo. ‘We need to have a clear mind, a defined focus and motivation to move together. I am motivated to face this challenge and protect these centenarian, pre-phylloxera vineyards that are such an essential part of our heritage.’

The next generation is equally determined to safeguard the islands’ viticultural legacy. ‘In the past 30 years we have had more than 60 invasive species arrive to the islands, we need to use this as a wake-up call to control everything entering from now,’ says Méndez’s son Jorge, winemaker at the family winery. ‘I am young and I want to continue working on this island for the rest of my life, so we can’t be negative about this and we have to look at it as an opportunity to professionalise the sector and work together.’

Important for tourism, the Canary Islands see a large volume of international traffic with between 16 and 18 million visitors each year. Producers plan to press the regional government for stricter regulations and controls to protect the archipelago’s 500-year-old wine heritage – before it is too late.

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Though the holiday island of Lanzarote seems an unlikely source for artisan wines made by hip and happening young winemakers, the island’s fast-developing wine scene is worthy of attention.

Lanzarote has produced wine since the Spanish conquistadors colonised this Atlantic outpost in the 15th century.

Scroll down for a selection of wines from Lanzarote

From the volcanic ashes

The industry all but disappeared as wines from Portugal and mainland Spain rose in popularity, but an ongoing renaissance is making the most of the island’s extraordinary volcanic landscape.

The Timanfaya National Park enthrals first time visitors to Lanzarote. Huge lava fields and miles of volcanic ash have laid undisturbed since a series of volcanic eruptions in the 1730s.

The eruptions carpeted one-third of the island, burying fertile ground beneath a pitch-black carapace where seemingly nothing lives or grows.

It is here that most of Lanzarote’s vineyards are located.

Ditches and deserts

This geology alone demands new thinking on vine cultivation, but there is an added problem: Lanzarote is also a desert, seeing just 150mls of rain per year.

The island’s unique solution is to plant each vine in its own shallow pit, known as a ‘hoyo’.

Digging out these hollows allows the roots to reach the subsoil through a layer of volcanic ash that can be up to three metres thick.

Above ground, low stone walls (‘abrigos‘) protect from the fierce trade winds. With as little as three hundred vines per hectare, this is low-yield viticulture in the extreme.

The winds, however, are also the secret weapon against drought. The combination of the hoyos and volcanic material captures enough of the moisture that is carried on the winds to sustain the vines without irrigation.

These conditions – isolated, dry, warm with constant breezes – mean little pressure from disease, and an estimated 95% of the island’s vineyards are farmed without chemical fungicides.

Volcanic character

These are very old vines too. Phylloxera never reached the islands, so Lanzarote boasts many ungrafted, 100-year-old vines.

Volcanic soils impart a particular mineral signature on the wines made from them, and ‘volcanic wine’ is very much in vogue.

Wines from Italy’s Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius are prime examples, but so too are those from many countries on the Pacific’s ‘Ring of Fire.’

Like the best of these, the volcanic wines of Lanzarote display an intriguing flinty, smoky and ozone-like character.

The Grape Varieties

Lanzarote is proud of its historic varieties and little else makes its way into bottles.

Malvasía Volcánica accounts for around 70% of all wine production. Distinct from other Malvasias, it is a cross between Malvasia (Malmsey) first brought to the island by the Greeks, and the local Marmajuelo.

Listán Negro has been grown in the Canary Islands since the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s and is embraced as a native grape.

It should not be confused with Listán Prieto, another Castilian grape that arrived at the same time and which went on to the Americas where it is known today as País in Chile, Criolla Chica in Argentina, and Mission in California.

Listán Blanco is less widely planted than Listán Negro, and is a synonym for Palomino of Jerez.

Diego mostly features as a blending component. Also known as Vijariego, it can add a green apple and herb bite to blends.

The Bodegas

El Grifo is one of Lanzarote’s big players. It is a real survivor having been in continuous production since 1775. On my first visit to Lanzarote over 30 years ago its wines were perfectly serviceable, but unexciting.

Today El Grifo has upped its game, spurred on by the excitement around new, small wineries making terroir-driven wines.

If visiting Lanzarote, you will find that bigger names like El Grifo, Bermejo and Vega de Yuco feature in supermarkets and on every restaurant list.

Make no mistake, they make good wines that are well worth exploring, but the greatest interest for the wine enthusiast lies in the new breed of artisan producers.

The Artisans: Five Lanzarote producers to know

Titerok-Akaet

The bodega launched in 2017, but with access to much older vines. Farmed organically, Marta Labanda and Juan Daniel Ramirez use minimal SO2 and central to their philosophy is the recovery and preservation of old vines.

Puro Rofe

Since 2017 this project has produced some of the most interesting wines on the island. Founder Rayco Fernandez sources grapes from local organic growers, but with a commitment to terroir-driven wines and sustainable farming.

All ferments are spontaneous, some in amphora, and wines are unfiltered, unfined and made with minimal sulphur.

Jable de TAO

Another new, terroir-driven producer since 2021, sourcing fruit from old vineyards. They are working steadfastly to research the island’s soils and micro-climates.

The wine tasted here, called Tenesar, is a perfect example. From vineyards of marine sand and volcanic ash just two kilometres from the coast, the saline note is unmissable.

Cohombrillo 4/24

Owner Eamon López O’Rourke gave up the unlikely job of captaining a tourist submarine to establish his bodega in 2021.

Focused on natural wines, his annual production is only around 5,000 bottles. Farming is organic, with no additives used in the winery.

Bodega Erupción

Also dating from 2021, third generation winegrower Amor Lopez farms sixteen plots across the island.

Working with ungrafted, 100-year-old vines, ferments are all spontaneous and her winemaking is ‘hands-off’.

Bodega David Fernandez

This is a brand new project from Lanzarote native David Fernandez. Aged only 29, the first wines are just appearing in the market.

He is based in the north of Lanzarote, as are some of his vineyards, which he is rehabilitating after years of neglect. All natural wines, he will release single parcel cuvées, with a focus on individual terroirs. Definitely wines to keep an eye out for.

The Wines

Few of these wines are available from UK retailers, but the Wine Shop Lanzarote exports to the UK.

If you are visiting the Playa Blanca area, the wine shop of Kamezi Boutique Villas has one of the island’s best selections from small producers.

Top wine picks from Lanzarote

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The fire started at the Lomo Redondo viewpoint at 1,225m in altitude, within the municipality of Arafo. During the investigation, authorities have found not only the origin but also suspect it was started intentionally as an act of arson.

While now controlled, the fire continues to burn over a month after it began.

To date, over 15,000ha of forest have burned across the Mount Teide peak of the island. The intensity and size of the fire was fuelled by strong winds, heat, and very low humidity. It has already been registered as the worst fire in the Canary Islands in the last 40 years and the worst in all of Spain for 2023.

While there have been no human fatalities, the damage to the wilderness and ecosystem at this altitude has been incalculable as this is a unique zone that, due to its altitude, allows specific vegetation and animal life that isn’t possible in the lower, tropical zones of Tenerife. These altitudes are also where a great many vineyards are cultivated.

Unlike the 2021 fires on the island of La Palma due to a volcanic eruption and which viticulturists are still working to recover from, this is a rather remote region in Tenerife that didn’t immediately threaten built-up areas, although more than 26,000 residents were told to evacuate as a precaution.

Those with vineyards in the area could do little more than watch at firefighters battled the blaze. Worry grew a great deal once the fire jumped the Cordillera Dorsal, a 25km ridge that bifurcates Tenerife and therefore allowed the fire to spread to the northern side of the island.

With five Denominations of Origin (DOs), Tenerife has the most on it within the Canary Islands and there are two that cover the region of the fire: Tacoronte-Acentejo and Valle de Güímar.

Administrators at Tacoronte-Acentejo told Decanter they’d thankfully been spared any damage from the fire as it had largely been contained to the far upper reaches of the Teide peak where no one has any vineyards.

For Valle de Güímar, it’s a somewhat different story. DO secretary, Oscar Rodríguez García, initially told Decanter that they had been waiting to get access to the affected areas.

Ultimately, they found that 2ha of vines had been burned. The owner is a viticulturist who sells the grapes to one of the larger producers on the island. Many other vineyard owners had extremely close calls given that the flames came within 50m of their vines. The vineyards were spared given that they have been found to be natural firebreaks.

While the level of loss given the scope and intensity of the fire may seem low, smoke from the fire drifted eastward, covering a great deal of the Valle de Güimar territory and when asked about possible smoke taint issues by Decanter, Rodríguez García confirmed that 64ha could potentially be affected and that they were carrying out analyses to understand the scope of the issues. Wineries in the neighbouring DO Valle de la Orotava have also commented that they are potentially concerned about the smoke and ash drift.

As has been seen around the world in recent years, smoke taint, more than the fires themselves, is often one of the long-lasting issues brought about by climate change-provoked wildfires.

In addition to the issues of burned vineyards and smoke taint, the fire, in combination with the extreme climactic conditions of 2023 in Spain, has advanced the harvest on Tenerife. Normally, it begins at the end of August or beginning of September, but this year saw harvest start at the end of July, which was accelerated considerably once the fire broke out in mid-August.

While the fire on Tenerife will undoubtedly be fully extinguished in the near future, it, along with countless other fires across the globe this year, such as those in Greece and Italy, is testament to a quickly-changing world.

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If you were to develop from scratch a prototype of a wine region designed to appeal to the world’s most influential and fashionable sommeliers, you might well come up with a blueprint that sounds something like a description of the Canary Islands.

Scroll down for a selection of 18 Canary Island wines to try

The list of elements in Europe’s most southerly winemaking region is just, in emoji speak, ‘chef’s kiss’. Volcanic soils. Ungrafted vines so old they pre-date, in many cases, the phylloxera plague that swept through Europe (but not the Canary Islands) from the late 19th century. An unusual collection of grape varieties that you cannot find, as a group, anywhere else in the world. Talented, natural-oriented winemakers obsessed with low-intervention winemaking in out-of-the-way, extreme places. A patchwork of topographies, altitudes (including some of the highest vineyards in Europe) and Atlantic-influenced microclimates allowing for a Burgundian level of minutely focused terroir expression. Some genuinely unique traditional viticultural practices still in use… I could go on.

Reputation transformation

All of which helps explain why there has been such a buzz around Canary Island wines in the trendier corners of the wine world over the past decade, a period during which its previous vinous reputation – as a purveyor of so-so wines aimed at the tourist trade on which the archipelago relies for its main source of income – has been completely transformed.

But that very distinctiveness also, perhaps, explains why Canary Island wines have yet to make the leap into anything approaching the mainstream. We are very far from the everyday, high-volume, supermarket Spain here.

There is no Tempranillo or Albariño, let alone Malbec or Sauvignon Blanc. The best of Canary Island wine, red and white, always has a touch of something wild about it, a mix of surging acidity and earthy-smoky and mineral notes. They are made in small quantities from very low-yielding old vines, from grape varieties with little to no consumer recognition: Listán Blanco (aka Palomino), Vijariego Blanco, Marmajuelo, Gual (Bual) and Malvasía for whites; Negramoll, Baboso Negro (Trousseau, Bastardo), Vijariego Negro (Catalonia’s Sumoll) and Listán Negro for reds. They tend to be low in alcohol and, while often compulsively drinkable, they’re never obvious or showily concentrated.

That this remains somewhat niche as a wine region was certainly apparent as I was putting together this list of 18 of my favourite Canary Island wines: there are still not as many available to buy in the UK (or USA) as I would like.

Imports – and my list – are dominated by the largest island, Tenerife, which with its five very varied DOs is both the biggest and the most dynamic producer, with a preponderance of its leading vignerons.

Make no mistake, though: these are some of Spain’s – the world’s – most exciting, most arrestingly different, not to say finest wines.

Tasting notes and scores for 18 Canary Island wines to try

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“Origen 1989” by Bodega el Lomo is a wine made from the certified parcel of, “Los Laureles”, a 12ha vineyard at 600m of altitude that holds centenary bush vines. It’s the first wine certified under this new system, having just arrived to market this month with others to come in the near future.

While the DO Islas Canarias covers the entire territory of these eight Spanish islands off the western coast of Africa, there are 10 other DOs that govern the wines of certain areas of the Canary Islands. Five DOs alone completely cover the individual islands of: El Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote. The island of Fuerteventura next to Lanzarote doesn’t have its own DO and while Tenerife has five within the island, there isn’t a single one that’s for the island as a whole but only of parts of it.

DO Islas Canarias in contrast is an umbrella DO that is relatively new, having been created in 2012, but it’s become rather important as it allows a “subzone” indication for the islands of Tenerife and Fuerteventura thus giving them a renewed identity. Additionally, they’ve also established a “Vino de Municipio” level to showcase wines produced from a single town or village area.

Aarón Alonso, a member of the technical team of the DO Islas Canarias, told Decanter: ‘We’ve been working on the various aspects of the new pliego for a year and a half prior to its introduction. It was very important to make these changes and allow for more flexibility within the DO. We needed it to become a foundation for the identity of wine in the islands.’

In talking with Francisco Borja de Mesa, the director of Bodega el Lomo, he told Decanter that the changes are crucial both from the global perspective for the visibility of Canary Islands wine all the way down to the individual vineyards.

‘All these changes are quite important but it’s the introduction of cross-production between islands that’s going to really benefit the viticulturists. Previously those with vineyards in more far-flung islands had difficulties finding places to sell their grapes if they didn’t want to or couldn’t start up a winery of their own.’ he said.

‘This was a big problem as they would then usually tear out vines to plant avocados or other non-grape crops and so countless hectares of vineyards have been lost this way. But now we can make wines from these grapes anywhere in the islands while still stating their point of origin from the islands, at a DO level, and give new value to our heritage vineyards and thus protect them from disappearing.’

There are over 200 wineries in the Canary Islands making wines from vineyards that are actually at the highest altitudes in all of Spain, due to the sharp ascent of the volcanoes at the core of each island. Mount Teide at the centre of Tenerife is in fact Spain’s tallest mountain at 3,715m with vines grown up to 1,700m. Producers are rightly excited about being able to showcase their individual vineyards as while they’ve been doing this in an unofficial capacity for years, the new legislation allows a legal certification to establish their most unique sites on the labels.

Thanks to the work of producers such el Lomo and many others as well as the backing of a stronger, more viticulture-driven legislation from the DO, it’s now allowing the Canary Island wines to be seen by more than just those who pass a European winter on their shores.

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Surreal is a word you sometimes see used to describe the vineyards of the Canary Islands. And it’s true there’s something uncanny, almost nightmarish about, say, a vineyard trained with the traditional cordon trenzado method in El Valle de la Orotava on the archipelago’s largest island of Tenerife.

Arranged horizontally just inches above the ground, the gnarled, plaited vines, many of them well over a century old, some as much as 200 years old, seem to slither around the vineyards like entwined wooden snakes, stretching as far as 15m from the mother trunk – a sight made all the more eerie when shrouded in the mist that is such a frequent feature of this sub-tropical climate.

No less peculiar, surprising and dreamlike are the vineyards of Lanzarote, which call to mind some imagined post-apocalyptic experiment to make wine on the moon. Here the vines are dug into the thick layer of pícon volcanic ash that covers the island, each bush vine protected from the winds that blow in off the Atlantic by being planted in pits (hoyos) surrounded by low semi-circular stone walls (abrigos or overcoats).

So yes, surreal, but very far from irrational. The vineyards look like they do because they’ve been adapted to the very specific challenges of their surroundings by generations of ingenious wine growers. That their radical difference comes as a shock to those of us weaned on the conventions of modern mainland European viticulture is largely due to the fact that the Canary Islands have been away from the vinous mainstream for so long.

That’s not surprising. Strictly – geographically – speaking, the seven islands that collectively form Europe’s most southerly wine region are part of Africa: clustered, at 28° latitude, on the southern border of the Northern Hemisphere’s traditional band of winemaking possibility, with the southwestern Moroccan Atlantic coast just 96km from the southeastern coast of Fuerteventura. Culturally and politically, however, this is Spain of course, and has been since the islands were colonised and settled in the late 15th century.

Canaries and Balearics Literary past

With the Spaniards and Portuguese (who gave up their claim on the Canaries in exchange for the Spanish leaving Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde to them) came the vine, and the islands’ first brush with vinous fame. Canary Island wines, thanks in no small part to the islands’ ideal position on transatlantic trade routes, were much coveted in Elizabethan England. References to ‘canary sack’ abound in Shakespeare plays – from ‘a cup of canary’ in Twelfth Night to the ‘marvelous searching wine’ that ‘perfumes the blood’ in Henry IV Part II. Later, Thomas Jefferson is said to have asked for a Canary Island wine to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

By the 20th century, however, Canary Island wines had dwindled into a largely parochial concern. It’s striking that, in the most recent edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine, the brief entry on the Canary Islands (written by respected Spanish wine expert Victor de la Serna) describes how ‘mediocre wines for the tourist trade are being replaced by much more interesting products’.

Holidaymakers aside, for most wine drinkers outside the islands, even those ‘mediocre’ wines were a mystery. It’s really only in the past decade that the Canary Islands have begun to make any sort of mark on the modern international wine scene. But it’s the islands’ very isolation that has made that renaissance possible – and so exciting.

It was the archipelago’s remote geographical position, after all, that meant the Canaries avoided the phylloxera plague that swept through Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. That in turn meant there was no need to apply the cure: rather than replacing vineyards ravaged by the louse with plants grafted on to American rootstocks, Canary Islanders have been able to keep vines on their own rootstocks (pie franco).

The absence of phylloxera also accounts for the remarkable age of many Canary Island vines, and for the islands’ defiantly eccentric portfolio of grape varieties.

Local variety

On the white side, Malvasia was historically considered the most important, the ingredient of the sweet sack that made the archipelago’s name (although recent evidence suggests the wines may well have been blends). It is still widely planted, notably on both La Palma and Lanzarote, producing both dry wines in an array of styles and quality, and sweet wines that reference the old days (and occasionally hit a tangy-lusicious sweet spot). Malvasia is joined by Listán Blanco (the local name for sherry country’s Palomino Fino), and Vijariego Blanco (once common in Andalucia, now confined to the Canaries, and to Tenerife and El Hierro in particular); as well as Marmajuelo and Gual (the local name for Madeira’s Bual) among others.

For reds, another Madeiran favourite, Tinta Negra Mole (known in the Canaries as Negramoll), the Portuguese variety Alfrocheiro and Jura’s Trousseau (going by the local synonyms Baboso Negro and Tintilla, respectively) are joined by Vijariego Negro (Catalonia’s Sumoll) and the solo star or main player in many of the Canaries’ most critically acclaimed reds: Listán Negro.

With Canary Island wines it’s not so much the grape varieties themselves as the way they interact with the archipelago’s unique conditions that, literally, gets the mouth watering. Broadly speaking, the climate is sub-tropical, with the fierce heat of Saharan Africa moderated by the cooling effects of Atlantic trade winds, leading to warm summers and mild winters.

However, there are many different microclimates on each island. On the largest island of Tenerife alone you can find enormous variations defined by the varying altitudes and expositions on the slopes of El Teide, an active volcano that, at 3,718m above sea level, is Spain’s highest peak. These differences are reflected in Tenerife’s five DOs (from the dry, southern Abona, with plantings touching 1,500m above sea level, the highest in Europe, to the more humid Ycoden-Daute-Isora, on the island’s northwest side).

There is corresponding variety in the wine style, too, although at this stage in the Canary Islands’ evolution it isn’t always easy to say how much is down to terroir and how much to individual winemaking philosophies. In general, however, Canary Island wines are categorised by a wildness of flavour that shouldn’t be confused with rusticity: a mix of electric acidity and saltiness, and a lightness of alcohol that makes them very refreshing, and very of the moment.

While they’re entirely their own thing, as a frame of reference, the reds often have something of Etna’s Nerello Mascalese about them: a kind of Pinot Noir-like grace and red-fruited suppleness charged with peppery spice, earth and iron-like minerals. Meanwhile in their mix of intensity, tang and zip, the white wines are how I imagine unfortified Madeira would taste. Not everything – not nearly enough, in fact – reaches the UK. But these deliciously idiosyncratic wines are worth getting to know when you find them.

Balearic beat

If the Canary Islands’ modern-traditional wines are a true expression of volcanic, Atlantic terroir, then Spain’s other great renaissance island wines, from the Balearics, are all about the flavours and charms of the Mediterranean.

When we say Balearics – and certainly when we’re talking about wines available in the UK and US – we really mean one island. Although there is a small but growing and increasingly interesting scene on Menorca, and a sprinkling of ventures on Ibiza and Formentera, the heart of the action in the archipelago that begins 96km east of Spain, is in Mallorca. With around 2,500ha of vineyards it is home to the Balearic Islands’ two officially recognised DOs, Binissalem and Pla i Llevant, as well as two regional wine designations and some 70 producers.

Wine arrived in Mallorca with the Romans, but like the Canary Islands, it was as a producer of Malvasia sack in the 16th century that it first came to fame. Unlike the Canaries, however, the vineyards of Mallorca fell victim to phylloxera, which came to the Balearics in 1891, and which, by the time it finished its work, had destroyed the local wine industry.

The recovery was slow to come. Farmers quit the wine business in favour of other forms of agriculture (almond trees being a particularly popular choice), and where vines were replanted, often with a co-planted, intermingling mix of varieties both red and white, it was strictly for local consumption. By the 1980s, however, a handful of growers had started taking production more seriously, sprucing up cellars with modern equipment and planting vines. And by 1990, Binissalem, in the centre of the island, had become Spain’s first island wine DO. Now interest in Mallorcan wine became more than a mere tourist-inspired curiosity.

As with so many other (re-)developing Spanish – and, indeed, southern European – wine regions, international grape varieties played a major role in the late 20th-century expansion of the Mallorcan vineyard. Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are all found in varying quantities around the island, as well as Tempranillo, known by its Catalan synonym (islanders speak a dialect of Catalan) Ull de Llebre, Monastrell (aka Mourvèdre) and the Cava grapes Macabeu and Parellada. But it is the local grape varieties – vinified separately or as part of a blend – that produce the most distinctive wines.

For reds, there are three that stand out: Manto Negro, which on its own produces a light, juicy, succulent style for relatively early drinking; Fogoneu, with its distinctive freshness and low pH; and Callet, a dark-skinned grape with an intriguing spiciness. For whites, the dominant – most widely planted – local is Moll, or Prensal Blanc, which on its own produces Verdicchio-esque wines of crisp briskness with an almondy twist, and which has the natural acidity to serve as a base for some of the island’s Cava-like sparkling wines.

Most wineries are still using those native grapes in blends that include both local and international varieties. But, as with the wines of the Canaries, it’s the island climate rather than the varieties per se that makes Mallorcan wines such an engaging proposition. The influence of the sea, with a consistent sea breeze that reaches far inland, has a distinctly moderating, cooling effect. The wines are consequently much lighter than their mainland Mediterranean peers – the Bordeaux varieties do very well here, with little in the way of excess jamminess – with a distinctive twist of salt-edged freshness that gives life and drinkability from everything to fish-partnering blanc de noir whites to the meatiest of red blends.

The Canaries and Balearics Wines

See Tom Cannavan's top six Suertes del Marqués wines - from an up and coming producer in Spain's Tenerife.

Suertes del Marqués with it’s ancient island vineyards and organically farmed indigenous grapes is fast becoming known as one of the most exciting wineries in Tenerife and Spain.

Located in the valley of La Orotava, on the slopes of Tenerife’s volcano El Teide, Suertes del Marqués was founded in 2006 by owner Jonatan Garçia Lima. The estate is based on a patchwork of ancient vineyards, and many of Suertes del Marqués’ plots are more than 100 years old.

The winery uses organic farming techniques and only indigenous grapes. Here Tom Cannavan picks his top six Suertes del Marqués wines to try.

• Read more: a producer profile of Suertes del Marqués

Tenerife is not just a sun-seeker's paradise, says Tom Cannavan, who pays a visit to one of the island's wine producers earning plaudits for its distinctive, indigenous mineral wines from volcanic soils.

Suertes del Marqués, with it’s ancient Tenerife island vineyards and organically farmed, indigenous grapes, has a fast growing reputation.

Situated off the north African coast, Tenerife is the largest of the Canary islands and from all around the coast you cannot miss the massive volcano of El Teide.

At the centre of Tenerife, it is the highest mountain in Spain and one of the world’s largest volcanic structures. Snow-capped Teide breathes life into the island’s wine industry, protecting the south from Atlantic squalls, while the cooler north benefits from higher rainfall.

It is here, in the green valley of La Orotava, that Suertes del Marqués is based. Their vineyards climb the lower slopes of El Teide between 350m and 700m above sea level. Soils vary, with sand and clay in deep patches, but always as a topsoil to Teide’s volcanic base.

Owner Jonatan Garçia Lima and his family founded Suertes del Marqués as recently as 2006, though the estate is based on a patchwork of truly ancient vineyards that they have acquired piece by piece over the years.

Island identity

This is glorious country for growing vines: the narrow ribbon of vineyards, strewn with spring flowers, snakes up the mountainside. The old vines, with trunks as thick as many trees, are twisted into some highly unusual training systems. Vines are unirrigated and are not planted on rootstocks – phylloxera never reached Tenerife – and many of Suertes del Marqués’ plots are more than 100 years old.

Listán Negro is the main red variety (a genetic match for the Mission grape of North America) and its partner Listán Blanco is the mainstay white grape, otherwise known as Palomino, which is used in Jerez for sherry production. Los Pasitos is a cuvée made from the ancient Baboso Negro variety, known as Bastardo in Portugal.

Other estates on the island have embraced a new quality culture too, but it is Suertes del Marqués that has set the pace, especially since bringing young winemaker Roberto Santana on board.

• SEE: Tom Cannavan picks his top six Suertes del Marqués wines

After a spell making the wines for Casa Castillo in Jumilla, he joined Suertes del Marqués in 2008, where he has introduced low-intervention, organic winemaking practices and a relentless focus on the individual character of its 21 tiny vineyard plots.

Santana pursues a strictly hands-off philosophy, flirting with natural wine ideologies and following some biodynamic practices. Minimal sulphur dioxide is used, only indigenous yeasts are employed, and the wines are never filtered or fined. The naturally low yields created by these old vines, climate and soils are celebrated, and across the Suertes del Marqués range the wines capture the freshness and agility that mark so many of the most exciting contemporary fine wines.

Minimal intervention

Having begun with stainless steel tanks and all new oak barrels, Santana now scoffs at the notion. He pours Blanco Barrica, an older white, fermented and aged in 100% new wood, alongside its new incarnation – a very lightly oaked wine renamed Trenzado after the ancient training system in which vines are literally braided together. Stainless steel has largely been replaced by concrete tanks – ‘the same as at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Pétrus’, Santana reminds me – and for the minimal amount of new oak now used, 500-litre barrels are coopered in Burgundy to an exacting specification.

There is no set winemaking recipe for the various cuvées in the Suertes del Marqués portfolio. Some wines are whole-bunch fermented at cold temperatures, some at much warmer temperatures, and there is skin contact for the whites. ‘I am not making Coca-Cola,’ emphasises Santana. ‘I need to find the different personalities not only of the soils, but also of the vintage, and of the people who work the vineyard.’

And the wines? Santana prefers not to disturb them once in barrel, so there is no racking or lees stirring. While most show a touch of reduction on pouring, they quickly open up in the glass. But forget any notion of orange wines or cloudy reds: these wines are as natural as you like, but they are crystal clear and pristine. The volcanic soils give spice and peppery minerality.

Both Santana and Jonatan Garçia Lima were born and raised on Tenerife, and their pride is obvious in having nurtured these old vines into producing such exciting and beautiful wines. While this Spanish holiday island may be a surprising source of such aesthetically pure, quality-driven bottlings, Suertes del Marqués is just one of many other pockets of fanatical expertise across the world that are creating distinctive, intellectual wines of real natural charm. They are part of an ever-more intricate global network of winemakers who combine a new vision with an undying respect for tradition.

• Find out more about Spanish wine with tastings, region guides and more.