The 2012 El Nispero Albillo is produced from Albillo Criollo grapes (there’s great confusion with Albillo grapes; albillo comes from alba, which means white, so you can imagine the name might have been used in different places to refer to completely different white grapes-as is the case!). The grapes are destemmed, fermented with their wild yeast and kept in contact with the lees for three months. Very pale-colored, and a touch tropical on the nose, it offers notes of lemon and honey, ripe pear and white peach. The palate is quite intense, very dry and round, with good acidity and a slightly bittersweet finish. Drink now to-2015. La Palma is a small island called La Isla Bonita (yes, Madonna was referring to it!). The appellation was only created in 1994 and there is a traditional style called vino de tea, aged in barriques made of a local pine variety called tea, with a strong pine/resin aroma and taste, not so unlike the retsinas from Greece. Legend is, as in Greece, that some very small, non-commercial wineries produce outstanding examples of the category. But most of us have yet to taste any. I hear Eufrosina has one, created at the end of the 1990s to make and bottle wines from the local varieties following her father’s tradition to make and sell bulk wine. She owns her own vineyards planted with white Listan and Albillo and reds Negramoll Prieto, Tintilla, Castellana, Vijariego and Almuneco. She was the first to market and make some noise with an Albillo from La Palma. No known American importer.

Even if the imprint of the barrel is quite strong I slightly favored the 2011 El Nispero Albillo Barrica which is sourced from a 50-year-old small plot grown at a very high altitude, fermented in 500-liter French barrels and kept in contact with its lees for six months. The wine shows a golden color with plenty of notes of smoke, vanilla, a little lactic and finally some baked apples. The palate is round, dense, and velvety, with clean flavors of orange rind, gun-flint, and ripe apple. Give it a little time to better integrate the oak. Drink 2014-2016. La Palma is a small island called La Isla Bonita (yes, Madonna was referring to it!). The appellation was only created in 1994 and there is a traditional style called vino de tea, aged in barriques made of a local pine variety called tea, with a strong pine/resin aroma and taste, not so unlike the retsinas from Greece. Legend is, as in Greece, that some very small, non-commercial wineries produce outstanding examples of the category. But most of us have yet to taste any. I hear Eufrosina has one, created at the end of the 1990s to make and bottle wines from the local varieties following her father’s tradition to make and sell bulk wine. She owns her own vineyards planted with white Listan and Albillo and reds Negramoll Prieto, Tintilla, Castellana, Vijariego and Almuneco. She was the first to market and make some noise with an Albillo from La Palma. No known American importer.