Frontón de Oro Tinto Tradicional Gran Canaria 2022

The Tinto Traditional bottling from Frontón de Oro is a volcanic, salty and snappy red wine made from Listan Negra and grown in some of the harshest conditions for vines anywhere. The wine delivers a lovely bouquet of bitter cherry, pepper, volcanic soil tones, tree bark and a lovely array of sweet botanicals in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, elegant and nicely transparent, with a good core of raspberry, strawberry, black tea, lavender and a touch of smoke, with tangy acids, modest tannins and a long, complex and beautifully balanced finish. Fine juice that could improve with a handful of years in the cellar.

Made from 100% estate-grown Listán Negro, the grapes are de-stemmed and cold-soaked for 24 hours before pressing. Vinification in stainless steel tanks, after which the wines are moved to mostly used American oak barrels (about one out of eight new) and aged for three months.

The brothers Ramirez, Pedro and Antonio, have been running Fronton de Oro since the early 2000’s. Their estate on the hills of La Lechuza, a small town on the island of Gran Canaria, was created by their dad in the 1970s. D. Antonio Ramirez had first envisioned a whole farm on the land and planted vegetables as well as vines. Today the brothers mainly focus on cultivating the local varietals, Listan Negro, Listen Prieto, Negramoll, Maramajuelo and Tintilla (also know as Trousseau), all in very poor volcanic/clay soils. Their vineyards are planted on some of the highest-elevation sites in Gran Canaria - many above 3,000 feet - and in many cases on terraced slopes, although some are cultivated wildly and untrained.

The name of the estate, Fronton de Oro, refers to a huge rock that shines with sunlight (the one that adorns their label) known locally as El Frontón. The reflected sunglight is said to warm the vines in the cold, high-elevation air. Fronton de Oro Tinto has become one of the most easily recognizable wines from the Canary Islands.