Suertes del Marqués, Valle de la Orotava “Trenzado”

The Canary Islands are at or near the top of every sommelier’s Bucket List of wine places to visit. Having recently ‘checked it off’ myself, I’m here to confirm—it’s worth it, and not just for the atmosphere. There are many wine regions where the product doesn’t live up to the history or the setting, but on the island of Tenerife—located off the coast of Morocco but belonging to Spain—there is a renaissance underway.One leader of this movement is Suertes del Marqués, whose dynamic proprietor, Jonathan García Lima, welcomed me and my colleague, Mark Osburn, to his spectacular cellar last March. Set among vineyards that spill down steep hillsides towards the Atlantic—many of them trained in the traditional cordón trenzado method, wherein the “arms” (cordons) of the grapevine are fashioned into long, winding braids—Suertes del Marqués has introduced the broader wine world to the Valle de la Orotava, an appellation (DO) on the cooler, northern end of the island. In the dark, ashy volcanic