Sortevera is a relatively new project from owner/winemaker Jonatan Garcia Lima of Suertes del Marques and viticuluralist Jose Angel Alonso Ramos. The vineyards are in the now famous Taganana area located on the Northeast portion of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. This remote corner of the island features an extremely rugged and steep landscape with precarious cliffs of volcanic rock that descend right into the ocean. Also, amazingly, this area of Tenerife has a long history of growing grapes and making wine and many of the vineyards are 80-100+ years old. The name, Sortevera, originates from this particular area of the island, roughly translating to the “way to pass through”.

Taganana has become somewhat famous through a few other well-known wine projects where the grapes were sourced from there, particularly with the single parcel bottlings from Margalagua and Amogoje which are both owned by Jose Angel and now form the foundation of Sortevera. Beginning with the 2018 vintage, Jose Angel partnered with Jonatan to bring us Sortavera, using these same top parcels. These parcels are field blends of many varieties such as Marmajuelo, Gual, Forastera, Listan Blanco and Vijariego Blanco for whites, and Vijariego Negro, Listan Gacho, Malvasia Rosada, Listan Negro and Negramoll for reds (among others). All the vines of Jose Angel are ungrafted and trained in a very low-to-the-ground, goblet fashion. Given the vineyards’ proximity to the ocean and north facing exposition on the cooler, often cloud-covered side of the island, it helps to temper the hypothetically more extreme conditions that this fairly southern latitude might provide.