Althay · Vintage 2023 · Order range

Caldera Tinasoria

From a single plot inside a crater bowl, where the picón lies deepest and the wind blows hardest. A dry, bright white, fermented spontaneously on its own yeasts. Black sand and sea water aren’t tasting notes here so much as an address.

At Vinmonopolet How the trade orders

About the wine

Nose

Mineral.

Palate

Fruity, with sea water, black sand, ripe lemon and yellow flowers, and a long finish.

Key facts

Vintage

2023

Grapes

Malvasía Volcánica 100%

Alcohol

12.5%

Bottles produced

2,000 bottles

Producer

Althay

Region

Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Serving

10–12 °C in a slightly larger glass. It opens up after a few minutes.

Item no.

19487901

Range

Order range

Price

Kr 574,50 · Vinmonopolet, incl. VAT

The craft

How it is made

01

The vineyard

Malvasía Volcánica from a single vineyard inside the volcanic crater of Caldera Tinasoria, in La Geria, four hundred metres above sea level.
02

Skin contact

The grapes are given twenty-four hours of pre-fermentation maceration — skin contact before the alcoholic fermentation begins at all. It draws out more aroma and more phenolic structure. The result is a white wine with more grip than a directly pressed Malvasía, and just as clear and bright in the glass.
03

Foot-treading

The grapes are trodden by foot and pressed.
04

Fermentation

Fermented spontaneously on natural yeast, normally three to four weeks.
05

Divided

The wine is split in two. One part matures in stainless steel and keeps the freshness, the acidity and the clean minerality. The other goes into 500-litre French oak.
06

Malolactic

The cask portion goes through malolactic fermentation, converting the sharper malic acid into softer lactic acid. That is what gives the roundness and the structure. The steel portion keeps its malic acid.
07

Blending

The two parts are brought back together before bottling. Made without the use of fining agents. All told it takes around twelve to fifteen months from harvest to market.

What sets it apart

A full day of deliberate skin contact before fermentation, the grapes trodden by foot, and the wine assembled from a fresh steel portion and a rounder cask portion.

A young winery · Four wines

Althay

The other end of the island, and the other end of the thinking. A few thousand bottles a year from old ungrafted vines, fermented on their own yeasts and bottled after very gentle filtration. No safety net, and no attempt to make the wine easier than it is. Four wines: two white blends, a single-site Malvasía from a crater bowl, and the only red we carry.

About the producer