Bodega Hermanos Mesa Valle de Guimar Blanco 'Los Pelados' 2023

“Pelados” means “bare”—a reference to the Valle de Güímar’s dramatic, poor-soiled, rocky landscape—and this bottling comes from two parcels of 70-to-80-year-old Listán Blanco totaling 1.2 hectares, planted at a staggering 1300 meters above sea level and exposed southwestward. Vinified and aged for nine months in two-thirds used 500-liter French oak barrels and one-third stainless steel, “Los Pelados” offers a salinity more intense and visceral than “Locartas” above, with fruit simultaneously exotic and crunchy. Though mouth-filling, it possesses a tautness that keeps it brisk, and in keeping with the best examples of Listán Blanco it is a tautness articulated through mineral clench rather than through overt acidity.