A few weeks ago, a couple of my colleagues and I were fortunate enough to attend a seminar put on by our friends at Farm Wine Imports. Among the participants were two of the four individuals behind the wine label Envínate (loosely translated as “to wine yourself”). Roberto Santana and Alfonso Torrente guided us through the three distinct areas in which they work: Tenerife, the northern island of the Canary Islands; Ribeira Sacra, Galicia, in northwestern Spain; and Almansa and Albacete, in the Levante of southeastern Spain.

Since starting their winery in 2005, they have slowly been honing their style and growing their vineyard holdings. One of the things that stood out for me was the dynamic of four different individuals having the utmost confidence in each other to make growing and winemaking decisions regardless of region. They simply have more moving parts than most wine projects.

Another aspect of their impressive mission is their reinvestment of funds into the farming aspect of operations—as opposed to, say, building a fancy winery. Lifting up the growers they work with (and acquiring more vineyards for themselves) is truly an admirable endeavor.

I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with these wines for a little more than a decade, and they continue to impress in unexpected ways. The varied terroirs of Tenerife, for example, highlight the distinct differences of Listán blanco (aka palomino), Listán negro, and Listán prieto, to name just a few, when grown in volcanic soils. They also make elevated, aromatically charged Ribeira Sacras, based on mencía and others grapes grown on slate, quartz, gneiss, and even decomposed granite flecked with feldspar. The uniqueness of their wines from Albacete and Almansa (based on garnacha tintorera, moravia agria, and pardillo blanco) also stands out, with grapes grown in clay, chalk, sand, and limestone.

This is a producer worth seeking out if you are unfamiliar and at all curious. Please stop by the shop to learn more about this remarkable project.