Friday, 13 November 2015 05:30

La Gomera Wine: Cumbres de Garajonay White

Cumbres e Garajonay white wine from La Gomera Cumbres e Garajonay white wine from La Gomera

The only La Gomera wine available in Gran Canaria and an opportunity to try a grape with a mysterious past and great potential.

Cumbres de Garajonay is the flagship wine from La Gomera's co-op and is made from the forastera blanca grape that accounts for 90% of the island's vines.

Forastera blanca is a La Gomera speciality and grows nowhere else on Earth. Spoilsports who claimed that it is just the doradilla grape from Andalucia were recently proved wrong by a genetic study that showed that forastera is quite distinct from any known European variety. It's been growing and adapting to local conditions on La Gomera since the 1450s and is the island's best chance to develop a wine brand of its own. Forastera could be La Gomera's malvasia.

Tasting notes

Forastera is a much more acidic grape than the famous malvasia and listán blanco grapes that dominate on the other islands. 

Give this a good sniff and you find that it is so packed with minerality that it smells of a fossil collection or a duke's driveway; Flint and iron. There's also a teasing sweet hint of honey.

In the mouth it's acidic but balanced with lots of flint, a citrus fruitiness and also a hint of spice that is rare in Canarian whites.

For 5 euros this is good value and leaves you wondering what the forastera blanca grape could produce in the right hands. 

Sold in Carrefour and worth buying for the price before you even account for its unique provenance.

Great on its own or with seafood.

Published in Wine

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Tip of the day

  • Tip Of The Day: Avoid Bank Card Charges By Paying In Euros
    Tip Of The Day: Avoid Bank Card Charges By Paying In Euros

    Save money and avoid rip-off bank charges while in Gran Canaria by paying in euros when using your credit or debit card.

    Many bars and restaurants in Gran Canaria, and in almost all European holiday destinations, give you the option of paying in euros or in your home currency. Opting for your own currency, while it may seem like the safer option, can add as much as 5% to the bill as it triggers dynamic currency conversion. 

    DCC basically means that the exchange rate is calculated at point of sale rather than by your bank. It allows you to see the total cost of the transaction in your own currency but adds up to 5% to the total because it uses a terrible exchange rate. 

    Since the extra money is shared between your bank and the merchant, some places will automatically bill you in your own currency and hope you don't notice. You have the legal right to refuse and void the transaction should this happen. 

    ATMs too

    The same applies when taking money out of ATM machines in Gran Canaria (and anywhere in Europe); Always choose the local currency option to avoid losing money to poor exchange rates.

    If you opt for the local currency option, using bank ATMs is often the cheapest and safest way of getting euros in Gran Canaria. It's far safer than having a big pile of euros hidden in your room or tucked into your shorts.

    More details in this Daily Telegraph article.

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