Listrao dos Profetas Caracol Fazendas Areia 2022

Caracol dos Profetas is a white wine made from the Caracol variety by Antonio Maçanita and Nuno Faria at their vineyards in Porto Santo in Madeira, Portugal. It seems that the name of this grape (Caracol) comes from a Mr. Caracol who was the one who brought it and planted it on the island. It seems to be genetically related to a caste known as the Cédres in the Canaries and also to the Listrao. It is harvested on the Island of Porto Santo and taken to Madeira since vinification on the island of production is not legal. It is pressed and vinified without the addition of sulfur and only the first and second pressings went on to ferment on lees in stainless steel. A very small production wine. We all know about Madeira's fortified wines, and the oldest in Porto Santo say that it was there where the grapes with more maturity and grade were grown to make the largest Madeiras. On this Island of Porto Santo today there are barely 14 hectares of old vines cultivated by a handful of crazy people and prophets, which is what the people of Porto Santo are called in the archipelago. It is something worth seeing how the vineyards protect themselves from the wind with small walls, or by driving the grapes well below. This is the case of the farm from which Listrao dos Prophets comes from, a vineyard over 80 years old planted on calcareous and sandy loam soils that are harvested in August, manually and fermented in used Burgundian barrels, without the participation of sulfur. A natural Madeiran wine, therefore, with an almost coppery golden colour, a very intense nose, with salt and caramel. Perhaps between a Madeira and a Jerez, it shows iron, iodine, it is intense. Great body, super concentration, a lot of persistence.