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.