The thought of working a vineyard comes across as hard work at the best of times. So, the idea of working two wine projects, well, that just seems off the scale crazy behaviour to us. However, Pablo Matallana thinks differently. Originally from Lanzarote, this young, forward-thinking winemaker based on the Canary islands is ambitious and has a seriously impressive work ethic. Through his two projects - Taro Vinícola and La Bardona - he seeks to showcase different grape varieties and the unique terroir of Lanzarote and Tenerife, respectively.
Pablo studied oenology in Valencia, and after graduation he spent time learning his trade in both Priorat (at Mas Martinet) and Pomerol (at Le Bon Pasteur), before returning to Tenerife to pursue his own project. He made his first wine in 2015 from a recuperated old vineyard in Tenerife, named La Bardona. Situated in the North of the island on high elevation, it consisted of a series of centenary vineyards. However, this proved to be a baptism by fire. It was a difficult vintage and only produced 500 bottles, which gave him some pause for thought.
After a couple of years spent in Chile improving his craft under the watchful eye of Louis-Antoine Luyt, he felt the call to return to his roots and focus on a project that would showcase the uniqueness of the Canary Islands. In 2018, he joined the Taro Vinícola project, bottling his first wines from neighboring Lanzarote. Initially the winery farmed and sold grapes to a number of larger projects, but with Pablo’s arrival they stopped doing so and started to focus vinifying their own fruit.
Pablo farms the vineyards across these two projects following organic and some biodynamic principles. His sole focus is indigenous varieties such as Malvasía Volcânica, Diego, Listán Blanco and Negro. In the winery, he favours spontaneous fermentations and typically ages his wines for a period of time on fine lees. French oak barriques are used for maturation, but always used barrels to let the aromatic precision of the wines come through. For someone so young, there is a real sense of maturity regarding how best to extract the individual terroirs of these two appellations.
His wines show precision and vibrant acidity. The whites are concentrated with electric energy and a saline edge. For the reds, he prefers a gentle extraction and often uses a percentage of whole bunches for purity and perfumed intensity. They are easy drinking, sure, but have enough about them to make you stop, thinking and marvel at the beauty.
