Listán

Listán, synonym for palomino fino, the white grape variety that can produce superb sherry around jerez. As Listán, or Listán Blanco, some of its most interesting wines are those grown on the canary islands’ volcanic soils, where it can produce table wines of much greater tension, individuality, and distinction than most of those on the Spanish mainland. The rebirth of Canary wines in the 1990s thus gave this much-maligned variety a new lease on life. The Spanish vine census of 2011 cites the total area of ‘Listán Blanco de Canarias’ as 9,000 ha/(a suspiciously round number that is the equivalent of 22,240 acres). Listán de Huelva is a distinct but minor Andalucian pale-skinned variety while the dark-skinned, well-travelled país of Chile is known in Spain as Listán Prieto.