![\"palomina](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/07\/palomina-wine-spain-300x200.jpg\")
<\/div>\nForget ros\u00e9 \u2013\u00a0the thing I\u2019ll <\/em>be drinking this summer is well-chilled Palomino, which, in its very best forms, is as vibrant, sapid and thirst-quenching as white wine gets.<\/p>\n Better-known as the sherry grape, Palomino is a sun worshipper; it thrives in scorching environments like Jerez in Andalucia. Yet even in drought-like conditions, its vines yield big, juicy berries, resulting in table wines that are fresh, saline, and relatively low in acid and alcohol. Great heatwave drinking, in other words.<\/p>\n And Palomino is increasingly in the spotlight thanks to a clutch of top winemakers in Spain, South Africa, and California who are using low-yielding, old-vine plantings to make classy unfortified wines. Here are three to know.<\/p>\n See also:\u00a0<\/em>The Surprising Return of High-Proof Spirits<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Holism Palomino 2022, Piekenierskloof, South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n Way up in the Piekenierskloof, two hours north of Cape Town, beyond the reach of Google maps or cell phones, lies Swartberg Wingerde, the rugged passion project of star winemaker Rudiger Gretschel (Chocolate Block, Boekenhootskloof, Cap Krone, Reyneke). Here, among the baboons and fynbos, Gretschel has been resurrecting old vineyards, the best of which he bottles as Holism, a single-variety wine.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up in the Namibian desert,\u201d he says, \u201cso the wildness of Piekeneerskloof just speaks to me. It has always been my dream to own a vineyard here \u2013\u00a0I like this idea of hardy things thriving in the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n The oldest Palomino vines here date from 1966; they\u2019ve not been irrigated a day in their life. On the day I visit the deep sand in the vineyards is almost too hot to touch. But cool Atlantic breezes prevent the fruit from getting over-ripe. \u201cThey give the wines lift and lightness,\u201d says Gretschel, \u201cand make it possible to make something quite delicate.\u201d<\/p>\n Holism Palomino 2022<\/a> has an almost sake-like fineness and freshness \u2013\u00a0combining thirst-quenching notes of nashi pear, green grape and white flowers with a very user-friendly abv of 11 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat else can you stick in the ground, not water for 60 years and get fruit from like this?\u201d says Gretschel. \u201cIt\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n See also: Interesting Wines To Order At Dinner, According To Sommeliers<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Suertes del Marqu\u00e9s Vidonia 2023, Tenerife, Spain<\/strong><\/p>\n Palomino is the most widely-planted grape variety in the Canary Islands, where it goes by the name List\u00e1n Blanco. And many of the best examples in the volcanic archipelago are to be found on Tenerife. Most celebrated are the wines by Suertes del Marques, a family-owned domaine on the north of the island, whose palm-bordered vineyards run from the foothills of the Mount Teide down towards the sea. Like most of the vines on Tenerife they\u2019re ungrafted, because the island was never properly hit by phylloxera, the pest that decimated European vineyards in the 19th<\/sup> century. And to that extent, they have particular appeal to oenological purists.\u00a0<\/p>\n The cloudy, humid climate and volcanic soils on the north coast give the the wines a bit more mineral tension \u2013 even a subtle of hint of smoke \u2013 than you\u2019d find in sunnier climes. But they also boast plenty of charming fruit: apple, pear, white almond, sometimes a hint of more hedonistic pineapple. \u201cI like precision, elegance,\u201d says boss and winemaker Jonatana Garc\u00eda Lima.<\/p>\n Suertes\u2019s signature cuv\u00e9e, Vidonia<\/a>, adds a bit more textural oak to the mix \u2013\u00a0but with a lighter touch since 2018. At the winery\u2019s 20th<\/sup> celebrations back in the spring I tasted 14 vintages of Vidonia and 2018, 2021, and 2023 were all standouts for me\u00a0\u2013 striking the perfect balance between being charming and very moreish now, but also leaving enough in the tank to age impressively.<\/p>\n See also:\u00a0<\/em>Do You Need an AI Wine Cellar?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Scythian Wine Co, The Scythians White 2023, California, US<\/strong><\/p>\n Where sommelier and winemaker Rajat Parr goes, California\u2019s new-wave wine scene often follows. And his latest project, Scythian Wine Co<\/a>, has its sights trained firmly on Palomino.<\/p>\n The venture, co-founded with The Scholium Project\u2019s Abe Schoener, focuses on old \u2018historically significant\u2019 vineyards in Cucamonga, just east of Los Angeles<\/a> and Temecula, just north of San Diego, all of which are are over 100 years old. Red grapes include Zinfandel, Mission and Grenache but Palomino is the only white.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me it comes back to the Lopez Vineyard, a very special place planted in 1912, dry farmed and never sprayed, where the vines have had over a century to find their own equilibrium with that ground,\u201d says Parr. \u201cPalomino isn’t a grape people expect much from outside of Jerez, but from a site like this it shows a saline quality and a precision that I find hard to get from almost anything else \u2014 there’s a tension to the fruit, an almost electric salinity, that speaks directly to the age of the vines and the honesty of how they’re farmed. Working with it feels less like winemaking and more like listening; the grape doesn’t ask for much, it just asks you to get out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n A week on the skins gives this Palomino grip and intensity \u2013\u00a0citrus meets yeasty savouriness and energising grapefruit zest.<\/p>\n![\"holism](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/07\/holism-palomino-2022.webp\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Suertes](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/07\/suertes-del-marques-vidonia-spain.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Scythian](\"https:\/\/elitetraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/07\/scythianswinecowhite2023.jpeg\")
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