Baboso Blanco

A lesser-known white variety from the Canary Islands.

The Baboso Blanco variety, also known as Bastardo Blanco, is a white grape native to the Canary Islands. It is thought to be a white mutation of the French redvariety Trousseu from the Jura, known in the Iberian Peninsula as Merenzao, Verdejo Negro and Bastardo.

An early-ripening variety with a high propensity to botrytis, Baboso Blanco produces small leaves and egg-shaped berries of a green-yellowish colour. The skin is slightly tough and has a rather neutral taste.

This lesser-known white variety from the Canary Islands is found in the island of El Hierro and in some areas of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Because of its transparent character, the variety is increasingly seen by local winemakers as a good vehicle for transmitting the volcanic nature of the Canarian soils.