Gran Canaria has a new reason for wine lovers to detour inland from its beaches: a winery built by David Silva, the midfielder who spent a decade winning trophies with Manchester City, working alongside one of the Canary Islands' most respected winemakers.
Silva turned to his friend Jonatan García, the talent behind Suertes del Marqués in Tenerife's north, with a simple proposition: help me make wine on the island where I grew up. García nearly said no. He had spent years building Suertes del Marqués into a name that put Tenerife's rare volcanic vineyards on wine lists worldwide, and taking on a second project felt like a way to shortchange both. What changed his mind was the calendar. Silva's vineyards in southern Gran Canaria ripen a month to six weeks before García's vines back in Tenerife, so the harvests don't overlap. He can pick, crush and ferment on one island, then hop over and do it all again on the other.
There's a cautionary backdrop here. Athletes betting on wine have a poor track record. Golfer Mike Weir's Ontario winery ended up in receivership owing him more than a million dollars. Andrés Iniesta's bodega in Manchuela has lost money in almost every year since it opened in 2010. Even the success stories tend to be glorified licensing deals — Greg Norman built his wine brand largely by lending his name rather than making anything himself.
Silva's project looks different for two reasons. He already knew wine well before putting money in, and — crucially — he handed García real control: choosing the vineyard sites, designing and building the winery, making the calls in the cellar. For García, it's a rare second act, a chance to take two decades of know-how from Tenerife and start over with a blank page on a different island.
Why should travellers care? The Canary Islands are having a moment among wine nerds, and for good reason: phylloxera never took hold here, so vines grow on their original roots, often untrained and low to the ground on steep volcanic slopes. Suertes del Marqués is one of the estates that made Tenerife's Listán Negro and Listán Blanco varieties collectible. Now the same hand is shaping wine on Gran Canaria, an island most visitors know only for Maspalomas' dunes and resort strips. For anyone planning a trip that mixes beach time with vineyard visits, the southern interior — around towns like Mogán and the highland villages beyond — is the area to watch for Silva and García's project as it matures. It also makes a neat two-island itinerary: Tenerife's wine country in the north, Gran Canaria's in the south, both touched by the same winemaker.
The story is also a reminder of what makes a celebrity wine venture worth seeking out: not the famous name on the label, but the professional given the freedom to make it properly.