The vineyards of Lanzarote: from the volcano to the glass

The vineyards of Lanzarote are different from the others. They represent one of the many “battles” that have taken place between man and the environment. If you try to stop in a cellar in La Geria and take a taste, you will realize that here the man really managed to win a great challenge. In this case, however, he made the landscape beautiful and created something good for the earth and the economy.

The vineyards of Lanzarote grow on a basalt sea of black rocks formed after the eruption of Timanfaya in the 18th century. This is just the first of the many obstacles that a normal vineyard could encounter if it wanted to produce wine grapes. Good wine I mean! To all this we must add the climate of Lanzarote which is heavenly for men but certainly not for the cultivation of the vine: lots of sun, very little rain and even strong winds.

Although everything seems to the limit of the impossible, the wines of Lanzarote continue to win numerous awards for their goodness and their taste, a sign that behind the work of the farmers there is not only the commitment to want to cultivate something in difficult conditions, but also the great ability to create an excellent product.

The prizes and the secret of the vineyards of Lanzarote

El Grifo de Lanzarote won a prize in a competition in Brussels for its Malvasia Volcanica Lias 2018 and one for the Red Collection 2019, ticking it among 10,000 wines from almost 50 different countries. Also awarded were the wineries of Martinon, Rubicon and La Geria.

But where does the “secret” of the cultivation of the vineyards of Lanzarote really come from? The winemakers realized that under the lava and ash the soil formed by sand and clay was still fertile and so they dug deep funnel-shaped holes and planted 3 vines in each of them. They also added semicircular stone walls to protect the vines from strong winds and the volcanic ash that moved with them.

As for the absence of rain, the layer of lapilli (small fragments of lava) was exploited, which have a thermoregulatory effect on the subsoil. This facilitates the filtration of rain avoiding evaporation from the ground and maintaining a constant temperature.