As our followers will know, the last two harvests have yielded fewer kilograms than one would hope, but as always, the quality is fantastic thanks to the plentiful sunshine we receive.
Nearly 90% of Lanzarote wine is consumed within the Canaries both by locals and tourists alike. With the pandemic and a massive hole in tourism numbers over the past 18 months, we have still seen most of this wine consumed! Like with all businesses, the wineries have been forced to evolve and adapt during the past 18 months. Many wineries have opened online shops serving the Islands and looked further a field to support sales. Bodegas Los Bermejos for instance, recently sent wine to Japan for the first time! Our online Wine Shop Lanzarote project based in the UK is another idea which wasn’t around pre-COVID.
Interestingly, for small scale artisan producers, they have been busier than ever over the past 12 months, thanks to the high numbers of inter-island holiday makers. Some of these little wineries have actually been closed in recent weeks due to a lack of wine! With much rejoice, the 2021 wines are now being bottled and these wineries are back open!
The vast majority of wine produced on the Lanzarote is drunk young (especially white) and a young wine is one that is typically fresh and vibrant. Already we have seen Vega de Yuco bring out 2021 wines, as early as September for their dry wine, making it the first wine to be bottled in the Northern Hemisphere! Elsewhere, El Grifo, La Geria and Bodega Vulcano have all been busy bottling 2021 wines, so do keep an eye out! It is not usual for all the large wineries to be bottling so early, so even with the impact of the pandemic it shows there is plenty of demand for Lanzarote wine!
The large producers on Lanzarote all have their own bottling lines which are fully automated. From cleaning the bottles, filling, corking, and labelling all in one straight through process. There’s also another very important, though less obvious part of this process, and that is the addition of nitrogen gas before the cork is inserted. The biggest threat, to young and fresh wine or any type of wine come to this, is oxidisation and of course that is the effect of Oxygen. Think about a wine which has been left open a few days and how it deteriorates rapidly after 2 or 3 days. Admittedly this doesn’t happen often in my house! This application of nitrogen expels the oxygen from the bottle and safeguards the wine for a much longer period while it is stored in an unopen bottle.
We’ll be back in the vineyards next month as the pruning season is just getting underway!
Wine of The Month
Wine of the Month: Bermejo Listan Negro Barrica
With the nights drawing in, the time of year is starting to get the “red” feel about it! We have therefore picked the Bermejo Listan Negro Barrica as our Wine of the Month. The reds of
Lanzarote are such descriptive wines, that we often call them Lanzarote in a bottle on our tours. The Bermejo Listan Negro is medium bodied, with smooth tannins and red fruit aromas together with and a distinct smokiness. On the pallet, dark fruits blend with a volcanic backdrop of minerals and a hint of smokiness and liquorice, in part down to its aging for 4 months in French Oak. It goes hand in hand with roasted meats or a hearty stew!
As always, this wine is available to buy in the UK and Ireland through our online Wine Shop where the stock is based in the UK!
Thanks for reading!
