More
volcanic
wine regions
Santorini
There’s evidence they’ve
been growing vineson
Santorini for 5,000 years
but itwas theMinoan
eruption around 1600BC
thatmade thewine
what it is, providing the
volcanic
aspa
soil.Most
wineshere aremade
with the indigenous
Assyrtiko grape, a full-
bodiedwhite.
winesfromsantorini.com
Sicily
Hardywinemakers grow
wineson the sideof
Mount Etna, onSicily,
manyplanting thenative
Nerello grape in the
ripiddu
(volcanic soil).
TheGambinowinery
runspopular tours.
vinigambino.it
Napa Valley
California’sNapaValley
is oneof the smallest
wine regions in the
world though it boasts
over 400wineries.
Especially popular for
wine tours, thenorthern
endof the valley is
particularly heavy in
volcanic soil and ash.
napavintners.com
makingwines,” saysMendiondo. “They’d
distill thewines tocreate spirits for
Tenerife’s sweetwines. But after a century
or so, they started tomake their own.”
El Grifowas oneof theearly
winemakers, and after forming in 1775,
has been in the same family since 1881.
El Grifowines under chiefwinemaker
TomásMesa are, saysMendiondo, “better
thanever,mainly because thewinery has
invested in research andnewequipment”.
No Lanzarotewine is cheap, however,
due to the labour-intensiveway it’s
produced –while you’ll get a bottle for
around€8 (NOK66) at awinery, expect to
pay at least double in a restaurant.What
youdo get is a truly uniquewine.
elgrifo.com
Norwegianflies toLanzarote fromOslo,
StockholmandLondon.Bookflights,ahotel
andarental caratnorwegian.com
Opposite
⁄
Lanzarote’s
vines grow
in their
ownplots
protected
from thewind
Top and
above
⁄
Twoof the
island’s oldest
wineries: La
Geria and in
themuseum
at El Grifo
I
t doesn’t look like any
vineyard you’veever seen
– littlecratersbuilt into the
otherworldlyblack volcanic
landscape,with small vines
protected from theelementsby little
stonewalls.Welcome to Lanzarote, the
world’s least likelywine region.
Despiteexcessiveheat, highwinds
and limited rainfall, there are 17wineries
on the island, with the twobiggest –
Bermejo andEl Grifo–producing around
600,000bottles a year. Thewines here,
threequarters ofwhich aremadewith
theMalvasia grape (LanzaroteMalvasias
areproven tobeunique), areproduced
thehardway –entirely by hand, and
production is a tenthofwhat you get in a
normal wine region, since the vines need
more space to grow andhave tobe grown
low to the ground to avoid thewind.
“There’s nowhereelse in theworld
wherewine’smade like this,” saysRegina
Mendiondo, who runs themuseum at the
Bodegas El Grifowinery, whichhas been
running since 1775 and is oneof theoldest
in Spain. ThewhitewashedEl Grifohas
been at the forefront of Lanzarotewine’s
push to international prominence, even if
only twoper cent of all bottles from the
island areexported. Thewinery haswon
23wine awards this year alone, andhas
beenparticularly praised for its rangeof
Malvasias. According toMendiondo, the
El GrifoMalvasia is “very full-bodiedbut
with a really nicebalance. It’s fresh and
fruity, withhints ofwhiteflowers, guava
andcitrus, and there arenotes of volcanic
minerality and salt from the sea.”
It’s amazing that Lanzarotecanproduce
wine at all, and it couldn’t until the 1730s,
when themighty Timanfaya volcano
spewed forth for six years inoneof the
most epiceruptions ofmodern times.
While theblack lava ash that carpeted the
islanddestroyed its agricultural crops,
farmers realised that vine roots could
reachbelow the ash, which itself retains
water (most vineyards need almost three
times asmuch rainfall as Lanzarote gets).
“To startwith, Lanzarote grew vines at
the request of Tenerife, whichwas already
“There’snowhereelse in the
worldwherewine’smade like
this– therearenotesof volcanic
minerals and sea salt”
ALAMY; ROBERT HARDING
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