History
Wine in Gran Canaria
Writings on wine cultivation can be found in the most ancient text produced by mankind. Several archaeological finding confirm that the first vinifications were made around seven thousand years ago in the Caucasian region, Georgia, on the breathtaking foothills the Romans named “the end of the world“.
From the Caucasus, where wine is still produced as it was in 5000 BC, winemaking spread south to the fertile plains of Mesopotamia. Hammurabi’s code, a body of laws written in the late 18 tm. century BC, includes amongst other laws those related to the cultivation and the trade of wine.
It was through Armenia and Syria that the beverage found it’s way westward to the promised land of wine: the Mediterranean. The land of Canaan, the Pharaonic Egypt and the Cretan civilization where home the secrets of making and preserving wine since as early as the second millennium BC.
From the Eastern Mediterranean viticulture and enology traveled an endless road westward in the hands of Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans.
Proof of the fascination wine provoked in these ancient Mediterranean civilizations is the close link the drink has with religions. Greek mythology associates it with Ra, divinity of the Sun, and with Osiris, god of the underworld.
From the second century BC on the Romans took the lead on Greeks giving a new boost to vine growing in the valleys of the great rivers Ebro, Tajo and Guadiana thus colonizing the inland of Iberia with vineyards. In the rest of Europe the influence of Roman legions carried vines up to Moselle valley in Germany, along the banks of the Danube, in Eastern Europe, and through the French Rhone, Bordeaux, and even as far as the British Isles.
As the Roman Empire collapsed lean years came forth, Vine-growing suffered a serious backward step in Europe and was only restored due to the supernatural value wine has within Christian liturgy. The monks from the religious Order of Cistercians, funded by Saint Bernard in the year 1120, created a new wave of winemaking around their Roman monasteries from Bourgogne to the banks of River Duero.
Since the Canary Islands were conquered and since America was discovered Spanish colonists introduced wine and later vine-growing wherever they settled, as Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans had done before them. Wine followed Europeans everywhere as a fundamental part of the Mediterranean diet. Thus the first vine stumps that arrived to the Canaries where brought from Crete by conquerors and Castilian settlers.
Gran Canaria was the first island to be conquered by the Castilian Crown in 1483.
After the lands were distributed amongst conquerors and colonists huge extensions were destined to vine-growing. The first vineyards were grown in the low lands of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde, Agüimes, Arucas, Guía and Gáldar. As tilling advanced and roads improved vine-growing spread to the medianías -the lands found between 300 and 1000 meters above the sea level.
In the words of Viera y Clavijo,- a Canarian writer, botanist and historian- the vine stumps brought by the first colonist “soon found in the island the perfect climate an soil to prosper...”. The best wines are produced by light and dry lands made of a blend of sand, stones and smashed volcanic lava. The perfect locations being hillsides and slopes.
The first types of grapes grown were malvasía, verdillo, torrontés and negramoll.
A blend of some of these vines was specially successful in American markets.
Since early 16tm century Canarian wines were exported to England, Flanders, Hamburg, and to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America and Africa.
Toward 1550 the economy of Gran Canaria relied greatly on wine as the leading export as sugarcane crops were reduced. Such flourishing in wine trade brought along the development of other related activities such as barrel-making and cooperage to keep and transport the drink, as well as pottery and leather tanning amongst other handicrafts.
In the 17tm century trading of Canarian wines continued to thrive. During the first quarter almost half a million gallons of wine were exported from Gran Canaria. This successful period greatly benefited harvesters and traders in general as new products such as textiles, woods, earthenware, iron and oil entered Canarian markets from America and Africa.
However this privileged position of the Canarian beverage was soon reversed by the international situation provoked by the Spanish war of succession. The British preferred wines from Portugal, Malaga and specially those from Jerez thus definitely ruining Canarian production and trade to date.
In spite of its fall as an export crop wine continued to be produced in the Canary Islands to satisfy local demand. Thus in the 19tm century winemaking was renewed in Gran Canaria though in a shorter scale and with completely different characteristics.
Great need of land by the end of the 18tm century triggered the recovering of 300 hectares of unexploited public lands in El Monte Lentiscal and Bandama which were given to a few growers -though not to the most financially distressed. The flourishing bourgeoisie built a great number of pressing roms and cellars next to their villas and large extensions of vineyards were grown thus making of Bandama and El Monte Lentiscal the most representative landscape of winemaking in Gran Canaria. This region, protected by local environmental laws, features the best examples of wine’s architectural heritage in the Islands.
The ancient wine presses are made of timber and the vat were the must is held is typically made of stone and protected by a ridge roof. The cellars, made of partly retained stone walls, timber and tile roffs have small high windows and door made of slash pine. The ground is usually covered by small lava stones.
The must is kept in wooden barrels where it slowly transforms into wine. The Canarian cellar has hidden for centuries now within its dark and silent atmosphere the secrets of making and keeping the best of wines.
The complex orography of Gran Canaria with its numerous mountains has retained the mechanization of vine growing. In many areas of the island wine is still produced using the ancient methods which take much harder work but contribute to keep growers attached to the roots of tradition. It is probably in Barranco de Taguy, a remote village at the bottom of the ravine down Caldera de Tejeda, were wine is still made using the very same methods the first European settlers used five hundred years ago.
However, most vinegrowers have modernised their vine-growing and wine keeping methods in the late years. Market regulations and the ever advancing technologies have progressively replaced traditional methods of wine making.
Nevertheless different grape varieties obtained from ancient stumps are still grown thus assuring a unique viticultural heritage.
Gran Canaria is the label of appellation for all wines produced in the island.
Those produced in El Monte are included though they are distinguished by the peculiar geographical, climatic and historical features of the area. The island’s vineyards are usually divide in small plots specially in the areas of medianías within 300 and 1000 meters, and in the mountain tops of the island. The geographical frame is wide but vine-growing is not widely practised due to property fragmentation.
The wine producing region of El Monte Lentiscal sits between the Natural Site of Bandama and the area of Tafira -protected under the Canarian law of natural landscape within the communes of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde and Santa Brígida.
Vines can be grown using different methods: they can be pruned in the shape of a cup or left to grow low on the ground forming rows. Such methods usually enhance the quality of the resulting wine. Trellising-lifting the plant from the ground with a frame of latticework- is another method currently spreading.
Wines under the appellation of Gran Canaria included those from the commune of El Monte Lentiscal are mostly red wines made with traditional grape varieties such as listán negro, negramoll, tintilla, castellana and malvasía rosa, but the most common is listán negro. The authorised white varieties are malvasía, albillo, güal, pedro ximénez, marmajuelo, breval, vijariego, albillo, moscatel and listán blanco amongst others, the latest being the most common due to its high productivity.
All wine produced in Gran Canaria is made in 55 cellars - which belong to the Consejo Regulador de Gran Canaria, an institution responsible of regulating vine-growing, protecting growers and wine-keepers as well as controlling their activities in order to guarantee the quality of product under the appellation of Gran Canaria. Youth is Gran Canarian wine’s main virtue.
The total surface currently occupied by vineyards is about 250 hectares. Around 550.000 kilos of grapes are produced, mostly of the type listán negro.
The grape harvest is done between July and October. Only healthy grapes are selected to elaborate the protected wines. The amount of beverage produced amounts to some 400.000 liters, which are bottled in the small 55 family cellars.
Most wines found in the market under the Gran Canaria appellation are red and dry white wines which are mostly consumed by local demand given the short production.
Gran Canaria wine has a hopeful future. The persistent effort of Canarian growers together with the decisive backing of the local authorities has given way not only to an extension of arable land destined to vine-growing but also to a modernization of infrastructure.
Such improvements assure the highest quality of Gran Canarian wines.
Gran Canaria has not yet given all it can give to the world of wine, the future waits with many possibilities beyond local markets. Sheltered under the comparative advantage of being a traditionally produced drink, Gran Canaria wine might successfully enter foreign markets and give itself a good reputation.
All the mentioned achievements in the island’s wine production are further backed by The Vinest Network, a Network that promotes the interplay of small European wine areas in order to protect and enhance the variety and individuality of their wines, lands and cultures.
The inclusion of Gran Canaria in such a network greatly reinforces the effort to recover wine production which plays a main role in controlling and preserving the environmental balance of Gran Canaria.