Wines from the Canary Islands

The Canaries Archipelago is a first class natural and landscape reserve. It is in the Atlantic Ocean, off the African coast, some 2,000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula. The seven volcanic islands are blessed with a temperate, sunny and Atlantic climate.

The Canary wines lived their golden age from the 16th. Century when they sailed the seas en route to the ports of Northern Europe and the Caribbean. Writers and poets of the time would frequently praise the Canary, a wine of the Madeira, Marsalla, Oporto and Sherry lineage which was capable of lifting the spirit and livening the heart.

Although the Phylloxera plague never reached the archipelago, which explains why the plants are grafted onto local bases, at the end of last century two successive plagues (oidium and mildew) severely damaged the vines, to the extent that they took nearly a century to recover.

The great variety of climates and soils partly explains the diversity of grape species of the Canary vines. The 1980´s marked the re-emergence of the Archipelagos wines which now have eight Designations of Origin: Tacoronte-Acentejo, Ycoden-Daute-Isora, Abona, Valle de Güimar and Valle de la Orotava, on the Islands of Tenerife as well as Lanzarote, El Hierro and La Palma.

Lanzarote
The vineyard is an integral part of the Lanzarote landscape which is crowned by the summit of the Timanfaya volcano. Around La Geria region the vines grow from within holes dug out of the black volcanic rock and surrounded by a small round, stone wall .

The intervention of man gives the whole venture a very singular characteristic of its own as well defending the vine from the drought and the scorching Saharan winds which blow across this most western of the Islands. The white Malvasia species of grape dominates the vineyards and provides unmistakable sweet and semi-sweet wines.

Tacoronte-Acentejo
This is the oldest Designation of Origin of the Canary Isles and maybe also the most developed in technology and the art o wine making. The area includes various municipalities on the northern tip of the island of Tenerife, located half way between Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the isle's capital, and the important tourist resort of Puerto de Santa Cruz.

The vineyard is a showpiece of the rich variety of species on the islands and contains the majority of the white Canary grapes (Malvasia, Vijariego, Gual, Listan Blanca, Verdello, Moscatel) as well as the main red grapes (Listan Negra and Negramoll) although it is the latter which predominate and which produce the most interesting wines.

Ycoden-Daute-Isora
This recently created Denomination of origin from the far western side of the Island of Tenerife is a recognition of the ancient wine growing pedigree of the region with its recognised centres like Icod de los Vinos and La Guancha. The vineyards grow in terraces built into the slopes of the Teide mountain, and provide wines of a singular aromatic quality.

The whites obtained from the Listan Blanco and Malvasia species predominate but the red, made mainly out of Listan Negro and Negramoll are velvety to the palate and have a unique character.

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