Lanzarote wines have received a "very good" rating during the 2021 Vintage Qualification Act, held last Friday at the Castillo de San José restaurant, which was attended by different personalities from the wine sector, such as winemakers, winegrowers and a large number of wine lovers from the island.
Specifically, the tasting committee, made up of 6 experts, assessed a total of 20 wines from the Lanzarote Wines Designation of Origin, from different wineries, including 9 dry whites, 1 rosé, 6 reds, 1 semi-dry white and 3 semi-sweet whites.
Once tasted and analyzed, the sum and calculation of the median were carried out, with the final result being 13 points, a figure that corresponds to the "very good" rating, according to the valuation system applied by the Regulatory Council.
During the event, Darío Pérez, technician of the Regulatory Council, addressed the main characteristics of the vintage, pointing out first of all the importance and benefits of using weather stations for the harvests. However, he acknowledged that "the 2021 harvest was not a very abundant harvest, since just over 2 million kilograms were collected among all the wineries attached to the Designation of Origin".
"This amount is below the average, since with the exception of the last campaign where we reached rainfall data of around 150 liters, in previous years rainfall has been quite scarce," added the technician. "We have also had quite frequent episodes of haze, which may have caused the harvest date to be brought forward, with grapes starting to enter some wineries on July 15th."
In 2021, there was the effort of a total of 1,829 winegrowers who worked 1,865 hectares of surface area in Lanzarote. For their part, the 21 wineries attached to the Regulatory Council put more than 2,800,000 bottles on the market throughout the year.
As for the varieties, Volcanic Malvasia represented 70% of the total production that entered the wineries, followed by Listán Negro (12%), Listán Blanco (5%), Diego (5%), Moscatel de Alejandría (5%) and Syrah (2%).
After the technical information offered by Darío Pérez, the talk "Lanzarote, from the impossible to the sustainable" took place, given by Cristina Alcalá, director of the Liquid Culture Foundation. In this presentation, Alcalá highlighted that "Lanzarote is a unique agricultural spectacle in the world and an example of adaptation to the territory and respect for the environment. What the land returns to men and women is bottled craftsmanship".
Once the event was over, the attendees had the opportunity to taste some Lanzarote references, which were paired with various local products.
For his part, the president of the Council, Víctor Díaz, wanted to thank the work of all the staff who participated in the 2021 vintage and stressed that "without the effort they make, all this would not be possible and would not have this great value." In addition, he hopes "to have their work and support and that, at the same time, they feel that of all the colleagues in the sector, to continue making this Island and its wines a benchmark at national and international level".
