The 2012 vintage of Lanzarote Designation of Origin Wines was "excellent", as revealed this Thursday by the president of the Regulatory Council, Javier Betancort, at an event held at El Grifo wineries. It is the fourth time since the Lanzarote Designation of Origin was created 20 years ago that the tasting panel of the Regulatory Council has awarded the highest rating to the island wines, after tasting 18 types of wines (ten dry whites, three reds, two rosés, one carbonic maceration red, one semi-sweet white and one semi-dry white).
Javier Betancort recalled that 2012 had been a "very difficult" year for the sector, as only 1,430,000 bottles were bottled because the 2011 harvest was the worst known on the Island, with only 720,000 kilos collected, while for example in 2012 1,776,827 kilos were harvested. He also expressed his satisfaction because "if in 2009 the kilo of grapes was paid to the winegrower at an average of one euro, in 2012 the volcanic malvasia was paid at 1.6 and the rest of the varieties at 1.4; the average price of the bottle of wine in that same period went from 5 to 7 euros".
He also highlighted that the island market has gone from representing 68% in 2009 to 49% in 2012; while the Canary Islands market has risen from 27.5% to 36% and the market outside the Archipelago from 4.5% to 15% (9% in the Peninsula and 6% abroad), which "has contributed to positioning both our product and the name of Lanzarote outside our Island" where there are 1,975 hectares of vines distributed in 8,200 plots, 1,729 winegrowers and 17 wineries attached to the Lanzarote Designation of Origin.
"The vineyard is not profitable"
The president of the Regulatory Council alluded, however, to "two fundamental problems that affect the sector right now", such as that "the vineyard is not profitable given its low productivity" (an average of only 1,500 kilos per hectare are obtained from a mostly manual work), "which leads to it being abandoned more and more" (there is no generational replacement or entrepreneurship) "and therefore endangers one of the great assets of this Island, such as its landscape".
The other "problem" is the "comparative grievance to which the Government of the Canary Islands subjects grapes compared to other products when distributing the aid it receives from the European Union for the primary sector, since of the 200 million euros allocated for this purpose, 141 million are taken by a single sector, with the cost of that product being lower".
On the contrary, Javier Betancort highlighted the "wide promotional offer" that is carried out by the sector through the celebration of hiking days through wine-growing landscapes, pairings in restaurants, initiatives such as the musical and enogastronomic experience Sonidos Líquidos, or original combinations between fashion shows and wine tastings through 'Lanzarote Trendy & Wine'.
Special mention was made of the one carried out by Saborea Lanzarote (a tourist product club formed by the Cabildo, through the Department of Economic Promotion, Agriculture and Tourism, Lanzarote Chamber of Commerce, Asolan, Aetur, Lanzarote Cocina and the Regulatory Council itself).
"Without a doubt, the most important active institutional policy that has been carried out and that aims to position Lanzarote from an enogastronomic point of view through fairs and enogastronomic weeks, training days aimed at the restaurant sector, presentations outside the Island or the celebration of events such as the Wine Run," he said.
