The Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research (ICIA), has launched the project 'Recovery of the biodiversity of the genus Vitis by rescuing minority varieties capable of differentiating Canarian wines'.
The objective is to "recover and improve the productive potential of vine varieties that confer differential characteristics to these elaborations through their development in agroecological cultivation conditions".
The eleven designations of origin of wines from the Canary Islands participate in this project, as well as the Councils of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Lanzarote, La Gomera and El Hierro, in addition to the Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA) and the Murcian Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Research and Development (IMIDA).
The initiative seeks to maintain the rich wine-growing heritage of the islands, preventing the disappearance of those old varietals considered best adapted to local environmental conditions.
These grapes have been losing prominence over time in favor of others, the majority in the production of wines, such as Listán Blanco, Listán Negro or Malvasía Volcánica, which occupy almost 74% of the surface cultivated in the archipelago.
To this end, throughout 2023 the project's research team selected the most interesting varieties from an agronomic and oenological point of view in collaboration with the other agents that are part of the study.
Recovering what phylloxera took away
In this phase of the project, the area's councillor, Narvay Quintero, accompanied the ICIA researcher responsible for this program, Alejandra Lazzaro, and the technician from the DOP of El Hierro, Alfredo Hernández, during a working day on the island of El Meridiano aimed at obtaining samples of wine-growing soils where there are old vines of minority vine varieties to obtain beneficial microorganisms, specifically mycorrhizae-forming fungi, which will later be multiplied for inoculation in the sanitized material.
During the day, the head of the department explained that after the passage of the phylloxera plague through Europe, some of the vine varieties introduced to the islands in the 15th century disappeared from their places of origin, being preserved only in specific places in the Canary Islands.
“During these five hundred years, mutations and crossings have occurred, giving rise to original varieties, which, together with the great diversity of microclimates and soils where the vineyard is cultivated, gives rise to the rich varietal heritage of our archipelago,” Quintero highlighted.
“On the other hand, climate change puts the Canary Islands, like other European regions, at serious risk of desertification; and the measures to combat this situation in the agricultural sector involve increasing the biodiversity of crops, opting for varieties that respond better to climate change, and adopting management practices that enhance ecological processes,” he added.
An ICIA farm treasures 50 varieties
The ICIA's Isamar Farm, located in Valle de Guerra, has a vine collection that comprises some 50 varieties, of which more than half are minority and represent all the islands where this crop is present. Previous studies have allowed the ampelographic, molecular, agronomic and oenological characterization of 35 of these present varieties, of which 22 are part of the list of authorized and recommended varieties for the Canary Islands.
The vineyard constitutes an important part of the Canarian landscape. It occupies more than 6,000 hectares in the islands and is the second crop that covers the most land after the banana plantation (8,000 ha), representing 15.8% of the cultivated area in the archipelago. In Lanzarote and La Gomera it is the first in extension and more than 90% of the cultivated area is found in Tenerife, Lanzarote and La Palma.
