Since its opening just two years ago, the only winery in Arrecife, Lágrima de Malvasía, has already achieved great awards for both its red, which won the gold medal in Berlin at the largest wine festival on the planet, and its white, which has just won the gold award at the Virtus international competition in Lisbon.
The owner of the winery, Fernando Arráez, opened his business with the intention of developing a vinegar factory, for which he decided to create his own wines, belonging to the Lanzarote designation of origin.
Now all its products have been awarded, including the vinegar, which received the silver medal at the Vinavin Tierra de Vinos competition in Córdoba. Carlos Chavaud has spoken in the Más de uno Gourmet space of Radio Lanzarote with its winemaker, Javiér González from Lanzarote, to reveal the secrets of its success.
- What is a festival of the dimensions of the Berliner Wine Trophy like?
These are international competitions that can have more than 8,000 references of wines in each category or as a whole and include wines from all over the world. You are competing with French, Italian wines, etc.
- How does such a young winery manage to win so many awards in such a short time?
The most important thing to create a good wine is the raw material and the volcanic Malvasia grape is a spectacle. It gives you everything, that is, it is an explosion of both aromas and flavor. So you already have the primary base and from there, you play a little with touches of acidity or with other types of aromas, but always respecting the variety, which has to be 100% noticeable, that you go to La Geria directly with your mind while you are tasting the glass and the image of Lanzarote comes to you.
The process begins with the arrival of the grape at the winery after that struggle of the winegrower over so many months to ensure that it is in good condition. Then we start the fermentation process, which lasts approximately one month, and always at the foot of the canyon, seeing the grape with the five senses, the wine always tells you what it wants, if it needs a racking for example.
- What does a racking consist of?
A racking is to pass the liquid from one tank to another to see if it has any type of reduction or if there is any type of problem in the fermentation. It may be necessary to add oxygen, aerating it, so that the yeasts revive again and the fermentation continues or to prevent them from having residual sugars at the end of the fermentation. Our intention is that the wine is completely dry and is a balanced product both in volume in the mouth, as in degree of acidity and alcoholic.
The best way to know the product is by tasting it and the best way to get that concept of wine and reference that you want to take to a competition, that profile, is by tasting and tasting different wines from around the world and trying to organize everything you have in your mind and carry it out.
- After a year with low grape production and with more than 20 wineries with the Lanzarote designation of origin, it must have been a war to get grapes this season and someone has told me that you have contributed, in the good sense, to the increase in prices for farmers...
Yes, because there is little planting and many wineries. We all want a little bit to get our products out and continue with that wine that you have on the market. The work of the winegrower has to be paid and if you have a good quality of grape, you have to reward it and that's how you also win over the winegrower so that he continues with that daily effort to get a good product and that he feels gratified with the increase in price, that his work is valued.
La Geria is expensive to work. The sand has to be removed from the holes so that the vine breathes, they have to be kept clean, because all the dirt brings disease. You have to always be at the foot of the canyon, removing the bad grass and so on, a job that has to be rewarded.
- How did your passion for wine come about?
Since I was little, we have always made wine at home. My grandfather was a sharecropper and made wine at home and for a winery. I have always had that bug of wanting to learn and do different things too.
- Is it true that you have multiplied production?
Yes, it was exactly double this year. About 20,000 liters of white and about 4,000 of red.
- In addition to the aforementioned award-winning wines, you also have a white with a totally different format, how has it been processed?
In this case, the white has finished fermenting in oak barrels, where it is left for approximately 6 months and then bottled. The barrel has traditionally been used for reds. This is different, it is white in barrels. It is a limited edition, we only have four French oak barrels, hence the different bottle format with sealing wax. You have to add a little more value to it.
- The winery really came about with the idea of producing vinegar, tell us...
When the winery opened in Arrecife, the idea was to have a vinegar factory. The winery started by buying wines from other wineries in Lanzarote until it decided that it is better to buy the grapes and create our own wine for the base of vinegar, which we also produce, and which has also won a silver medal.
- Where can your products be obtained?
We are located just in front of Ikea, in the old Lloret y Linares factory. You can get them there and also in different gourmet shops.
