In 2025, El Grifo celebrates 250 years as one of the ten oldest wineries in Spain, a celebration that began this Thursday with an event at its facilities attended by island personalities such as Isidro Pérez Martín, mayor of San Bartolomé.
Along with the current owners, the brothers Juan José and Fermín Otamendi, as well as the winery team, was Ildefonso Aguilar, author of the work entitled Bajo el volcán (Under the Volcano), created for the private collection and which inspires the label of their commemorative wine Malvasía Lías 2018.
Isidro Pérez Martín, mayor of San Bartolomé, highlighted the winery's courage over the years and did not forget the role played by the winegrowers. They, with their work, perpetuate a fundamental trade.
For his part, Ildefonso Aguilar said he was very proud to have received a personal call from Fermín Otamendi, who invited him to create a personal image of the island on canvas. And Juan José Otamendi expressed the joy of the winery as a whole and the commitment to continue defending the island's viticulture, which is undoubtedly heroic.
Since 1775, when the covered winery was built, El Grifo has remained active uninterruptedly, demonstrating remarkable resilience and producing complex wines that go one step further and express the territory. The winery in San Bartolomé was already making wine before that date.
They were the first to sell it bottled and, since 2022, they have been leading the Winter Harvest project, an experiment that aims to find alternatives to climate change. These are some of the milestones that corroborate its restless character in the face of which there are no barriers, no matter how difficult the so-called impossible vineyard makes it.
Today, with the event that has brought together a multitude of people in the winery, the celebration of a key date, 250 years of history, begins, and a new chapter opens because the gaze for the people who make up El Grifo is always focused on the future.
