Each day brings us closer to the start of the grape season in Lanzarote. For a few days now, LA VOZ has been trying to gauge the mood in the various sectors involved in the process of making one of the most precious assets of our agriculture, wine. M
There has been much speculation in recent days about the quality, volume, and prices of the harvest. This newspaper has gathered opinions of all kinds over the past two weeks, and it seems that companies, winegrowers, and the Cabildo only agree on one thing: the quality of the grapes will be excellent this season, practically unprecedented in recent years.
LA VOZ was with the president of the Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin of Lanzarote Wines, Miguel Martín, this morning, who is also the owner of large tracts of land dedicated to this crop and a partner in one of the island's wineries.
More than ten days ago, the Cabildo alarmed public opinion by venturing that the wineries would not be able to process the total volume of this year's harvest, estimating an increase of around 30 percent compared to last year and proposing that winemakers take advantage of the public facilities of the Teguise Agro-industrial Complex for freezing the must.
The mayor of San Bartrolomé went much further, assuring that the increase will be much greater, around 40 or even 50 percent increase in the harvest, but assured that this will not lead to a surplus in the production of the wineries, insisting that the poor results of last year left the reserves of private companies in the red, so "the wineries are empty today." This fact, added to the excellent quality of the grapes this year, would encourage winemakers to stock up on significant reserves, in anticipation of possible alterations in the quality of the raw material in the years to come.
"In quantity, I estimate that this year's harvest may be 40 or 50 percent more than last year." In this sense, around one and a half million kilos were collected in 2004, while this year "between 2,300,000 and 2,500,000 kilos" could be harvested. "This is a significant amount, which is very good for the wineries, which at this point are practically empty," Martín pointed out.
Regarding the already controversial offer of the Cabildo of the Teguise facilities for freezing the must, Martín pointed out that "proposals must be made not on the eve of the harvest, because in any case this would be possible for the future, since it is impossible to think that must will be able to be frozen this year," concluded the president of the Regulatory Council.
In any case, Martín wanted to dispel speculations regarding the surplus production for this season. "I would dare to say that this year it will not be necessary to freeze wine, because there will not be a large amount of surplus, since the wineries are empty, and even more so considering an excellent quality of wine."
Miguel Martín gave his reasons for believing that freezing must will be impossible. "Technically, there is nothing prepared to do this type of thing, since a series of technologies are needed that do not exist at the moment," Martín pointed out, adding that for the processing and freezing of a food product such as wine "it must be done with all possible guarantees so that the result is a quality consumer product."
