A wide representation of the tourism and hospitality sector, winemakers, winegrowers, travel agents, members of the Regulatory Council of the Lanzarote Wine Denomination, and authorities of the island of Lanzarote met on the afternoon of this Thursday, the 12th, at the International Museum of Contemporary Art of Lanzarote- Miac Castillo de San José to participate in the public presentation of the new promotional line of the Arrecife City Council to promote a greater presence of tourists and visitors in the capital of Lanzarote.
A few weeks ago, the Department of Tourism, Commerce and Hospitality of the Arrecife City Council, under the direction of the second deputy mayor and councilor Armando Santana, announced the brand 'Arrecife. The flavor capital of Lanzarote', which was a great success at the Saborea Lanzarote Enogastronomic Festival.
Now this new promotional line of the capital City Council's Government group is joined with the value generated for a destination to be a wine-growing area recognized for its excellent wines. 'Arrecife. The capital of Malvasia' is in the new line of product clubs to promote the capital of Lanzarote in the arrival of more visitors and tourists.
The mayor of Arrecife, Astrid Pérez, and the councilor Armando Santana, participated in this presentation within the First Conference on the History and Commercialization of Malvasia, which brought many people together at the Castillo de San José.
The great strength that Arrecife has in the ports of arrival of tourist cruises through the Canary Islands, plus the more than three million tourists who travel to Lanzarote annually, make it possible for the capital of Lanzarote to aspire to increase its potential market niches by uniting gastronomy with the binomial tourism and wines of Lanzarote. In recent times, new restaurants have proliferated in several areas of Arrecife, combining good cuisine with wine bars, promoting the consumption of Lanzarote wines.
The mayor emphasized that "Arrecife is being activated and counts on the tourism sector for greater economic fun in the capital". Astrid Pérez was pleased with this line of work and congratulated the Councilor for Tourism and partner of the Government group, Armando Santana, for these successful proposals, supporting the hospitality sector.
For his part, Armando Santana, highlighted in these conferences that the Government group supported the original idea for Arrecife to be a pioneer among the municipalities of the Canary Islands in having an area dedicated to the hospitality activity as the axis of political action.
Conferences on Malvasia
The presentation of Arrecife, capital of Malvasia, featured two of the most important prescribers in Spain in the world of wine. José Peñín (promoter of the Peñín Guide, which celebrates 30 years of history these days, and a prominent wine critic in the Spanish language, author of the book "History of Wine") praised the idea of the Arrecife City Council and said that 30 years ago, when he visited Lanzarote for the first time, he already predicted that this island would have a great future in the world of wine. Peñín invited the many professionals present to continue working to give more value (higher price) to the wines of Lanzarote, where there are already good wines with the Malvasia grape as the protagonist.
José Peñín said that in a large wine-producing area such as La Rioja, the use of the Malvasia grape is being initiated for its white wines. "The market is asking for this type of wine," he added. Peñín is the president of the "Peñin Group", a company specialized in the world of wine, from which they make it known with the magazine Sibaritas and the Peñin Guide. He has more than 20 books written since its foundation, all related to this field, the world of wine. The Peñín Guide celebrates its thirty years of life in 2019.
The island of Lanzarote is one of the great wine-growing areas where excellent wines are produced, with the volcanic Malvasia grape as the DNA of these extraordinary and award-winning wines. In these conferences, which were open to the general public, two interesting conferences were offered. In addition to the intervention of José Peñín, Rafael Poveda, president of the Royal Valencian Academy of Gastronomy and member of a secular saga of the oenological world in Spain, participated. Poveda is also an oenologist and professor at the University of Alicante. Among his many anecdotes, he recalled that when he was young he already worked in the family winery and preferred, in those years, to sell more to the large food chains than to the tourists who were already visiting his winery. He said that he soon learned that the tourist who comes to a winery practices wine tourism, generates more income, gives more prestige to our wines, and today they have become a great direct sales channel.
Poeda highlighted in his speech that the wines of Lanzarote, an island he has recently known, are epic, due to the laborious nature of their cultivation and the great qualities of their wines, an aspect that should be used by winemakers in their promotions. Already since the time of trade in the Republic of Venice, in the Middle Ages, the Malvasia wines of the Canary Islands had great prestige and high price.
In this section, Peñín added that the landscape of La Geria, which he knew in the 70s of the last century, is an icon to give more value (price) to Lanzarote wines. There are few islands in the world that are wine producers, and Lanzarote is the main one with Malvasia. "That is a great attribute, which, together with the landscape of La Geria, "becomes an icon".
On the morning of this Thursday, José Peñín and Sergio Sachanovsky were received at the mayor's office by the capital's mayor, Astrid Pérez, and by the second deputy mayor and Councilor for Tourism, Commerce and Hospitality, Armando Santana. The first mayor imposed the insignia of Arrecife on this prominent prescriber of wines in the world of the Spanish language. José Peñín has today become the first 'ambassador' of 'Arrecife, the capital of Malvasia', where Lanzarote and its capital have the honor of being the world reference for the famous wines with Malvasia grapes produced by the wineries of Lanzarote.
The Councilor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ariagoma González, head of the areas of Energy and Industry, congratulated the City Council of Arrecife for these conferences and offered collaboration to work on common actions in the future that will promote the wine sector.
Within these conferences, the wines La Grieta Bodega Malpaís de Máguez, vintage 2019, and nocturnal harvest of 2018 were presented. This winery was the only one of those present in the Regular Council of Lanzarote that joined the Arrecife Gastronómica brand, and was present with a stand in the wine area of Saborea Lanzarote under the brand 'Arrecife Gastronómica'.
