During these days, the wineries of Lanzarote are rushing the end of the harvest. The ethnologists of the different wine brands of the Island predict that at the end of the current wine campaign, scheduled approximately for next September 14, a total of 4 million kilos of grapes will have been harvested.
This was stated this Wednesday by the oenologist of Bodegas La Geria, Alberto López-Peláez, for whom the forecasts made by both the Regulatory Council of Designation of Origin and the winemakers themselves are finally going to be exceeded, and by far.
"In principle we thought that we would reach 3 million kilos, but seeing the pace we are going at and with the effort that is being made from the different wineries of the Island, which the truth is that they can no longer be asked for more because they are collecting even more than they can actually absorb, the figures will skyrocket to 4 million," he said.
This year the wine campaign has been surrounded by expectation and controversy when it was found from the beginning of August that there would be surplus grapes.
One of the wineries in whose vicinity the fruits of the vines ripen later, La Geria, continues this week with the reception of the red grape, and from next weekend until next week will begin to collect the moscatel.
According to the oenologist Alberto López-Peláez, the end of the harvest will most likely be brought forward to September 15, Día de los Dolores, precisely so that the end of the campaign does not coincide with the festivity of Thursday of next week.
The action of the Cabildo
After the Cabildo committed a few days ago to pay the surplus of grapes at 1.20 euros per kilo, both EL Grifo and La Geria are taking care of collecting those surplus grapes. Experts criticize, at this point, the lack of foresight of the Cabildo "for not having prepared those wineries for the surplus, now having to pay for that lack of foresight out of their own pockets".
In fact, and as López-Peláez pointed out, of the 4 million kilos that will finally be reached in the current campaign, about 700,000 kilos -or what is the same, about 500,000 liters of wine- will be left over. Therefore, the Cabildo will have to face, according to these calculations, the payment of about 840,000 euros (that is, about one and a half million of the old pesetas) for that stock of grapes.
Wine promotion
In the opinion of wine experts, what is needed now on the Island is to enable an optimal promotion of Lanzarote wine, a task that in principle is presumed to the Tourist Board.
Currently, there is speculation in the sector that this promotion will be carried out through the "door to door" method, that is, through visits to the economic sector of the hotel industry, where wines could be present in the menus. "It is the least that can be asked of the Board after the effort that both the wineries and the farmers themselves are making, who take care of the vineyards themselves," warn the winemakers.
"The Tourist Board is the one that should promote this promotion, as the Regulatory Council acts as a link between the wineries and the farmers, coordinates, controls and carries out extensive monitoring, in addition to taking care of subsidies for the vineyards, quality or seals." In other words, winemakers hope that the promotion of Lanzarote wine will not detract from examples such as Andalusia and olive oil, Cantabria and Cabrales or Huelva and its Iberian pork ham.
The promotion seems more necessary this year than any other, especially because ethnologists believe that despite the current drought in three-quarters of Spain, "the market has frozen due to the paralysis of wine marketing and also a lot of bottled wine is entering the Islands from the Peninsula".
Little interest in the countryside
On the other hand, it is worth noting the low participation that this week's lavozdelanzarote.com survey has registered with a question that asked for the opinion of the readers of the digital version of this newspaper. This circumstance speaks for itself of the little interest that agriculture and, in general, the primary sector, arouse among the Lanzarote society.
Thus, to the question of whether "do you consider that there has been a lack of foresight of the Cabildo in giving an outlet to the surplus of grapes harvested this year?", only a total of 252 participations have been received. Among the answers of the Internet users, the option "a" (Yes, because it had to be foreseen in advance what was going to happen after such a rainy winter), received 110 participations (43% of the votes); the option "b" (Yes, because the Island Corporation should have already set a price and clarify how much it is willing to buy the surplus of grapes) was supported by 77 votes (30% of the total); the alternative "c" (No, the Cabildo has acted correctly trying to tackle the problem was chosen by 24 people (9% of the participations); and finally, the option "c" (No, the problem is with the winemakers and they have to solve it) received a total of 41 votes (16% of the opinions registered).
