The Moscatel vines in La Geria

La Geria is an extraordinary place, it’s the symbol of the humans’ fight in eagerness against nature in order to survive. I try to understand the anger of the people living in the areas affected by the volcano eruptions during 1730-1736; they used to live in the most fertile area of the island, now they see their land covered by lava and tiny volcanic rocks.

The vines situated in the cones, covered by the tiny volcanic rocks, called picón, and which are protected of the wind by the volcanic stone walls, must now replace in the population of La Geria, the anger of their ancestors, by the pride of the hard work of innovation and by the satisfaction of seeing so many visitants, who discover daily, each corner of this beautiful island, admiring their work.

La Geria

  The Malmsey, the black or white “Listán”, the “Breval”, all these varieties grow in these cones of picón. However, there is a well beloved variety here in Lanzarote, called the Muscatel, which by their specific characteristics of length and luxuriance of its raceme need to grow in trellised vines.

Wine Museum El Grifo

It was a big challenge, if the vines rose, the wind would destroy them, and increasing the height of the protecting walls was not very useful, so they opted to lower the ground and the solution they found was to put the vines in the volcanic bubbles which exist between the lava flows which cover the valley.

Muscatel vines in a  volcanic bubble  (Chaboco) 

In order to see these muscatel vines, there’s nothing better than to visit the Museum of Wine in Las Bodegas El Grifo, where they have recently prepared a small route through the property owned by the museum. Here they show us various volcanic bubbles or small holes (Chabocos) which used to be volcanoes and now contain centenary vines of large dimensions.

Inside of a Chaboco (volcanic bubble)

The spectacle is worth seeing, all of them are impressive, but my favourite are 2. In one of them you can access the inside of the hole of what used to be a volcano in order to see the large branches of the vines from the bottom. And according to the owners, years ago, family picnics used to take place here.

Chaboco (volcanic bubble) with door

The other vine which astonishes me is one in which the protective wall is very tall, more than 2 metres high and is totally closed, in exception to an opening where a door is missing. Following this, we are told by the same source, D. Fermín Rodríguez-Bethencourt, the old owner of the wine cellars, that here he used to have a lemon tree, to which he did not allow anyone to come near to, and even less to take that precious fruit. That’s why he had it locked with a door.

You can find all this and much more in our Rutas de Lanzarote.

Translation: Yaiza De Andrés and Hanna De Andrés