There are lots of bodegas in the La Geria wine growing area. Expect to pay for degustacion (tasting) as most places charge a few euros. El Grifo is very popular favourite and the oldest winery in the Canaries so we chose to see the museum and taste the wine there. There are a few ticket choices but we decided to visit the museum and then have a tasting session to sample 5 wines with local cheese. As we were 2 couples, we had 10 glasses, one for each of the 8 varieties and 2 extra for our favourites!
You do the tour yourself with the help of signs in several languages although these were a bit unhelpful at times!
The old machinery was fascinating and now I understand why you often see local houses with a beam sticking out of small window. It’s a type of wine press and, of course, once we knew what it was, we saw them everywhere! The massive wine storage areas, tiled with local glazed tiles, were fascinating as you can now walk inside them giving you an idea of the scale. I also liked the array of barrels and dusty bottle stores. You can see the development of bottling and corking machines as time progressed. There are also the huge panniers that donkeys or camels carried over their backs to transport the wine. I also liked the workshop of the barrel-maker or cooper (tonelaria) and the tools which made and shaped the barrels
After a tour of the buildings, you venture out into the vineyards themselves and you can see the grapes growing. We’ve always commented that the low-growing vines in Lanzarote mean that you rarely see grapes! At this time of year, they are tiny but it was good to be able to get close to the vines and see them growing. Most people recognise the little semi-circles of volcanic rock which are used to protect from the wind and to catch the moisture in the climate. The picón acts as a mulch keeping in warmth and moisture.
.After we had visited the museum and the vines, we collected a glass of each variety of wine and some lovely cheese and biscuits and settled in the ‘sala de catas’. A ‘cata’ is a taste of wine, about half a glass. A full glass is a ‘copa’. This was when our friend’s expertise came to the fore and I felt that the visit would have been much less interesting without it. We learned to look carefully at the colours of the wines and compare them to each other. Then we had to look for the ‘legs’. These are the trails of wine left on the glass when you tip it and the legs denote the alcohol content. Then we had the sniffing, gently swishing the glass to release the aromas and smells. I’d always thought this was a bit pretentious but after some tuition, I really could describe the different flavours (summer berries and vanilla, for example).
Finally, the tasting and you really notice the difference in tastes and the length of time the flavour lasts in your mouth and, finally, the different taste left after you swallow, known as the finish. I felt I needed the cheese to clear the taste from each different wine but also because it was the early afternoon and I was getting woozy! No, we did not spit it out!!
The El Grifo staff were very friendly and helpful as we returned and bought our purchases. A case of wine (6 or 12 bottles) works out cheaper than the supermarket if you buy it from the bodega. They also have every sort of wine gadget you can imagine, some of which would make great presents.