Lanzarote’s wine harvest begins

Lanzarote’s vendimia, the earliest wine harvest in Europe, began last week.

According to the island’s Wine Council, Bodegas Stratvs were first to harvest a small crop of syrah grapes, and were followed by Bodegas El Grifo, Jable de Tao, Vega de Yuco and D’Celso, all of whom began to gather the island’s emblematic malvasía volcánica grapes.

The unique nature of Lanzarote’s wine cultivation means that the harvest is always gathered by hand, usually in large plastic crates or buckets. The grapes are then weighed and machine-washed.  Delicious table grapes are also likely to be on sale within the next few weeks and are generally sold by smaller shops rather than supermarkets. 

The Wine Council claims that weather conditions on the island mean that the harvest will be staggered over some time, with the full harvest expected to be in by September. An estimated 2 million kilos of grapes are forecast.