El Grifo Tinto Coleccion

Founded in 1775 this is Lanzarote’s oldest winery and has passed through just 3 families, with the current owners tracing their roots back to 1881. The island doesn’t make winegrowing easy, almost all the work carried out is done manually. The vines are grown in small semi-circular plots with a curved wall protecting one side and creating mini micro-climates to help the vines thrive in this unforgiving landscape. Lanzarote escaped the Phylloxera disease so vines here are original root stock.

The Listán Negro is a variety of grape unique to the Canaries and in the past has suffered as a red wine grape from over-maceration leading to overly astringent wines. El Grifo took a different approach to wine-making with this grape and only macerate for a very short time at carefully controlled low temperatures. The wine is fresh and lively and resonates with notes of the volcanic soils on which the grapes grow. Serve just slightly chilled to retain its fresh, mineral qualities.