Lanzarote Vineyards
The uniqueness of the island of Lanzarote is that despite the fact that more than one third of its territory is covered with volcanic ash, continuing their ancient tradition, Lanzarote continues to be quite a major producer of Spanish wine.
And this despite the fact that throughout the year the island is worth rain, and the soil itself, volcanic ash and sand, the main part of the island is not very favorable for viticulture.
However, local farmers have found a way out of this situation. They began to grow grapes in fairly large, rounded depressions, diameter of more than four or five meters from the northern side, enclosed by a low stone wall. In the vernacular of such structures are called Zokos that’s a bit like the Russian word «zakos», or something having a small cosine, inclined surface, but it is unfortunate misconception normal translates it does not matter.
A purely technologically local farmers noticed that placing a vine to a depth of five feet in such a recess can be quite effective to keep even the scant moisture that enters the soil in the form of the same rain and ocean mist. In this case, lined with small stones of a wall on the north side zokosa, plays the role of a sail, which captures the moisture of the night breeze.
So that solving this problem, so quite extraordinary way, the local winegrowers, today brought the total area of vineyards Lanzarote vineyards to two thousand hectares. Wine production is a little less than two million liters. And when you consider that the total area of the island is 862 square kilometers, in the opinion of many experts — wine is pretty good yield.