From the atlas
El Grifo
El Grifo is a family winery in Lanzarote, where Listán Negro and Malvasía Volcánica grow in hand carved hollows in volcanic ash.
At A Glance
| Fact | Detail |
| Region | Lanzarote, Canary Islands |
| Village | San Bartolomé |
| Main grapes | Malvasía Volcánica and Listán Negro |
| Signature wines | Rosado de Lágrima and Colección Tinto |
| Defining feature | Vines planted in hollows carved into volcanic ash |
The Producer
El Grifo combines a family winery in San Bartolomé with vineyards within La Geria's Protected Landscape. Brothers Juan José and Fermín Otamendi are the fourth generation of their family to run the estate. The principal grapes are Malvasía Volcánica and Listán Negro, with Listán Negro appearing in both rosé and red wines.
The producer's vineyards are worked by hand, while the cellar combines family continuity with modern equipment. El Grifo has also moved all its wines to natural yeast fermentation since the 2020 harvest.
Place
El Grifo's winery is in San Bartolomé, Lanzarote, while its vineyards lie within La Geria's Protected Landscape. The vineyard area is defined by volcanic ground and Atlantic winds, with cultivation shaped by the ash that covers the island.
Lanzarote appears as the appellation on the two listed wines. La Geria describes the vineyard landscape where El Grifo tends its vines, and San Bartolomé identifies the winery's home.
Soil And Site
The vines grow in hollows carved by hand into picón, the volcanic ash that covers the vineyard ground. Picón captures humidity and shields the roots from wind, allowing the vines to grow inside protected pockets of ash.
The vineyards sit between 250 and 462 metres above sea level. The physical method is easy to picture, a vine planted at the bottom of an ash hollow, with retained humidity around its roots and shelter from the wind above.
Story
El Grifo has made wine continuously since 1775. Brothers Juan José and Fermín Otamendi are the fourth generation of their family to run the winery, carrying family ownership into the present operation.
The producer's history is therefore tied to an active working house rather than a preserved name alone. Wine production has continued across four generations, with the present family managing vineyards and a modernizing cellar in Lanzarote.
Vineyards And Cellar
El Grifo tends 100 hectares of vineyards within La Geria's Protected Landscape. The annual vineyard work is done by hand, and the harvest is described as among the earliest in Europe.
The farming model uses compost in solid, extract and tea forms, with the stated aim of returning resources to the soil while avoiding chemicals and waste. Photovoltaic panels generate nearly 60% of the energy the winery consumes.
Since the 2020 harvest, all the wines have fermented with natural yeasts. Natural yeast fermentation allows the vineyard's native microbial population to begin the conversion of grape sugar into alcohol, while the choice of fermentation method remains consistent across the range.
Wines
Rosado de Lágrima is the rosé, while Colección Tinto is the red. Both 2018 wines are made entirely from Listán Negro. The two bottles present the same grape in different colours and through different cellar approaches.
The current Rosado de Lágrima uses brief skin maceration to extract aroma while softening the natural tannins of the grape. Colección Tinto belongs to the red wine side of the range, where separate grape lots allow different cellar treatments before the final wine is assembled.
In The Glass
The current Rosado de Lágrima opens with strawberry, raspberry and rose petal aromas over a subtle mineral background. Lively acidity carries clear red fruit across the palate, while a slight bitterness adds definition. After fermentation, the wine spends one month on fine lees before clarification and filtration. Fine lees are spent yeast cells, and this brief period gives the wine contact with them before the wine is clarified. The finish is dry, saline and persistent.
Colección Tinto has a medium depth ruby colour, subtle raspberry like red fruit and a light balsamic background. On the palate it is lively, fresh, balanced and light, with an Atlantic character that keeps the red wine clear and energetic.
A Bottle To Understand It
Choose El Grifo Colección Tinto. It is the red expression of Listán Negro, with a cellar method built around separate grape lots. El Grifo processes homogeneous lots, avoids crushing the grapes, and uses short, temperature controlled macerations.
The skins are separated from the must before alcoholic fermentation ends. Some lots then pass through barrel and are later mixed with the rest. The bottle places a single grape variety alongside a cellar process that changes from lot to lot.
Anecdote
As the fourth generation in charge of El Grifo, brothers Juan José and Fermín Otamendi introduced the first stainless steel tanks in the Canary Islands. They also modernized the winemaking system and championed bottling. Stainless steel tanks are fermentation vessels that can be temperature controlled, so the change affected the physical cellar as well as the production method. The brothers' work involved three concrete moves, new stainless steel equipment, a modernized winemaking system and a stronger commitment to bottling.
Final Word
El Grifo makes Lanzarote wines from vines cultivated in volcanic ash, with Malvasía Volcánica and Listán Negro as its principal grapes. Its current range places Listán Negro in both rosé and red, while family ownership continues into the fourth generation.
Sources
https://elgrifo.com/en/pages/250-aniversario-el-grifo https://elgrifo.com/en/pages/vinedo-el-grifo https://elgrifo.com/en/pages/sustainability https://spanishwinelover.com/winerie/el-grifo https://elgrifo.com/en/products/rosado-de-lagrima https://www.origenonline.es/vino-bebidas/el-grifo-tinto-coleccion-o-la-explosion-de-la-listan-negra/ https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/el-grifo-7997701/ https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/el-grifo-7869401/