San Bartolomé
Las Palmas · Canary Islands
VC Islas CanariasDO Lanzarote19.551inhabitants
1591first mention
1775wine documented
A municipality in central Lanzarote. It grew out of the aboriginal hamlet of Ajei and a hermitage dedicated to Saint Bartholomew at the end of the 16th century; a parish was requested in 1787, and its separation as a municipality was approved in 1799.
First mention: Leonardo Torriani, in his description of the Canary Islands (c. 1591), places in the area a settlement called “Teguei”, considered a possible variant of Ajei, the old name of the village. Ajey appears with certainty in a deed drawn up by the notary Juan de Higueras on 14 February 1619.
The legend
eruptions 1730–1736; wine press documented 1775The 1775 wine press born from the ashes of Timanfaya
Between 1730 and 1736 the eruptions of Timanfaya buried much of the best cereal land in central Lanzarote under lava and lapilli. The farmers discovered that by digging pits in the ash down to the old soil and protecting each vine with a small semicircular stone wall, the volcanic layer retained the moisture of the dew and the vine thrived where nothing else would grow any more. Thus was born the landscape of La Geria. In 1775, on land in San Bartolomé, the parish priest Antonio Torres y Ribera built a wine press that still bears the inscription with that date: it is the origin of El Grifo, considered the oldest bodega still operating in the Canary Islands, which has passed through the Ribera and De Castro families and, since 1880, the descendants of Manuel García Durán.
Alive today: San Bartolomé is home to the Regulatory Council of the DO Lanzarote and part of the protected landscape of La Geria. El Grifo keeps the 1775 press and a wine museum in its 18th-century manor house, with tens of thousands of visitors a year. Other bodegas work in the municipality, such as Los Bermejos, which mainly produce volcanic Malvasía.
Wineries and their wines
- Ariana
- Brut Nature Reserva
- Canari
- Moscatel de Ana
- Rosado de Lágrima
- Seco Colección
- Semidulce Colección
- Vijariego sobre Lías
- Diego Seco
- Listán Negro Maceración Carbónica
- Listán Rosado
- Malvasía BrutNature
- Malvasía Naturalmente Dulce
- Malvasía Seco
- Malvasía Seco Fermentado en Barricas
- Malvasía Semidulce
Wine towns nearby