The Cabildo de Tenerife and the wine distributor Lavinia, one of the largest in Europe, have launched a campaign to promote the island’s wines in Madrid. The campaign, which will run until May 15, includes meetings between participating wineries and gastronomy, hospitality, distribution and gastronomic communication professionals, such as those held this week, which have brought together more than 200 people around to the wines of Tenerife.
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, indicated that the purpose of this project is “to publicize the wide range of the Island” and “facilitate the access and sale of Tenerife wines throughout Spain.” «The promotion of wine and products from Tenerife cannot be a one-off event; It has to be a continuous process, together with the winemakers, who are the ones who best explain what our wines are like». The goal, maintains Martín, is “to make it natural that in Madrid or anywhere else in Spain you can buy wines from Tenerife, that they are on restaurant menus.”
On Wednesday, in the Lavinia space in the center of Madrid, a meeting was held between winemakers and representatives of denominations of origin from Tenerife with a total of nine members of the Madrid Academy of Gastronomy. The dishes were prepared by Braulio Simancas, from the El Silbo Gomero restaurant. On Thursday, a sample of Tenerife wines took place in the Lavinia space, which could be tasted and with which some cheeses from Benijos were served, one semi-cured smoked goat cheese and another aged cured cheese aged for 8 years. More than 150 guests attended the exhibition, including gastronomy professionals, hoteliers, sommeliers, journalists and Lavinia customers.
Currently, the vineyard represents the second most important crop in the Canary Islands in terms of surface area, with 6,816 hectares, only behind the banana plantation. Tenerife, which has six designations of origin (Abona, Valle de La Orotava, Valle de Güímar, Tacoronte-Acentejo, Ycoden-Daute-Isora and the Canary Islands), accounts for 47% of this area, with 2,977 hectares. There are more than 100 wineries registered in the Management Bodies of the Denominations of Origin of the Island, and every year 5 million kilos of grapes are harvested and controlled, which represents 60% of the total produced on the Island.
The island councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, stressed “the great opportunity” that this agreement represents for the marketing of the Island’s wines, still little known on the Peninsula. “We want our wines to be present on the best tables and menus in Madrid and Spain, and for the diversity and richness of our wines to be known and truly appreciated beyond our borders,” he concluded.
