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Lanzarote Vineyards – La Geria and alternatives (Photos + Tips)

Last updated on March 13, 2023 by Claire / this article contains affiliate links (Info)

Visiting the Lanzarote vineyards is definitively one of the surprising activities to do on the island. 
Considering the desert like conditions and the volcanic soil, it is fascinating to learn how the wineries have established the agriculture and prospered.
Below is my guide to help you plan your wine adventure including the famous La Geria wineries and the museum at El Grifo winery.

Before all my tips + photos, here are my favourites for Lanzarote:

car rental

My favorite platform to rent a car in Lanzarote: Discovercars

boat

My favorite boat tour: Papagayo beaches by catamaran

bus

My favorite day trip in Lanzarote: Timanfaya + El Golfo + Los Hervideros + Wines

hotel

My favourite places to stay to explore the island :

  • Playa Blanca, close to Papagayo - my favourite hotel: Princesa Yaiza Resort or see best-rated hotels
  • Costa Teguise, convenient for exploring - my favourite hotel: Barcelo Teguise Beach or see best-rated hotels
  • Puerto del Carmen, the most active - my favourite hotel: Aqua Suites or see best-rated hotels
La Geria Lanzarote Vineyards Canary islands travel

Table Of Contents
The unique Lanzarote vineyards
How does the wine grow on Lanzarote?
How to visit the vineyards in Lanzarote with Wine tastings
La Geria Lanzarote winery
El Grifo vineyards & wines
El Grifo museum

// In this article, no ads, no sponsored posts. Just some affiliate links.
If you purchase through them, I get a commission at no extra cost to you (Disclosure).


The unique Lanzarote vineyards

Don't miss the them! One of the top things to do in Lanzarote is discover the unique vineyards on the volcanic soil.
Being French, I love the beautiful scenery created by vineyards.
But on the island in Lanzarote, those lines of vines are pretty unique, especially when there is a volcano in the background!
Just have a look at one of my favorite photos from the island: 

Lanzarote vineyards volcano photos

The Lanzarote vineyards are located mostly in the center of the island between volcanoes.
It is quite impressive to see those plants growing on the black soil when there is nothing else around.
I will explain in the next section how they are able to grow vines in such a harsh environment.

But for the moment, I am just sharing a few more photos to show you how unique the views of those vines are. A pleasure to photograph!

Lanzarote vineyards volcano photos 2
Lanzarote vineyards volcano photos 3
Lanzarote vineyards volcano photos 4

How does the wine grow on Lanzarote?

Before I tell you all about how to visit and experience this unique feature of Lanzarote, here is a summary about the technics used to make wine on the island.

Let's remember the conditions:

  • NO RAIN - Lanzarote has an almost desert climate and no high summits in the middle, so it gets less than 200mm a year and mostly along the coast. So growing anything is a challenge
  • BARREN SOIL - The canary islands are of volcanic nature. Lanzarote has has giant eruption as late as the 18th century and a small one in 1824. Therefore a lot of the island is covered in volcanic soil: ashes, solidified lava, rocks... Not fertile land!
  • STRONG WIND - Like its neighbour Fuerteventura, Lanzarote gets a lot of wind (sometimes even coming from the Sahara) and there are no high summits to stop it
How does the wine grow in Lanzarote 2

And here are the solutions that have been found:

  • To manage the lack of rain:
    The whole ground is covered in 'picon', a type of small volcanic ash rock. The depth reaches 50cm to 3m, depending on the distance to the volcano.
    This has the particularity to be able to keep humidity, rain and dew as well as avoid evaporation. It provides just what's needed to grow grapes because there are no irrigation at all  any of the vines!
    Because of the limited supply of water and fertile land, the vines mostly grow close to the ground
How does the wine grow in Lanzarote
  • And to protect against the wind...
    Plus the local have built small walls to protect the plants from the trade winds.
    The typical protection is in semi circle but you can also find straight wall has its make the handmade harvest easier

How to visit the vineyards in Lanzarote with Wine tastings

The wineries of Lanzarote - Map 

Lanzarote has many wineries of different size. They are called Bodega: 

  • La Geria, the most visited on the island, located in the main wine valley where all the coaches stop
  • Rubicon, just across the road from la Geria
  • Bodega Stratvs just North of them (modern winery)
  • El Grifo, the oldest in the Canary island and my favorite (I am sharing more about it further in the article)
  • and many other smaller one if you want to discover more: La Querencia,  La Florida, Vega de Yuco...

On the map below you can located where the main wine valleys are:

best parts of Lanzarote

They are all easily accessed by car.

My favorites La Geria and El Grifo wineries are in included in my Travel guide eBook, that makes planning your trip around Lanzarote easy:

Plan your perfect trip around Lanzarote!

Lanzarote ebook cover small
  • 7 easy-to-plan maps
  • 55 Scenic locations in Lanzarote
  • 19 Scenic locations in Fuerteventura
  • Planning tips + Best times
  • 140+ large photos to decide where to go
  • GPS coordinates direct to the carparks

LEARN MORE

Winery tours of Lanzarote

However if you don't plan on hiring a car, you can join an organised tour to discover the vineyards of Lanzarote:

  • HALF-DAY - Combine a tour of La Geria wine valley  with a discovery of Timanfaya National Park to see the destruction, marvels and creation from volcanic eruptions - half-day excursion - Check out program and book
  • FULL DAY - To get an overall view of the island, you can go for a full day excursion that will include the Timanfaya national Park and the La Geria Valley - Check out program and Book
  • WALK - If you are fit, take in some of great views of the island on this 9km walk in the La Geria Valley to reach to 3rd highest point on the island and then relax and taste delicious wine as a reward  - Check out program and book

Check out all my favorite Lanzarote excursions on my article here.

How to visit the vineyards in Lanzarote

Need to rent a car in Lanzarote?

See the best deals on my favorite platform

Renting a car Lanzarote tips

or See my 36 practical tips
to choose the best car to rent
for the roads in Lanzarote

+car rental deals

La Geria Lanzarote winery

As I said earlier, La Geria is the most visited of the wineries on Lanzarote.
It was founded at the end of the 19th century by the Rijo family and is now run by the Melian family.

It is located in the Natural park of La Geria. Its barren landscape was created by the 18th century volcanic eruptions.

Vineyard La Geria Lanzarote winery - Main building

La Geria Lanzarote winery

Its most famous wines are sweet muscat and Malvaisa.
The shop is free access.
I am sorry I did not take better picture.

Vineyard La Geria Lanzarote winery - shop

But the best part are the views!
From the Bodega building you have great views of the whole valleys with all the semi-circle walls and crops.
Even though I think it is not as pretty as the El Grifo vineyards we will see later, it is certainly the most impressive area. It spreads between all the volcanoes for kilometers.
Check out the photos below:

Vineyard La Geria Lanzarote winery - valley
Vineyard La Geria Lanzarote winery - valley 2
Vineyard La Geria Lanzarote winery - valley 3

Where to stay in Lanzarote?
My tips:

  • Most enjoyable Resort Town - Playa Blanca - see best rated accommodations
  • Main resort town (without car & nightlife) - Puerto del Carmen - see best rated accommodations
  • Best location to be able to explore Lanzarote - Costa Teguise - see best rated accommodations
  • Coastal Charm and Quiet - Punta Mujeres - see best rated accommodations
  • Scenic Views - Famara Beach - see best rated accommodations
  • Original & isolated - La Graciosa - see best rated accommodations

More tips on my article about where to stay in Lanzarote


El Grifo vineyards & wines

My favorite winery was El Grifo.
It has a vineyard and a museum about the wine agriculture in Lanzarote.

History

El Grifo is the oldest winery in the Canary islands and one of the 10 oldest in Spain.
It is part of the large protect natural park of La Geria but not in the center where the most visited wineries are.
The current owners purchased it in 1880. Today the fifth generation is running it.

I love that the volcano at the top of the slope with its red colour. It was so photogenic!

el grifo Lanzarote vineyard

Logo

I love their logo and how they have placed metal version of it against the traditional white building walls.

César Manrique created the logo for the El Grifo winery: a Griffin which is a mythological animal half eagle half lion.
He also designed the label for the medium-sweet wine because it was its favorite wine.

El Grifo wine museum lanzarote

The vineyard

You can see different structures on the 60 ha land: The semi-circle walls, the straight walls and a few bigger circular structures.
Because the  Phylloxera parasite never reached the island, some of the muscatel plants are 100 to 200 years old.

The production is small: around 1000kg per hectare.

el grifo Lanzarote vineyard 2

El Grifo wine and tasting

The bottles of El Grifo wine are beautiful and their products excellent.
My brother is the real connoisseur and I brought him back a bottle. He was really surprised and impressed.
There is a large selection for you to choose from: 

El Grifo winery Lanzarote wine tasting

You can just visit the shop and some products or you can pay to enter the museum and do some tasting.
They offer different entry price depending on how many wines you want to taste (starting from 5 euros).

And the best part is that they have created different spaces for you to sit and enjoy the tasting. It is very enjoyable and not a tourist machine.

el grifo Lanzarote winery

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El Grifo museum

The other advantage of visiting the El Grifo winery in Lanzarote is that they have their own museum dedicated to the wine culture on the island.
They have gathered many tools to discover.
It is a great activity when it is very hot as you cool down in the white buildings.

El Grifo wine museum lanzarote 2

You can visit several buildings with many tools and set up used throughout the periods to produce wine. 
The museum has among other displays:

  • an 18th century press beam
  • a vertical press from the 19th century
  • Set up with lagar to crush the grapes and lagareta to filter
  • Tools and materials to make barrels 
  • Cellars
  • ...

The evolution of the tools and techniques is similar as in other wine regions, but its was several decades behind because of the remoteness of the Canary islands.

El Grifo wine museum lanzarote - old tools
El Grifo wine museum lanzarote - old tools2

A small cactus garden was also set up around the museum building. It is not impressive like the famous Lanzarote Cactus garden but it is still quite enjoyable with a few funny species.

El Grifo wine museum Lanzarote - cactus garden
El Grifo wine museum Lanzarote - cactus garden 2

Plan your trip to Lanzarote:

tips key
  • My itineraries : 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 1 week, 10 days
  • 36 tips to rent a car in Lanzarote
  • Guide to driving in Lanzarote
  • Where to stay in Lanzarote
  • Playa Blanca or Puerto del Carmen or Costa Teguise: where to go?
  • Best tours in Lanzarote
  • Best things to do in Lanzarote

Want to see more of the best Lanzarote has to offer?

  • 21 Best things to do in Lanzarote - read article
  • Best Lanzarote Photography Locations - read article
  • Lanzarote Attractions by César Manrique - read article
  • 10 secret places in Lanzarote - read article
  • Best Beaches in Lanzarote - read article
  • Best Lanzarote Volcanoes - Tours & Photos - read article
  • Best places to stay in Lanzarote - read article
  • Timanfaya National Park Lanzarote - read article

Planning a trip to Lanzarote?

Check out my travel guide to help you plan:

Plan your perfect trip around Lanzarote!

Lanzarote ebook cover small
  • 7 easy-to-plan maps
  • 55 Scenic locations in Lanzarote
  • 19 Scenic locations in Fuerteventura
  • Planning tips + Best times
  • 140+ large photos to decide where to go
  • GPS coordinates direct to the carparks

LEARN MORE

And keep track of your own trip!

Lanzarote travel Journal

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