This weekend I was planning to follow the wine route of the Gran Canary Island with a couple of friends.
Although I’m really ignorant about wines I do like to drink a glass of wine every now and then. I found out that the Gran Canary Island has quite a history of growing grapes and wine production. Between the 16th and 18th centuries wine was the most important exported product.
Right now wine has no more importance for the local economy but there are still a number of sites near the capital Las Palmas where the still have some production of wines.
The value of wine production for the touristic industry is slowly being increased, because the locals found out that there is profit in wine drinking tourists, but there is still a long road to travel. There is a route past six bodegas near Las Palmas. Sadly you need to inform quite specifically in an information point to get the information and than you need to arrange everything yourself. Call the bodegas yourself, make the appointments and arrange transport for the visits.
There is no need to go unprepared. A document to value the wines is a good thing to bring.
In the end the wine route proved to be a typical Spanish thing. If you don’t speak Spanish it will be impossible to make any arrangements. From the six bodegas 2 could not be reached. One was closed and another was only interested in bigger groups. A third was only open from 17:00 till 20:00, but only on Saturday. The last bodega told me we were welcome in October.
Finally we cancelled our wine route. Not so unexpected that this route is no so much published. Maybe in some months we’ll try again.