The Europeans brought the first vines to La Palma in the early 16th century and immediately the wine produced here obtained prestige and quality to the point of being exported to Portugal, Spain and England. In the XVII century it began its decadence of commerce due to some plant diseases such as the Oidium, the difficulties for the export and the competition of Portuguese wines. Just in the twentieth century the first Denominations of Origin were created in 1995 in La Palma. In the last twenty years, palmeri wines have been recognized at regional, national and international level and are once again leading players in the economic sector. Virtually all of the vineyards are planted without grafting. The phylloxera, the damaging phytophagous of the vine, originating in North America, which appeared in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, and today present in all the viticultural countries of the world, has not spread to La Palma and to the Canary Islands in general. In a short time it causes serious damage to the roots and the consequent death of the attacked plant, the only effective and widely applicable method, which has kept European vineyards alive, consists in the grafting of European vines on roots (rootstocks) of American screws: these have developed a resistance that prevents insects from attacking the roots.
We know today that around 90% of the vines are over 40 years old, some arrive at 100. Famous is the sweet Malvasia and the wine de Tea made with Negramoll and Albillo grapes aged in Tea barrels (Canarian pine wood with more than 20 years of age). At the moment there are 18 wineries regularly registered on the island D.O., 983 wine growers and 537 hectares of vineyards, whose production has reached in the last year about 1,300,000 kilos of controlled grapes.
We offer visits to wineries, walks in the different regions of cultivation and tastings of the best wines obtained from the best palmeri masters.
