Talking about Bodegas Carballo means talking about Malvasia, volcanoes, and traditions. The current vintner, Eliseo Carballo Pérez, works together with his daughter and his son-in-law (the oenologist). He, in turn, follows the footsteps of his father Elías Carballo Cabrera (“my father was the last exporter of sweet wine to Cuba, he sent the last shipment from the Canary Islands to America in the 1950s,” he recalls), and his grandfather (“he was a famous chief vintner and owned seven wineries”), and his great-grandfather (“he was already selling wine to America”).

This well-travelled wine is none other than the Malvasia that has been cultivated on Llanos Negro’s vines since around 1700, in the ash that the eruption of the San Antonio volcano left there in 1677, and which is considered the best Malvasia on La Palma (and maybe even anywhere in the world). This is not a place for cultivating in espalier, so the picón had to be dug until the fertile soil was reached where the vines could take root and in which the volcanic ash provided perfect hydrological conditions, with or without rain. “Espalier doesn’t work here, the main enemy of our vines is the wind, and we can’t just hang up a curtain and cut the trade winds off.”

Eliseo Carballo, vintner:
“Espalier doesn’t work here, the main enemy of our vines is the wind, and we can’t just hang up a curtain and cut the trade winds off”

This wine, as Eliseo tells us, used to be shipped “bottled in wooden boxes of twelve bottles, individually wrapped with straw, first to Tenerife and then, via the Transatlántica, to Cuba,” before he continues with tales and adventures of fast sailboats and long voyages from his great-grandfather’s time.

■ Bodegas Carballo SL Carretera de Las Indias 44, 38740 Fuencaliente (La Palma), Islas Canarias (España) Phone number: (34) 922 444 140 Email: info@bodegascarballo.com Home page: www.bodegascarballo.com ● Capacity: 50,000 liters. ● Average production: 10,000 bottles/year. ● Exportation: small shipments to the Spanish Peninsula. ♠ Open to the public. There is a shop (11am to 7pm).