Since he was a little boy, Luis López would listen to his mother tell him stories about the fig trees that used to grow on his grandfather’s estate. He also recalls running on its hillsides during his childhood, playing and picking grapes he would eat under the midday sun, “even though people would tell me that I was not supposed to eat hot grapes!”. That country house, which his grandfather had bought in the 1940s, was mainly covered with vineyards (as it says on the deed), but there were also many fruit trees, such as the aforementioned fig. Indeed, one of the plots is called La Higuera Mayor (The Biggest Fig Tree), and the idea of naming his wine after it was one he had already cherished years earlier — a friend had given him a detailed contour-line map of the estate, and he thought, “if one day I am able to make wine here, I will call it La Higuera Mayor.”

And that dream came true in 2003 when he decided to plant vines again on the estate – at that point there was only little bit of traditional cultivation left after it had been almost entirely abandoned many years previously. In 2005, he harvested for the first time, and in 2006 he began bottling protected under the Denomination of Origin Gran Canaria.

The result of a meticulous selection process starts a few weeks before the actual harvest, sacrificing all those branches that fail to bear more than 70% ripe grapes by August

His grandfather had made wine for personal consumption in an area where half a century earlier there had been a surprisingly large number of wineries within just a few kilometers of each other. Vineyards had thrived in the volcanic ash soil that is so hospitable to the grape, which they bore in great quantity and superior quality. When Luis López decided to resuscitate wine-growing activity at the country house, he always intended to share it with a wider public. His small-scale production is for sale as bottled red quality-wine, the result of a meticulous selection process that starts a few weeks before the actual harvest, sacrificing all those branches that fail to bear more than 70% ripe grapes by August. “This area has always been ideal for red grapes due to its climatic conditions,” he notes, but López’s determination was the necessary supplement.

■ Luis Norberto López Parres Carretera de Telde a Santa Brígida GC80, km 7,5, 35218 Telde (Gran Canaria) Phone number: (34) 630 285 454 Email: lahigueramayor@gmail.com Homepage: www.lahigueramayor.com ● Capacity: 20,000 liters. ● Average production: 7,000 bottles/year.