The hollows of La Geria, explained

The problem it solves

Lanzarote has almost no rain and a constant wind. Under those conditions an ordinary vineyard does not work: it dries out and the wind punishes it.

What the eighteenth-century eruptions left on top of the soil was lapilli, the granulated volcanic ash known here as picón. That material has two properties that turn it into the solution:

1. It condenses moisture from the night air and lets it pass downwards, to the soil underneath.

2. It stops that water evaporating back out, because above it there is only loose gravel with no capillary action.

Why the hollow and why the wall

The hollow exists to reach the fertile soil buried under the picón with the roots, and to put the plant below the wind line.

The semicircular wall of volcanic stone is placed on the side of the prevailing wind. It is not an ornament or a boundary: it is an individual windbreak for each plant.

What it means for a visitor

• ·This is farming done by hand, hollow by hollow, which is why it looks so irregular.
• ·Plant density per hectare is extremely low compared with a mainland vineyard. That explains the price of the wine, and it is not marketing.
• ·The landscape is protected, so the hollows are not walked on and plots are not entered: you follow the tracks and the wineries that receive visitors.

When it looks best

In low light, because the contrast between the black picón, the green of the vine and the shadow of the walls is what makes the picture. At midday the black flattens out and the whole thing loses the relief that makes it recognisable.