OLD VINES: THE GIFT OF TIME
The site must have looked propitious: the soil was rich and red; the vegetation lush, dense and green. Christopher Columbus founded the colony of La Isabela in what is now the Dominican Republic in 1493 as a base from which to search for precious metals – especially gold – but the second European settlement in Latin America was almost certainly the site of its first vineyard, planted alongside other crops.
Did those first vines produce grapes? It would have been a close call, as La Isabela was abandoned after three years because of disease, hurricanes and hunger. And if so, what were they? Listán Prieto (aka País, Criolla Chica and Mission) brought from Castilla-La Mancha and set to become the most planted grape in the Americas by the middle of the 16th century? Moscatel de Alejandría? Or some other grape, sourced perhaps from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, Columbus’ last port of call to take on provisions before crossing the Atlantic? In the absence of archaeological finds, we
