What is the Ohanes grape?
Ohanes is a late-ripening white table grape named after the village of Ohanes in the Alpujarra of Almería. It has long, wax-yellow berries with seeds, a thick skin and an exceptional keeping quality. In Spain it is known as uva de barco (“ship grape”). In British and American markets it was simply the Almeria grape.
Barrels, cork dust and the world’s ports
The first recorded sea shipments date from 1835. Grapes were packed in barrels of about 22 kg filled with cork dust, which protected the bunches for months. Exports peaked in the early 20th century: in 1907 alone, almost 2.5 million barrels were shipped, mainly to England, Germany and the United States and later to Scandinavia.
Wars closed those markets. Refrigerated transport then allowed thinner-skinned varieties to compete, and in the 1980s and 1990s most Ohanes vineyards were grubbed up.
Ohanes at Finca Los Frailes
We kept one of the last Ohanes arbours and the work it needs. We still pollinate the flowers by hand, a task we call dar liga, and still flood-irrigate the arbours, which slows ripening and gives firmer, more even fruit. Harvest starts around mid-October and can run until Christmas. Sebastián Marín was honoured at the Almería Provincial Council, at the VII Grape Varieties Show organised by the Terque Ship Grape Museum, for preserving the variety.
Sources: the family’s history of the farm (Spanish), Innovagri, 2017, Wikipedia: Uva de Ohanes. Full guide in Spanish.