El Hierro (DO)

El Hierro is a Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) for wines that covers the entire island of El Hierro, the smallest and westernmost island of the Canary Islands, Spain. It acquired its DO in 1994.

History

The first vineyards were planted by an Englishman, John Hill, in the 17th century. The wine produced was used for distillation of spirits which were then exported to South America, especially Venezuela and Cuba. For centuries, sweet fortified wines from the Canaries were popular in England and was known as Canary Sack. In the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sir Toby Belch calls for a "cup of Canary".

Geography and Soils

The vineyards in El Hierro DO are planted on very infertile soils of different types: clay, lime-bearing, marl, sand, and even volcanic ash. All these soils are of volcanic origin as the area known as El Golfo (The Gulf) is formed by the edge of a large extinct volcano. They are all poor in nutrients, but have good water retention properties. There are around 200 ha planted to vines in this DO.

El Hierro

El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano (the "Meridian Island"), is the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands (an Autonomous Community of Spain), in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with a population of 10,162 (2003). Its capital is Valverde.

Name

The name El Hierro, although spelled like the Spanish word for 'iron', is not related to that word. The H in the name of the metal is derived from the F of Latin ferrum (compare higa for 'fig'). The H in the name of the island dates back to the time in Old Spanish orthography when the distinction between the letters I and J was not yet established and a silent h was written before word-initial ie to ensure that the i was read as a semivowel, not as the consonant [ʒ].

The confusion with the name of the metal had effects on the international naming of the island. As early as the 16th century, maps and texts called the island after the word for 'iron' in other languages: Portuguese Ferro, French l'île de Fer, and Latin Insula Ferri.

Hierro (disambiguation)

Hierro may refer to:

Hierro (film)

Hierro is a 2009 psychological thriller directed by Gabe Ibáñez and starring Elena Anaya, Kaiet Rodríguez, Bea Segura, and Andrés Herrera.

Plot

Six months after her young son Diego mysteriously disappears while travelling by ferry to the island of El Hierro, Maria is finally overcoming the pain of her loss. However, a phone call notifying her of the discovery of a child's body on the island forces her to go back to the island. Her return to the sinister island full of malevolent characters marks the beginning of a nightmarish journey where she learns that "some mysteries should never be revealed".

Cast

Production

The film is from the producers of Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage, it was directed by short film director Gabe Ibáñez, who shot his film of the Canary Islands in El Hierro, Gran Canaria and Madrid.