When the council of Tenerife initiated the Insular Winegrowing Plan to build five regional wineries in the late 1980s, Arico wasn’t one of them. But since it is “the Island’s most extensive agrarian municipality,” according to the Arico winery’s president, the winery was finally built after a group of viticulturists presented the project to the regional Island government.

It was constructed in record time, and ended up being first to actually come into operation under the plan in Tenerife in 1991. Today it comprises 700 associates and has changed the regional agrarian economy (it is part of the Denomination of Origin Abona, which includes the municipalities of Adeje, Arico, Arona, Fasnia, Granadilla, San Miguel, and Vilaflor), revitalizing the majority of its abandoned vineyards.

The co-op that is behind this regional winery was created in 1988. A year later they were already sending grapes to the Experimental Center of Valle Guerra (today the Agrarian Research Institute of the Canary Islands) to examine the quality of the raw material with the hope of producing and bottling wines.

It has been an on-going journey during which the wines have constantly improved, as attested by the many awards it has received

Since then, it has been an on-going journey during which the wines have constantly improved, as attested by the many awards it has received, not only for wines produced using the predominant grapes (Listán Blanco and Listán Negro), but also with other varieties whose production increased when the estates were renovated (especially, Malvasia). The region’s special feature is the altitude at which the grapes are grown, starting at 300 meters above sea level and going as high as 1,800 meters, making these the highest vineyards in Spain, or, in fact, in Europe in its entirety.

■ Sociedad Cooperativa Cumbres de Abona Bajada del Viso s/n, 38589 Arico (Tenerife), Islas Canarias (España) Phone: (34) 922 76 86 04 Email: bodega@cumbresdeabona.es Homepage: www.cumbresdeabona.es ● Capacity: 500,000 liters. ● Average production: 400,000 bottles/year. ● Exportation: Spanish Peninsula and Germany.