If La Palma is the archipelago’s island for the most exceptional Malvasia grapes, the Fuencaliente municipality is the one that concentrates the best volcanic soil in which to cultivate them, and the Teneguía winery offers highly unusual elaborations of the grape.

The high quality that could be achieved using the Malvasia had already been discovered by the Catalan oenologists who chose the location of this winery in the 1940s, back then a small town of very few houses at the southern extremity of the island, but with Malvasia vines close-by. The general, García Escámez, who was head of Economic Control of the Canary Island during the post-war (civil and world war) era, supported its construction to enhance the dwindling economy of the area with the idea of producing wine for exportation.

Very well designed and with equipment that was, at the time, unheard of on the island, its first vintage dates from 1947

Very well designed and with equipment that was, at the time, unheard of on the island, its first vintage dates from 1947. The original building was divided into five naves with brick vaults and 36 cement containers that could hold 18,000 liters each. It was equipped with three presses at a time when typical production on the islands involved stomping the grapes. The company was called Vinícola Fuencaliente, and it failed a few years later because the islanders were reluctant to purchase bottled wine. In 1972, Bodegas Teneguía acquired the winery, improved the technology, and resumed the wine production. But this effort didn’t last long either. Finally, it was the viticulturists themselves, through a co-op, who have been producing top quality wine here since 1989.

New investments in infrastructure have continued to equip and modernize the winery’s technology. Today, besides its wide range of wines from grapes that are cultivated all over the island (Listán Blanco, Malvasia, Bujariego, Gual, Sabro, Verdello, and Baboso from Fuencaliente; Albillo from Garafía and the high areas of Fuencaliente; Negramoll from Fuencaliente, Mazo, Tijarafe, and Puntagorda), it also produces such a wide assortment from the Llanos Negros’s Malvasia grape that the winery seems like a theme park of Malvasia wines (some of them you will find described on the following pages).

■ Llanovid SCP Calle Antonio Francisco Hernández Santos 10, Los Canarios, 38740 Fuencaliente (La Palma), Islas Canarias (España) Phone number: (34) 922 444 078 Email: administracion@vinosteneguia.com Home page: www.vinosteneguia.com ● Capacity: 1,200,000 liters. ● Average production: 350,000 bottles/year. ● Exportation: Spanish Peninsula and United Kingdom ♠ Visits by appointment (with sampling of three wines, 5,50 €). 10am to 1pm from Monday to Saturday. ♣ There is a sales point and tasting from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, from 10am to 1pm, Saturdays and Sundays.