A visit to a different bodega in Tenerife

Who doesn't like to try local products when on holidays? And if the occasion includes visiting a beautiful area, meeting cute farm animals, eating nice home cooked food and drinking wine, well, I believe that it is just the kind of experience that you would want on your holidays!

All this you can get at Finca Alma de Trevejo. I discovered this place by chance surfing the internet, when the words “ecological wine” drew my attention. I thought I should give it a try and headed up there one afternoon in October with a friend and it was well over our expectations.

To start with, the drive there is interesting in itself, the Bodega is situated between the towns of Vilaflor and Arona in the southwest of Tenerife. Thanks to Google we managed to arrive by little cement roads between the terraces where they grow wine. It is often steep and narrow and we were praying for not meeting with other cars. The bodega is situated at 1300 metres above sea level in a beautiful area where the fields of vines spread out in all directions. We arrived pretty late in the afternoon and as the sun was setting, it gave the fields a warm yellow colour. 

The vineyard is 16 ha big and is not irrigated, but the vines, that sometimes dig their roots down to 30 metres deep, depends highly on the rain falling during winter.

La Finca Alma de Trevejos is composed of several old charming buildings (the winepress, or “lagar” is more than a hundred years old) and lots of stables and areas with different farm animals, such as geese, chickens, goats, pigs... You are welcome to walk around on your own to discover all the different spaces, which is lots of fun. There are also play areas for children, a great thing if you are travelling with kids.

Inside the bodega you are received by the owner Antonio and taken through the tasting of their wines, in total you can try four different types and he will explain each one to you. This is for free but you are of course welcome to purchase a glass or two of the wine you like the best, or a bottle to take home!

If you have never tried Canarian wine before you might be surprised, because they are quite different from other European wines. To start with, the grapes are today considered specific and even endemic to the Canary Islands. Of course, they were brought here from Europe, but they have now been cultivated for so long in the islands, over 600 years, that they have developed into local varieties. Also, when the American insect pest, Phylloxera, hit the European vineyards badly in the 19^th century, an event that put a halt to wine production in Europe during some years, the vines of the Canary Islands were not affected and have therefor the same genetic origin as the original grapes that were brought here in the 15^th century. Varieties such as Negramoll, Listán Negro and Tintilla for the red wines and Malvasía, Listán Blanco, Gual, Albillo and Vijariego for the white wines are grapes that you probably haven't heard about before. It's also said that the special and varied climate and the volcanic soil are important ingredients in the local brew. The most popular Canarian wines are the white, which are known to be very fruity without being too sweet,  but it's also possible to find interesting red bottles, often young and with a strong mineral touch to them.

For some time, the Canarian wines were world famous and the foundation on which the Canarian economy rested, since they were the main export product for more than 300 years.  It was mainly  England who received the barrels and it's known that famous people, such as William Shakespeare and Walter Scott liked to have a glass or two and even mentions the Canarian wine in several of their plays.

The monoculture and export of wine came to an end in the 19^th century, but of course they didn't stop growing vine and during the last decades it has had an important boom, with several DOP areas being declared and lot's of little bodegas making better and better wine. Also Finca Alma de Trevejo has gained prices in a National competition with their 2016 white “Mountain Wine”.

Alma de Trevejo is not a restaurant, technically speaking, but in the traditional “bodega way” it is possible to have something to eat with your glass of wine. Every day they offer one hot dish of , for example, stew or soup. And they always have an oven cooked pork meat, made from the “black pigs”, endemic to the Canary Islands and a really delicious goat cheese made in the Trevejo region.

There are lots of nice different seating areas, including a table out in the fields and another inside the wine cellar and it's a place that can receive big groups, if you have a special event to celebrate. So, don't hesitate to visit this Ecological vineyard and wine cellar, but, make sure it is someone else doing the driving!

Finca Alma de Trevejos opens Monday- Saturday, from 12 pm to 19 pm.