Sandstone vault · beam press · La Orotava
The century-old wine press
The traditional wine press still keeps its century-old vault of sandstone brick, the wooden barrels and the bottles stacked in an arch. Outside, the old beam press rests beneath its roof.
It no longer makes wine: it is a heritage feature that lives within the garden and can be explored during your stay.
The story
A wine press is where wine was made before there were wineries with machinery. The grapes were trodden over the trough and the must ran into the vat; then the beam press, an enormous wooden beam counterweighted with stones, squeezed the last of the juice from the pressed pomace.
Northern Tenerife lived on wine for centuries: the Malvasía wines of these slopes once travelled across half of Europe. Here stands a witness to that trade, with its vault and its barrels intact.
The beam press worked like a giant lever: a single wooden beam was enough to squeeze the pomace after the treading.
In detail
The other features of the park
Seven pieces of Canary Island craft, inside the garden.
The hay barn
Built of dry volcanic stone, with its green door and a thatched roof. The Cabildo of Tenerife has it listed as an ethnographic heritage site.
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The threshing floor
A ring of open lawn between walls of volcanic stone and Canary Island pines. On this ground the harvest grain was once threshed.
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The stone washing troughs
The original basins still standing, with their spouts over the stone. Here the laundry was washed by hand before water reached the houses.
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The carved wooden trough
A trough carved from a single hollowed-out log, resting against the stone wall with a couple of clay jars beside it.
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The hand water pump
A cast-iron lever pump, mounted over the old well and surrounded by clay water jars.
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The petanque court
A court carved out among Canary Island pines, with firm earth underfoot and shade that settles in by the late afternoon.
View the featureWander the park during your stay.
The the century-old wine press and the other features are yours to explore freely when you stay in one of the houses on the estate, in La Orotava.