The investigador Carlos Cólogan has performed an extensive rearach on the use of Tenerife Wine throughout several centuries. Josep Roca and Juan Carlos (Caco Senante) are the first ‘Tenerife Wine ambassadors’.

Tenerife– 06/07/2017 . Cabildo de Tenerife presented yesterday ( Wednesday 5th) a study on the use of the term Tenerife Wine throughout history in order to enrich and conserve the cultural legacy within the wine in the island. “This project materialized a challenge we took three years ago: to start the third revolution in the wine sector”, said Carlos Alonso, president of the Island Council. ‘Tenerife Wine: the beginning of a story’ is an extensive study conducted by the researcher Carlo Cólogan that have been supported by Cajasiete and Mutua Tinerfeña. This investigation will serve as a tool to showcase the Tenerife Wine history whilst improving its commercialization. Jesús Morales, responsible for the Department of Agriculture, Cattle and Fishing, said “no other wine has the history of Tenerife Wine, we need to rescue that history and make it a part of our heritage’. Generational renewal and succeeding at linking tourism and agriculture are key, according to Abel Morales’s words, ViceCouncilor for the Primary sector. A good example is ‘Crecer juntos’, an initiative of the Regional Government. Both Manuel del Castillo, Cajasiete’s CEO and Juan Antonio López de Vergara, Mutua Tinerfeña’s president, belive their support to Tenerife Wine is needed to save a part of history associated with wine and trade. Josep Roca i Fontané, prestigious sumiller from El Caller de Can Roca- considered the best restaurant in the world for two consecutive yars-, and Juan Carlos (Caco) Senante were designated as the first ‘Tenerife Wine ambassadors’ during the launch.

History
Several months ago some explicit Tenerife Wine references were found at local archives.Those referred to the wine exportation (to the United Kingdom and the United States) during the XVII and XVIII century. The second half of the XVIII century is a fascinating epoque. To begin with, illustration emerged as an intellectual movement in Europe. Thanks to this new vision of the world, more scientific and modern, some ideas lead to the foundation of a new American nation as well as to the French Revolution. Both of these historic events give evidence of the new time the world was facing: now reason and science were to determine who should hold economic and cultural supremacy. In addition, after America’s War of Independence,reborns strongly and international trade is dominated by both the United Kingdom and the United States. India, China and Australia, oriental colonies of England until then, are incorporated to the world scene. Throughout this process, the Canary Islands were privileged witnesses of each of these events. On one hand, we received the greatest explorers of the 18th century, such as Captain James Cook, La Pérouse, Borda, Bligh, Vancouver, First Fleet ships and an endless number of outstanding sailors and scientists who left their mark in the Canary Islands and whose legacy still lasts. These scales were due to the special geolocation of the islands and the adequate conditions to stock up on  wines and other supplies so necessary for the long sea journeys. The opportunity of putting personalities such as George Washington, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, King Carlos III, ministers like Floridablanca, ambassadors like Aranda, viceroys like Gálvez or Branciforte,joined by the most famous members of the British Royal Navy as the Earl of Sandwich, John Jervis, Horatio Nelson and even the French nobles in exile, their common denominator is Tenerife Wine.  According to the researcher’s statements it is fair to say that Tenerife’s wines or Tenerife Wine was “our best currency” . Wine allowed our island to be  economically succesfull during the eighteenth century. Wine was the lifeline in many ways,  but above it all, it allowed us to be relevant in a globalized world. Wine put the Canary Islands on the map, and, just like that we were known as the wine islands. Although anecdotal, it is reasonable to say that Tenerife wine, and possibly those of Cadiz and Malaga were the only Spanish agricultural products loaded to America.

Cabildo de Tenerife’s intention is to compile all the Tenerife Wine history known so far, rescued from the documents that are part of a family history as well as from the research conducted by the historian Carlos Cólogan.