Wine, guachinches and somewhere for a drink

Tenerife makes wine unlike anywhere else in Europe. The phylloxera louse that destroyed the continent’s vineyards in the nineteenth century never took hold here, so a great many vines still grow on their own ungrafted roots, in volcanic soil, at altitude — and almost none of it leaves the island.

The other half of drinking here is the guachinche: a grower’s own kitchen, open a few months a year until that season’s wine runs out. It is a legal category, not a style, and it is the most misunderstood thing about eating on this island.

7 — written by the people who host here.