A municipality in the west of El Hierro occupying the El Golfo valley; its name refers to the abrupt change in relief between the valley and the cliff of Jinama. It separated from Valverde at the beginning of the 20th century, and in 2007 El Pinar in turn separated from it.
John Hill’s vineyard documented by Thomas Nicols (published 1583); wine trade 18th-20th centuries; DO 1995John Hill’s single vineyard and the Tafeña of the new wine
The English merchant Thomas Nicols, who lived seven years in the Canaries, wrote in his description of the islands, printed in London in 1583 and reissued by Hakluyt, that in all of El Hierro there was no wine except for a single vineyard that an Englishman from Taunton named John Hill had planted among the rocks. Nicols does not say where it was; tradition on the island places it in the valley of El Golfo, today the municipality of Frontera, where the island’s vineyards are concentrated. Centuries later the wine of El Hierro, much of it distilled into aguardiente, was one of the main products the island sold abroad, from the 18th century until the early 20th. Every 31 October the Tafeña opens the bodegas of Frontera for tasting the new wine.
Alive today: Frontera is home to the Regulatory Council and to most of the island’s vineyards, in El Golfo. The Cooperativa del Campo de Frontera (Viña Frontera) organises the Tafeña on 31 October, and the town council holds “November, the month of wine”, with routes through the wine presses of Los Llanillos.