HERITACCESS
Access to culture and heritage in rural surroundings through the interactive digital experience
This is the dedicated low barrier mode for screenreader usage. The 360 degree panoramic pictures are replaced by detailed alternative texts. These texts are available as plain text and as audio files spoken by a real person.
The structure for each panoramic picture is first heading then audio file and followed by textual description.
This part of the underground winery was the main and most important part in the production of wine, it is where the press is located that was used to extract the juice/must from the recently harvested grapes upon their arrival at the winery.
The room is still lightened through solar light coming from the above entrance, and the press is the element central to the room. It is a huge construction made of a rounded stone base, with a steel beam mechanism that from the base goes inside a wooden trunk attached to it through robust ropes. To turn the press, the stone had to turn, thanks to the push of the wooden piece by people.
When the press functioned in the past, first the grapes entered the winery through “zarceras – vents or pulley canyon”, it is an elongated space, similar to a chimney that connects the street with the interior of the winery. The grapes, once they were entering the winery through these vents, were piled up in a pile approximately 1 meter high, and on top of the pile of grapes, some pieces of wood were placed, which we call “castillete” which is what when applying the strength of the wooden beam in this room was pressing and squeezing the juice of these grapes to obtain the “must.”
The beam went down and crush the pile of grapes through turning the stone, by using the wood and screw that exists, with the force of 2 to 4 people, to lift the stone that weighed between 500 and 600 kg and whose force lowered the wooden beam so that it pressed on the grapes.
The “castillete” of pieces of wood that presses the grapes was always assembled in the same way, placing 3 heights of pieces of wood, each of which has a different shape and name. The last piece of wood that was placed is known as “marrana” (pig) because the sound made by rubbing one wood against another is like the squeal of a pig. The liquid that came out of pressing these grapes is called “must” and it came down from the winery to the second floor of the winery through the channel that you’ll discover marked with lights.
This panoramic picture shows the salar 1. The picture is taken just in the room entrance with the stairs in our back leading to this room. The cellar is longer than wide, with a round vaulted ceiling. The room is illuminated through a mix of LED-Lamps on the walls and artificial lights of eight red white info-installations showing the relationship between the population of Toro and wine culture throughout history. The four installations in the middle of the room are shaped like houses with a triangle roof. The roof is made of translucent glass with Information, including texts and historic pictures. The info boxes on the right wall are one meter wide and two meters high. The translucent front leads with texts through many historical facts. The smell is suggesting the presence of water infiltrations. On the left side is a rebuild scene of a loading space of a caravel for wine barrels full of Tinto de Toro on the way to America with Christopher Columbus. It is built in a former collection basin for freshly pressed grape juice.
Nearby leads a stairway down to salar 3. On the right side is a second basing built in the corner of the room. It is one meter deep with a wall half meter over the floor. On the wall is fixed a half meter high network from fibre.
This is a representation of how wine was transported on ships.
It is quite an obscure space, filled with wooden built-up pieces and made-up objects that gives as idea of the interior part of a ship. So, we can find a lantern hold on the right side of the space, a barrel in the floor on the left side, above which we can notice some holding ropes.
It is very difficult to distinguish things in this space due to lack of light, but it certainly gives the feeling of a tight inside or underground space, where items are stored.
Toro wine was one of the first to be taken on Christopher Columbus' voyages "to the Indies", due to the relationship that a Bishop of Toro, Fray Diego de Deza, had with the navigator and discoverer. Toro wine had many royal permits and privileges to be the best seller both in Spain and in the American colonies from the 15th century onwards.
This panoramic picture in salar 1 is taken near the room end. The info desks and panels are in our back. Inside a vault on the left is a wall filling black and white picture of the town's festivals. A model in shape of the town's clock tower is going out of the picture. According to tales, it is said that the clock building was made with wine instead of water since people working on it were drinking wine to have the energy to raise it up. The other tale is that the vine in the vine cellars in the town was less exhausting and cheaper to reach than the water from the river Doro below the town.
On the left hand is a large wooden wine barrel, big enough to be able to enter it. Nowadays half the size or smaller barrels are normally used, but in the past, the wine produced was mainly for family consumption, on an annual base. This is why these large barrels were used in this type of winery, for storage or for transport. Behind the barrel, there is another vault that provides access to salar 2. The entrance cannot be seen without going around the barrel, but the room can be noticed up in the round vault a so-called “zarcera”, which is a small window. This element was essential to create a channel to the outside, through which oxygen enters, and which was used to unload the grapes. The many Ceiling arches made of masonry bricks intersect virtuously. They frame one chimney leading directly upwards for transportation and air exchange.
The panoramic picture shows the inside of a large wine barrel. The barrel is made of oak wood with iron rings. It is 1.5 meters in diameter and 2 meters in height. It was originally used to transport 700 liters of wine. The round base and round lid are made from individual planks. The bulgy walls are composed of many slightly curved planks. The barrel is secured horizontally on the floor.
The panoramic picture was taken in the middle of the horizontal barrel. At the start of the panoramic image, we are looking at the ground floor. We can turn to all sides in the panoramic picture and look around. To the right and left, boards are attached to the walls for us to sit on. Above this, there are boards to the right and left for storage. At our back is the round ceiling of the barrel. There is a narrow door through which we can enter the barrel. There is room for 6 people, 3 of whom can sit opposite each other. Light falls through a 30 x 30 cm hole in the upward-facing barrel wall.
It smells of damp and old wood.
The inside of the barrel is dark from its former use.
Light efflorescence and mold stains can be seen.
The panoramic picture of salar 2 was taken in the midle of the entrance area of the room. It’s 5 meters wide and 15 meters long. Along the long walls left and right are 30 centimeters high white sideboards. On the sideboard are three banners on each site like curtains leading in a canopy to the opposite side. The informations on the curtains are dedicated to the Toro Wine Appellation, to the process and life of the vine in the land and its subsoil, which makes the so called “Toro's ink” so special.
Straight on at the end of the room are standing 5 panels two meters high and half meter wide showing in total a view over Toro and its surrounding landscape. In front of every panel is a shelf with a glass filled with one of the typical flavours in Toro wines, such as liquorice, blue barriers. An explanation on the panels is given of the denomination specifics and the types of wine that the denomination allows when ageing, known with the names of Crianza, Reserva y Gran Reserva. The information provided also contemplates a description of the type of grapes that are allowed within the area: Tempranillo, Malvasia, Verdejo.
On the left site in opposite of the room entrance is a small stair leading to the inner courtyard of the building beside the entrance room.
In the back on the right side is a transparent vertical standing plastic pipe with a soil cross section of the toro floor inside. An info panel nearby describes the several layers. Further back is a room wide basin former used for wine and fruit juice, delimited by a fibre network. A chimney in the ceiling leads to the entrance hall.
In this room, in the front part, there is a map of a territory through which the Toro Wine Appellation extends, between the provinces of Zamora and Valladolid, and a representation of some of the wineries. The latter are represented through the top piece of wine barrels, stick to both sides of the room, in two columns, and with labels and names of the wineries that takes part in the Appellation in the centre of each of these barrels.
Originally, this part of the winery was one of the most important, and it was used for storing wines and preserving them.
The regulation and expansion of vineyard cultivation and wine production was established with the creation of the Regulatory Council of the Denomination of Origin in 1987. From that moment on, there is greater professionalization and a quality mark in the way of producing Toro Wines, established by the standards of this Denomination of Origin. Currently, the Regulatory Council of the Toro Denomination of Origin endorses the quality of 63 wineries.
It also encourages the planting of the native variety, sets the planting density, maximum production and ensures that appropriate standards and techniques are followed in the production of wines, thus guaranteeing the quality of the wines. Another of its functions is the defense of the good name of the mention and the promotion of wines protected in national and foreign markets.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
