The Derrame del Vino (Wine Mutiny)

Monument to the Wine Mutiny - Statue depicting the Derrame del Vino in Garachico

The Derrame del Vino, known as the “Wine Spill”, is an event that took place on the night of July 3rd, 1666, when local wine producers poured gallons of Malmsey wine down the drain in Garachico in protest over ruinous prices driven by the British monopoly of the sector. There's even a statue to celebrate putting those dastardly Brits in their place. See it along the sea front road in the town. 

Portugal's independence from Castile; Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza, which favoured trade with Madeira at the Canary Islands' cost; as well as the creation, in 1665, in London of The Canary Company (sister company to the famous East India Company), establishing a British monopoly over the Canarian wine trade in England, are all events that conspired to to provoke this reaction in Tenerife. The short-lived Canary Company was disolved in 1667.

Malvasia (Malmsey, known as "Canary" in Elizabethan England), a sweet fortified wine made on the islands since the 15th century, was the drink of choice on the British Isles for aristocrats, writers and merchants for more than 150 years, until the trade suddenly ended in the 1680s. This wine was exported through the north Tenerife port of Garachico and a rebellion, called the "Derrame del Vino" (Wine Rebellion) took place in that town on the night of July 3, 1666, in protest against the abusive policies of the British monopoly in the trade. On that night, around 300 to 400 masked men broke down the doors of the bodegas and destroyed the barrels, spilling the wine - rather than sell it for low prices - and causing "one of the strangest floods in world history", wrote historian, José de Viera y Clavijo.

In 2006, it was reported that Canarian Malmsey was set to make a comeback after 300 years, as "the government of the the sun-kissed Spanish outpost, is hoping to resurrect the fortunes of a wine whose qualities were once lauded by Shakespeare and reputedly drowned the brother of a medieval English king."