The Press of Sosoaga
Almost four hundred years after its construction, the oldest press of txakoli conserved in the Basque Country sees again the light.
The new center of interpretation of the txakoli of Lekeitio, inaugurated last December 3rd in the hermitage of Saint Elena, offers the visitor the possibility to carry out and interactive trip by the history of this wine, besides exhibiting the oldest press -container where was pressed or stepped the grapes- in the Basque Country. To soak the user above all related to this wine, the museum combines the display panels with modern audiovisual techniques, among the one that emphasizes the diffusion of a video assembly in which the captain Bartolomé López de Sosoaga relates the history of the txakoli in the turistic village.
The press, of 400 years of antiquity, appeared recently in the Palace Uribarri-Sosoaga when was acquired by the property development company Harbiatx for its reform. "The piece was found practically intact, was restored by the property development company and donated subsequently to the City Hall", detailed the mayor of the locality, José María Cazalis.
"The visitor will be able to know curious aspects like the old bylaws prohited the consumption of the wine of La Rioja that arrived to the municipality through the Route of the Wine and the Fish if before the local txakoli had not been finished", detailed the responsibles of the museum.
