The Wines of Mallorca: Manto Negro, Callet and the Old Cellars

Mallorca has made wine since Roman times, lost almost all of it to phylloxera, and has spent the last forty years bringing it back with grapes found nowhere else. Here is the story, the grapes to ask for and the cellars to visit.

The long story

The vine came to Mallorca with the Romans in 121 BC, says the DO Binissalem, and Pliny compared the wines of the Balearics with the best of Italy. Wine was made even under Muslim rule, and in 1230 James I was offered “grapes of excellent quality” when he took the island.

The great years came between 1865 and 1890, when phylloxera was ruining the vineyards of France: in 1891 Mallorca exported almost 50 million litres. The same year the pest reached the island and destroyed its vines, and some native varieties all but disappeared.

Did you know? In his novel Clovis Dardentor (1896), Jules Verne has two young men drain glasses of “excellent Binissalem wine, whose fame reaches beyond the Balearic archipelago”.

The DO Binissalem

Recovery began at the end of the 1980s, and the DO Binissalem was recognised in 1990 (the first request dates from 1973). It covers five villages at the foot of the Tramuntana: Santa Maria del Camí, Consell, Binissalem, Santa Eugènia and Sencelles.

The vineyards lie on a plain between 70 and 140 metres up, on stony limestone soils, sheltered by the mountains from frost and cold north winds. Summers are dry and hot, winters mild; vines share the land with almonds, carobs, figs and olives.

Ask for Manto Negro and Callet: grapes you will find nowhere else.

The grapes

The island’s own grapes are the point. Ask for Manto Negro, a red with aromas of ripe fruit, pomegranate and carob, and Callet; among the whites, Moll (also called Prensal Blanc) and Giró Ros. The DO also allows Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Tempranillo, Chardonnay and others.

The island’s second DO, Pla i Llevant, takes in the vineyards of the plain and the east, around Porreres.

Three cellars

In Consell, Bodega Ribas is a family winery founded in 1711 and run by the same family for ten generations. In Binissalem, José L. Ferrer pairs its wines with Mallorcan food at booked tastings. In Santa Maria del Camí, Macià Batle is the village’s historic bodega.

Our advice

Our advice: the DO villages are a short drive or train ride from Palma (Santa Maria and Binissalem are on the Inca line). Book tastings ahead, take a driver or the train if you will taste, and order Manto Negro or Callet by the glass with dinner wherever you eat on the island.