Annual Pollença Wine Fair

This weekend (16^th and 17^th April) sees the 12^th annual Pollença Wine Fair which is held in the Santa Domingo Cloister, Pollença. The event attracts wine aficionados and amateur enthusiasts in large numbers and is one of the most popular wine events in Mallorca.

Wine was introduced on to the Island by the Romans in around 100BC and was produced, mainly for local consumption, until the late 19^th century when an epidemic of the insect spread disease, phylloxera, destroyed many of the vineyards across Europe including the majority on Mallorca.

It was to take many decades for Mallorca’s wine industry to fully recover and to gain the ever increasing recognition that it enjoys today. The Island has two Denominación de Origen designated wine regions, these being Binissalem in the middle of the Island on the edge of the Serra de Tramuntana and Pla i Llevant, the traditional wine producing region on Mallorca, which covers the central and eastern areas. Denominación de Origen is the Spanish classification system for wine similar to that of the Appellation Contrôlée in France. Both of Mallorca’s D.O. regions contain more than a dozen wineries and there is a further group of over 20 wine makers under the regionally designated classification that permits the production of wines only from the region in which they are grown. This regional classification covers the geographical area of 5 separate municipalities.

Whilst a number of differing grape varieties were imported on to the Island many fine local wines are made from grapes indigenous to Mallorca and a number of Bodegas specialise in this area.

Established just over 10 years ago and set within the beautiful Serra de Tramuntana on the road between Lluc and Pollença the 16 hectares of Mortitx vineyards produce some 100,000 bottles of award winning wines annually and include red, rosé, white and sweet white.