...and Bodega BiniVista
Winemaking Newsletter from Mallorca!
Hanging out with Søren Svenningsen from BiniVista
Wow, what a great experience: Winemaking in Spain. So much has happened here on Mallorca during the last two weeks - I just can’t help sharing it with you!
Recap from last newsletter: At the beginning of the year I got contacted by Søren Svenningsen, a Dane who had fallen in love with Mallorca. He (also) got the vine/wine bug and ended up buying land on the island, planted 60 acres of vineyards and established a winery with top-notch production and eco-tourism facilities. He asked me if I would be interested in a one vintage consulting winemaker project. So here I am making wine on Mallorca.
Checking Cabernet Sauvignon X... I love this rocky soil!
When I visited first time back in April and we tasted through his 2022 barrels I was inspired to make some sample blends and we landed on a Syrah/Grenache/Cabernet Sauvignon X (Marselan) mix. So when I arrived here two weeks ago Julia, the vineyard manager and winemaker, immediately took me through the different blocks that they carefully had set aside for our project.
The first days I spent time in the different blocks observing the vines and clusters, checking the grapes for flavors, color, acidity and also measuring sugar and pH. I was very surprised when I realized how perfect the timing was – it was the right moment to bring in grapes!
Harvest time picking Grenache. Tramuntana Mountain Range in the back.
From Wednesday (August 23 -- our wedding day – sorry I couldn’t be at home, Rebecca) through Friday we were able to harvest all three varietals. The small bins spent time in cold room (“the freezer”) and Friday we started sorting and destemming the clusters. Since we had all three grapes good to go I decided to crush them together to do a co-fermentation.
Crushing the three varietals together
We ended up with 12 small fermenters – some of them are just half the size of our ½ ton picking bins! After another 36 hours of cold soaking we brought them into my makeshift “winery” and let them pick up temperature.
Checking the 12 small fermenters
I wanted to test out if we could get a native yeast fermentation going so early the first week Søren and I picked a couple of buckets of grapes. After hand crushing them we left them alone and checked them daily. After two days there was a nice smell of baking pound cake and the juice started pushing whole grapes and skins upwards. I added more fresh grapes and the activity increased rapidly. Success! This wild yeast culture was now distributed into the 12 fermenters and the train took off!
Building up wild Mallorca yeast
With pleasure we observed daily how the fermentation got very active when we perform the two daily punch downs and as I write this we are getting towards the end – all the sugars are almost fermented to alcohol. The aromas and flavor developments are beautiful and very promising. I think this is going to make a very interesting Mallorca wine!
Making wine on Mallorca with Søren Svenningsen from Bodegas BiniVista. Fun time!
Timing wise things could not have been any better! I got here at the perfect day and since our harvest in California is going to be very late this year there was no reason for me to jump on the first plane back to US.
Punch Downs are good exercise!
Working at this location and environment has been such a lot of fun and a great experience – the BiniVista team is simply great to work with. Again, I realize that the grape growing and winemaking passion and spirit is such a wonderful, global phenomenon. When, in a few days I return back home to Sta. Rita Hills, I know that I have added an amazing experience to my wine journey and with a big smile (and maybe a tear) I will, with pleasure think back at my first harvest in Europe.
I just can't wait to be back on Mallorca again to follow the wines journey through barreling, aging, final blending and bottling!
The BiniVista project team: Marie, Peter, Søren and Julia.
All the best from Rebecca and Peter.
Be good to yourself and others - and enjoy great wine!
Cheers!