Vintners expect very good results this year

THE vineyards in the central and eastern areas of Majorca are expecting very good results for this year, with a total of 1.7 million kilos of “very good quality” grape harvest. As there has not been any great storms or heavy rain so far this year, the result has been good news for the Majorcan wine industry as they have not had any problems with the vineyards. This year the Pla i Llevant (central and eastern) vineyards will produce “more” wine harvests than in 2004, said Miguel Feliu, the secretary of the Board which controls the wine with a specific denomination of origin label from this area. Feliu was speaking at a presentation of the local wines for the 2005-2006 season, attended by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Margalida Moner, and the President of the Regulation Board, Antoni Bennassar. However, most of the wine which is made on the island is actually consumed on the island, the secretary said. But this is only a small percentage of the total wine drank in the Balearic Islands. More La Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Ribero del Penedes wine is drunk here than other type of wine. The Majorcan vineyards are making an extra effort to open up doors to more foreign markets. The German market is “relatively easy to enter”, said Miguel Feliu. The Majorcan vineyards are also trying to export more wine to North America, Switzerland and Britain.
Only a small percentage of Majorcan wine is exported abroad, for example in 2003 a total of 95 percent of local wine was consumed on the islands, and currently this figure has fallen to 90 percent, Feliu added.