Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma28/12/2015 00:00
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Majorcan wine is very much in fashion in Germany. José Luis Roses, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, says that, because of this interest, wine producers in Majorca are getting 6.5 euros per litre of wine that is exported, which is above the average price of Rioja, Rueda and Ribera del Duero wines from the mainland. The only wine with designation of origin that is commanding a higher price is Priorat from the Tarragona province.

Sales of Balearic wine abroad this year had (by the end of November) a value of 7.4 million euros, with 50% of the exports going to Germany and Switzerland. A reason for this, it is believed, is the consequence of residential tourism in Majorca and of  tourists who stay in superior-class hotels of four and five stars as well as in rural tourism accommodation and the interior hotels of the island’s towns and villages. Roses notes that these types of accommodation place emphasis on local wines as part of a general policy of promoting Majorcan cuisine.

The result has been to provoke a demand for taking the wines back to countries of origin; hence, the level of orders being placed with specialist shops and wine businesses and by German and Swiss residents.

In addition to Germany and Switzerland, there is an upward trend in demand from countries as far-flung as Japan. The Balearic association for wine producers confirms that there has been generally increasing export demand since 2004, albeit that economic crisis stalled this to some extent. Since 2010, though, the exports have been on the rise once more, and this is adding to the commercial viability of the island’s bodegas, for whom the short-term outlook in the European market is positive.