Wines of Palma de Mallorca: Spotlight on Bodegas Macià Batle

Fresh off the boat, heading off to a wonderful couple of days here in Barcelona. As I write this post, I find myself here in what is a very inviting destination. Barcelona, appears to be a very artistic locale, which wonderfully blends the old and new worlds together wonderfully.

Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to visit a wonderful winery on the lovely island of Palma de Mallorca, which many of the locals simply call Palma.

My wife and I joined a group from the ship, which took a wonderful tour of the Palma coastline to see the highlights and then we were off to a outstanding winery called Bodegas Macia Baile. Their winery, is located in Santa María del Camí [Majorca] and all labeled with the Majorcan Denomination of Origin.

It's a crying shame that their wines are not imported into the U.S. market place. I hope there's an importer out there in the vinosphere paying attention to this little voice [my blog] crying in the vino wilderness, "import these wines into the U.S. market". On the island itself I was told that nearly eighty percent of the wine Macia Batle produces is consumed by the folks who live there and who can blame them for not really wanting to share.

A winery which understands and embraces wine-tourism is really refreshing, I was so glad I had the opportunity to visit with fine folks at Macia Batle. The quality of the wine was front and center, I was overall very impressed with the substance of the two wines we sampled. We started out with a brief tour of the winery and given some succinct talking points about how they get things done. Afterward we walked into a large room, great stems awaited, a large vegetarian brick-oven pizza was sliced, diced and ready to make folks smile.

The stems we sampled the wine in was, Schott Zweisel [smart move], they had prepared some tasty snacks which paired marvelously with the two different wines, one a vegetarian pizza that was crazy good and some wonderful their very tasty olive oils, seasoned with their famous sea-salts and some pâté-covered crackers. There was also olive tapenade one that paired with the white wine and other with the red wine. The pours were generous and open bottles were left to their guests discretion.

As we sipped on our wines, each one being described with just enough detail so as not make our eyes glaze over, all while our large group snacked and slurped away. Later after the tasting our group was invited upstairs to their retail store where we could purchase not only the wine, but the tapenade, olive oil, and other assorted souvenirs. If you wanted a taste of an untried wine, again a nice stem was whipped out and a nice pour was given from already opened bottles, without even a hint of hesitation.

It was really great to see a winery who truly "gets" wine-tourism and speaking honestly many other old world wineries may just want to emulate or embrace their model. Because it looks like they are doing pretty well, a thoroughly modern winery, open and inviting to guests and producing some premium vino. The whole process of this winery tour was handled wonderfully and professionally [encouraged purchasing]. Which ensued almost immediately, I went home with two bottles myself. Something I really couldn't say about some of the other wineries we encountered on our trip, so kudos to Bodegas Macia Batle you're doing a great job.

The first wine we encountered was their 2010 Blanc de Blanc, a dynamic blend of Prensal Blanc and Chardonnay which will knock your socks off. A dry white wine with vibrant mouth-watering acidity, bright apple like flavors, tropical notes and creamy palate that finishes very nicely with great depth. This wine sells for about eight Euros, but only EU countries will can have this wine delivered to your door step.

The second wine we sampled was the Macia Baile Crianza 2008 a wonderful mind-bending blend of Manto Negro, Callet and Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose on this wine is forever and ever. I really didn't want to take my fat half-Irish nose out of the glass. On the nose a vibrant bouquet of aromas over-flowing into the air, plum, strawberry, licorice, kirsch and nice minerality. The palate is fat and generous leading to a long lengthy finish. Full of dark red and dark fruit flavors and a zing of minerality laid over polished tannins, drink now and drink often or hold to improve.

This wine sells for about nine Euros, a definite buy recommendations for you red wine fans, a stunning wine for the price. Mallorca's fame for making premium wines is reaffirmed by this very modern and smart winery that has it going on.

Well folks that's all I have for you today, I hope that whatever you are drinking, that you're enjoying to the fullest. If you ever have an opportunity to taste the wines from the Bodegas Macia Batle on the beautiful island of Palma, I would highly encourage you to do so. Time to head out on the town, while I'm here Barcelona, until next time live long and prosper cheers everyone!