The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Ibiza’s wine delivers fresh Balearic bliss
The Mediterranean island’s reputation for sun-seeking hedonism means that few visitors take the time to explore the excellent local vineyards. They should, says Chris Leadbeater
Somewhere up the rutted track, a dog is barking. It is the stern howl of the faithful farm canine – not necessarily aggressive, but a territorial statement nonetheless. The driveway veers upwards, rising next to a whispering wall of pine trees, before flattening out at the top, where the estate’s squat main building lies low in leafy shadows.
In terms of first impressions, Sa Cova is no match for the sophisticated châteaux of the Champagne region or the modern palaces of Napa. But then, it is not trying to be. Tucked just outside the village of Sant Mateu d’Albarca, in the north-west of Ibiza, this is wine production as afterthought – albeit an afterthought which is slowly shedding that image.
The fruits of the vine have never been a pressing concern in Ibiza. There is much else to divert a wouldbe business owner here, not least a tourist industry that accounts for six million visitors a year. Many of these incomers are drawn to the drinkeries and clubs of Sant Antoni on the west coast. Others head to this third largest of the Balearic Islands for a climate that offers 11 hours of sunshine during the summer, framing 130 miles of shoreline in a golden glow. Viticulture, it is fair to say, is nobody’s first thought when they reach the “White Isle”. A glass of local vino? No, thanks – I’ll stick with my cocktail.
This helps explain the somewhat pragmatic nature of Juan Bonet Riera’s operation. He emerges from a side door of Sa Cova’s “wine lodge” brushing his hands on the back of his trousers, removing the hard-earned dust of a morning’s labour before he Essentials
Getting there British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) offers year-round flights to Ibiza from London City and Heathrow. Summer-season alternatives are flown via Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ryanair.com), Norwegian (0330 828 0854; norwegian.com), Jet2 (0800 408 1350; jet2.com), Flybe (0371 700 2000; flybe.com) and easyJet (0330 365 5000; easyjet.com).
Staying there Cas Gasi (0034 971 197700; casgasi.com), a luxury hotel near Santa Gertrudis, has double rooms with breakfast from €295.
Visiting there Sa Cova (Sant Mateu d’Albarca; 0034 971 187 046; sacovaibiza.com) is open to visitors year-round. Tasting tours, including four glasses of wine and tapas, cost €17 per person, and should be arranged in advance.
Further information ibiza.travel; spain.info
begins with any greeting. A stocky chap in his late fifties, he has the relaxed air of a man who has stumbled on something glorious without ever having realised that he was searching for it.
Sa Cova included, there are now five wineries on Ibiza. Majorca has more than 70. Riera is untroubled by such numbers. Like his fellow producers in the quiet Ibizan interior, he started cultivating his crop as a hobby, a sideline to make undramatic (but drinkable) bottles of red and white for family parties and neighbours’ weddings. It was back in 1993 when he conjured his first batch. Two decades on, he produces 25,000 bottles a year, 80 per cent red – enough to have a distributor who ensures that, for all the mojito mayhem at the beach bars, Sa Cova’s label appears in Ibizan restaurants and hotels. Enough, too, that Riera is able to export a third of his stock (largely to Germany).
The learning curve was not entirely easy. “The first year was difficult,” he recalls, island accent thick, yet clear. “Then, in Ibiza, you could not buy a bottle. You could not buy a cork. You could not buy anything.” He was, though, assisted by the raw fertility of Plat d’Albarca, the narrow valley that frames his 12ha of vines. “The vine is a strong plant,” he says. “It can survive with little water. And the soil here – red and heavy with clay – is good for wine. The warm climate helps, too. All this is possible.”
He shows me into the cool gloom of the production plant. Riera has offered tasting tours since 2002. These are whistle-stop affairs, though detailed enough that they cast light on the workings of a family company where the harvest – monastrell, syrah and merlot for the reds, malvasia and macabeo for the whites – is still conducted by hand.
Inside, the stainless-steel machinery of the crushing and fermenting process lurks. Then there are the rows of barrels – a select 26 in one room, where the 2013 vintage of the popular “Sa Cova 9” awaits its moment. Riera sweeps his arm across this chorus line of oak. “No two wines are the same,” he says. “The personality of the wine depends on the soil, the climate, on the way it has been cultivated. If you planted my vines in the south of Ibiza, they would behave differently. The personality of the land is the personality of the wine.”
Before long, we are sitting on the terrace, putting his theory to the test in the warmth of midmorning. Each tour includes four glasses of house tipples, served with an unshowy selection of tapas – cheese, chorizo, a bowl of olives from the grove below. The Sa Cova 9 turns out to be glorious, alive with a full-bodied potency – and I follow Riera into the tiny estate shop, where I buy two bottles for €18 (£15). Within an hour, I am back down the hill in Sant Mateu, eating a late lunch of lamb chops amid the al fresco restaurant elegance of Can Cires – and watching the same bottle being poured out at twice the price.
Ibiza’s interest in wine is unlikely to make the Rioja region assess its profit margins soon – but if it can achieve a 100 per cent mark-up in the space of a mile, it surely has a future.