Day 3 – Mallorca: Blue Wine & a Mallorcan Sparky
We slept in this morning and went downstairs to CapRoig for breakfast around 10:30am. I was feeling good today and excited for a full breakfast. We both started with fresh OJ & coffee, and ordered the Mallorcan toast. It was tasty but Stelios said the Eggs Royale from yesterday were his favorite.
We went back to our room, got ready, and got picked up at 12:30pm. Today we were going on a wine tour booked through Mallorcan Wine Tours. A shuttle from the wine company picked us up from our hotel and we chatted with the driver Toni on our way there. Upon arrival we were greeted by Paul, our tour guide for the day. Paul was originally from Germany but has been living in Mallorca for the past 13 years. He also told us that he studied wine engineering in college which I thought was so cool. In another life I would have loved to go to university to study wine. We learned that Mallorca has over 130 wineries, but at this particular winery, Can Piza, none of the wine is exported. All of the grapes at this winery are hand picked, and the skins are mashed by hand so there’s no machinery used in their entire winemaking process. Because of this, they have a limited quantity and don’t sell any of their wine, so the only way to taste it is by going there for a wine tasting experience. There are also no labels on the bottles, the names of the wine and year are written on the bottle in marker which was funny to me but also adds to the small batch wine vibe. All of the wines we tasted were delicious, and I definitely appreciated the quality as I sipped each glass. Normally Stelios doesn’t care for white wine but even he was impressed by the first 3 we tasted in the beginning of the tour.
After enjoying the first flight of white wine, Paul took us inside through the finca (Spanish estate/farmhouse). Julian, the owner of the CanPiza Winery lives in the second house on the property, but his mother lives in the original finca from 1662. They did an excellent job preserving and restoring parts of the home. It’s wild that it’s 300+ years old and in such good condition. Paul walked us through the wine storing room and then into the production room where the white wine is stored in stainless steel tanks and the red in oak barrels. He then poured the white out of the tank and let us sample it before it was even bottled. For not being a fully mature wine yet it was quite good!
After exiting the house Julian, the owner, introduced himself to us and then pulled me aside for a quick chat. I had booked an extra surprise for Stelios as a part of this experience, and Julian and I had been chatting via text all morning, but unfortunately the winds were too strong for us to go on the surprise. Julian told me we can try for Friday when the weather looks better and he would let me know. Fingers crossed it all works out!
By this point it was lunch time and Paul brought us over to a field with picnic tables overlooking the valley below, where we’d continue our wine tasting experience alongside some local tapas. We had fresh baked bread with garlic aioli and fresh tomatoes, goat cheese and roasted red peppers, prawns that looked so fresh as if they were just plucked from the Balearic sea this morning, chorizo balls, and bacon wrapped dates. What an excellent lunch!
At the end of the meal Paul brought out a blue wine which is what CanPiza is known for. He explained that the wine itself is made from a white grape called prenaal but during the bottling stage they add jasmine flower to make it blue. Apparently they are well known for it, but taste wise I preferred the regular whites better. After the blue wine we enjoyed a cheese and charcuterie plate, my favorite was the manchego from Spain and the Negro (Mallorcan pork). While we munched on our charcuterie, a few of the farm dogs came up to us and said hello. One of the dogs looked just like my cousin Jonathan’s dog Sparky from when we were kids, but a bit fuller around the tummy. The Mallorcan Sparky must be eating real well on this farm. Finally to end our meal Paul brought us a dessert that tasted like an almond milkshake, it was sweet and refreshing.
Looking around at the workers and how happy everyone is serving wine and telling their story makes me want to quit my job, move to Mallorca and give wine tours all day. Except I don’t think I could handle their 6 day work week. But to Paul & Julian’s point, it’s a passion for them and doesn’t feel like work.
Towards the end of our wine tour Paul turns to us and goes are you guys on your honeymoon? You seem very happy. (LOL). We were having such a good time I guess we never mentioned it to him, but I replied and told him we are and he wished us the best. We thanked both Paul and Julian for everything, and I told them this was the best wine tour we’ve ever been on (and we’ve done our fair share of wine tours in California, Greece, and Paris just to name a few) but the unique experience of the boutique winery, seeing the finca, and the delicious tapas truly put this one on the top of our list.
Around 4:30pm they had a taxi pick us up to take us back to our hotel. The Taxi picked us up and it smelled like cigarette smoke inside (gross!) we asked the driver to open the windows and he said they don’t open …after a few minutes I asked him again in Spanish telling him it smelled like smoke even though he claimed not to smoke and he begrudgingly cracked the front windows. So strange.
Back at our hotel, and tipsy from all of the wine I took a siesta on our balcony and woke up just in time to enjoy the sunset. Tonight the sky lit up with streaks of pink, orange, and yellow – and we marveled at it.
Since it was the last night at the Jumeriah we decided to have our final meal here. We went to the hotel’s fancier restaurant Es Fanals at 9pm. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that they only offered a tasting menu and I wasn’t really trying to be stuffed again like last night. Thankfully this was only 5 courses instead of 13!! There was also no one else at the restaurant which was odd but also worked out for us because we basically had a private dinner on the balcony. Our waiter brought out a portable heater that looked like a mini fireplace and some blankets to keep us warm. Our favorite dish was the fish stew, a recipe from the neighboring island of Menorca. The warmth of the broth was perfect for a chilly evening and it had pieces of lobster in it to add to the flavor.
Even though this dinner was only 5 courses, I was overly stuffed again and let Stelios eat my dessert. I seriously regretted sleeping in and not going to the gym this morning. By the time dinner ended it was 11pm, but neither of us were tired so we decided to go for a midnight stroll along the port to walk off our meal. We walked to the end and back which was about 2.5 miles. By 1am we went to bed, it was an incredible last full day in Port Soller.
