Mallorca

"Grape-growing is an important part of this island’s agricultural wealth.

The grape harvest (vermar) is carried out at the end of September or beginning of October amidst great general happiness as occurs in every country.  On the mountainous part of the island,  the grapes are cut using a knife or trinxet and placed in senalles or covos (normal baskets and deeper ones, respectively), then carried on shoulders or emptied into portadores, a type of barrel with metal bands and handles, generally made of this same material. Underneath are two bars so that they can be more comfortably transported by two men.

Grapes are then taken to a large cask called a cup and generally made of stone, though in the mountains it is sometimes made of wood. Farmhands add a couple of handfuls of gypsum or salt and other ingredients to improve the wine. On the same day or next, the men, supported by a rope, trod on the grapes barefoot, making the juice flow into a large wooden cask.

There is no doubt that many wine-making aspects on Mallorca could be improved, and, considering the quality of the wines, a much better quality product could be obtained than the present one.

The enormous barrels used are called botes congrenyades and so named because of the thick planks and the ring holding them via iron bolts called congreny. In general, these barrels are made of oak or at times olive tree, and they are extraordinarily robust.

The cellers tend to consists of domed sandstone blocks; that is at least what occurs on the plain. In other places, for example, in the mountains, they have a simple ceiling atop central pillars. In this case, the barrels are lined in four rows, two on both sides of the pillars and the others along the side walls."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: General Part. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.

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