IRFAP publishes a book that collects 123 mentions of Balearic vine varieties, cited in several bibliographic references since 1787. For each variety, the name, other synonymous denominations, the bibliographical reference and the municipalities of cultivation are indicated.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, through the Institute for Agri-Food and Fisheries Research and Training (IRFAP), has published Els noms de les varietats de raïm a les Illes Balears. Recull de mencions publicades des del 1787; a book for which its authors, Rosa Pascual and Antoni Puig, have consulted 178 volumes from different archives and libraries, in search of publications and documents that named the varieties, both wine and table grape. The result is this compilation that indicates the name given to each variety, other synonymous denominations, the bibliographic reference, and the municipalities where it was grown.

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Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment

“To recover an ancient variety of vine and have it authorized for cultivation and winemaking is not an agile or simple process,” says IRFAP’s manager, Georgina Brunet. “At the Institute we have been working for years on the research of old vine varieties that are representative of our plant wealth and are part of our cultural heritage. Their recovery allows us to preserve the biodiversity linked to their origin and also to make them available to the winegrowing sector so that they can reintroduce them to the market, promoting a commercial strategy to differentiate the wines of the Balearic Islands from those of other regions,” Brunet emphasizes.

It should be remembered that one of the procedures to recover a local vine variety is to send a varietal denomination report to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. In this report, the antiquity of the variety must be accredited through its historical linkage and, for this reason, it is necessary to carry out a bibliographic research.

In this sense, the first quotation we find is from Tofiño de San Miguel, from 1787, which says: “The wines of Mallorca are very good taste, and have various qualities such as Pampol Rodat, Mollar, Malvasías and others from Bañalbufar, Garnacha, Girons and Momona from Pollenza and other white and red wines”.

The IRFAP keeps in the Sa Granja estate more than forty old vine varieties in its germplasm bank, now also kept in biosafety conditions. In addition, it is working to make the authorization of the white varieties Argamussa, Griego, Morsecà and Coanegra, and also the black variety Llora, a reality in the coming years.

For further information, this book can be consulted at: https://www.caib.es/sites/semilla/ca/publicacions-722