Hello everyone! Today is the first in a series of wine recommendations intended to bring pleasure and insights to all wine drinkers, both experts and beginners. After over 30 years travelling the world for some wonderful Spanish wineries and winemakers, I am excited to give back some of my knowledge and promote lesser known, limited production, sustainable family estates. I will only write about wines that are available in Menorca and will give special attention to wines that display a unique sense of place, a singular style and that send the senses soaring!

Master & Commander Wines is named after the brilliant Patrick O’Brien novel that begins with the chance meeting, in April 1800, at the Governor’s Palace in Mahon, of its two central characters, Captain Jack Aubrey, and Stephen Maturin his Irish/Catalan friend, naval surgeon and gentleman spy for the British government. The Governor’s Palace was founded in 1733 on C/Isabel II, 20, Mahon by the famed liberal and modern thinker, Richard Kane.

Given the unique Anglo/Spanish history of Menorca, something many of us cherish every day on the “Rock” – from the sash Georgian windows to the delightful cricket club – my first recommendation just had to be the extraordinary red wine from Mercadal on the North coast, MUNTPALAU 2016.

Imagine the best qualities of a traditional Rioja, (the old oak barrels used for ageing) combined with those of a mature Priorat (the light schist soil from the early Devonian period, 400 million years ago is the same in Mercadal as in Priorat) and an aged fine Bordeaux (the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Merlot planted at Muntpalau) and you have this amazing Menorcan wine.

I recommend opening half an hour before drinking so you will give the 2016Muntpalau time to “breathe” and treat you to a complex scent of ripe bramble fruit, black cherries, hints of old oak barrels, a touch of honeycomb, anise and rosemary. The palate is delicate but structured and long, with an excellent balance of ripe dark berry fruit, oak and acidity. The tannins are ripe and textured and lead to a stylish, long, fine finish. Although a 2016 wine it is remarkably young and will last but makes for superb long gulp drinking today and can even be chilled in the summer for meals in the open air.

Sublimely traditional (with an exceptional label design by the great nephew of Pablo Picasso that transmits all the magic of the wine at just a glance,) enjoy the Muntpalau with many local dishes of beef, lamb, black rice made from Menorcan cuttle fish, and of course aged Menorcan cow’s milk cheese and sobrassada.

FERRER DE MUNTPALAU
Made from 4 Hectares of prime, gently sloping vineyard, the first “modern” Menorcan winery was founded in 1985, near Mercadal, by the visionary winemaking genius Crispin Mariano. Crispin’s idea was to resurrect the Menorcan wine industry to accompany a revival in Menorcan gastronomy led by his mother at their family restaurant. During the English occupation of the island in the eighteenth century there were over 150 Hectares of vines planted and most of the wine was sold at premium prices to the British Navy based in Mahon before the Phylloxera beetle wiped out all the vines at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Apart from being a passionate winemaker, Crispin is also a great fan of the work Richard Kane did to improve the standard of living of the Menorcan people in the eighteenth century. This included initiatives such as a huge public water cistern in Mercadal, as well as the road from Ciudadella to Mahon. He has a shrine-like, and flattering portrait of Kane as Bacchus on one of his barrels!

DRINK FROM NOW THROUGH 2038.
WHERE TO BUY:
BINIPREU supermarket Mahon, 9,99€/Bot (and other wine shops) or direct from the winery Bodegas Menorquinas, Mercadal.
https://www.descobreixmenorca.com/en/wines-of-menorca/bodegas-menorquinas/

Ferrer de Muntpalau, Camí de tramuntana km. 1, 07740 Es Mercadal, teléfono
971 37 53 34, móvil 618 253 253 Email: bodegasmenorquinas@msn.com

FILM PAIRING: MASTER AND COMMANDER!
There are many more interesting historical facts and pictures on the winery’s website.
Ferrer de Muntpalau was a knight from the 14th century, with lands in the Martinell plains, in the northern area of es Mercadal, where the vineyards of Bodegas Menorquinas are now located.

Master & Commander