Just over three weeks ago, right before the February full moon, we planted our new vineyard at Camp d’en Ventura, just outside Calonge (Santanyí/Mallorca), at the foot of the sloping hills of the Serra de Llevant. During that phase of the moon, the gravitational pull is lessening whist the moonlight strengthens and there tends to be more moisture in the soil. As it happened, we had to abandon our planting task due to excessive rainfalls and were obliged to wait for three days before we could send the planting tractor in again to continue the planting operation of our new rootstock.

Whilst in our vineyard at Son Alegre outside Santanyí we have Chardonnay and Malvasía white grapes as well as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot blue grapes, we opted to plant vines with different grape varieties at Camp d’en Ventura, such as Callet red grapes and Giró Ros white grapes. In total, we planted some 5,200 vines over a total expansion of 18,000 square metres. The newly planted grapes won’t mature until 2017/18 and wine from the bunches of grapes will not be ready until 2018 at the earliest. Patience is the key ingredient in wine making and haste is your enemy number one.

The soil here at Camp d’en Ventura is of a similar character to the one in Son Alegre. It is of the Call Vermell composition, which is a fertile clay loam formation containing plenty of iron oxide and lime. Here too, the land is equally interspersed with plenty of stones and small rocks, characteristically preserving humidity a little bit longer than soil of a different makeup.

As at Son Alegre, we shall continue to farm our land at Camp d’en Ventura true to organic and ecological methods as laid down by the CBPAE (Consell Balear Regulador de l’Agricltura Ecològica – Balearic Council of Organic Agricultural Production). That means, no chemicals, no pesticides, no herbicides; that also means that we don’t use commercial fertilizers be that chemical or organic. If everybody uses the same commercial fertilizers, people shouldn’t be surprised when a lot of wine tastes similar. You always get out of things what you first have put in, don’t you think?

As always, we shall also adhere to the principles of biodynamics according to Rudolph Steiner even though we have not yet been granted the certificate of DEMETER (International Demeter Processing Standards). That implies no ploughing with heavy machinery, the use of biodynamic compost produced from the pulp of grapes and other plant and mineral components plus our own organic manure, principally from our own flock of sheep. And of course we follow the cycles of the moon, a practice which has been adhered to already by our great-grandparents all those years ago. We allow a ground cover of wild flowers and grasses all year round, inviting insects, beetles and birds to take habitat and thus work the land and nourish the soil for us. It’s a long way to Tipperary but the journey, as always, has to start with the first step.

We are looking forward to 2018 and we don’t mind having to be patient a bit until then.