Wine Tasting in Mallorca -Spain

May 18, 2011, we took this excursion to a wine tasting in Majorca, Spain. This was one of my most favorite days since leaving the Caribbean behind. We started off the day in Valldemossa going to all the shops and getting all of our souvenirs to bring back home. After we visited several sites that were absolutely breathtaking, we watch this video on Mallorca by Michael Douglas. He has a house on the island and vacations there yearly with his family. There is so much culture, religion, customs, traditions that define the spaniards.

While driving, our tour guide was telling us how there was six million almond trees in Mallorca. He explained that a long time ago Mallorca used to produce a lot of wine. They had vignards everywhere. One year there was a huge drought and unfortunately for Mallorca, being an island surrounded by salty sea water, they just couldn't afford to filter the water to provide adequate hydration for the grapes. Instead of having a market of wine they decided to plant millions of almond trees to provide for their country. They cultivated them and sold them. They picked almonds trees because they didn't need water to prosper.

Unfortunately, the USA was mass producing almonds and exporting them to Spain. This crashed the almond market for that island because they couldn't keep up with the supply and demand. Now all those six million almond trees planted blossom every year and the fruits of their labour are wasted and never cultivated because "it's not worth the time or the money". What surprised me was that not even the locals go and pick some fresh almonds for themselves.

Upon entering the wine tasting house, I noticed my very first real live poppies. I couldn't help but think about all those soldiers who died on the land beneath my feet. I then continued the path and found the beauty of the pictures above. Life was so great at that moment. It felt like home. It would be a dream to wake up to that view everyday. The wine was second to none. Every single variety of wine was fantastic. This paired up with a freshly baked French baguette and extra virgin olive oil from Spain, it was a feast not to miss. All in all the beauty of this country got me. The people were so kind and friendly. The food was amazing and the overall experience is a definite return.
Cheers! Salute! Chin chin!