»Dieter had often complained in the past that there was no exceptionally good red wine on Ibiza.«

Dieter has been coming here on holiday for many years and had often complained in the past that there was no exceptionally good red wine here on Ibiza. In 2011, he was once again on the island and brought up exactly this complaint at a dinner party that took place at a friend’s house.

The kitchen help at that time had overheard this and told the Dieter’s friend the day after the dinner party that her family had been growing wine on Ibiza for generations, but now the vineyard had been lying fallow for years. One day later, Dieter Meier visited the hills, and it was immediately clear to him that there was an insane potential hidden here to really produce a great red wine.

We invited our partners from Global Wine, who also take care of the production in Argentina, to the island to check the old stock of vines and take soil samples. Relatively quickly it became obvious that it was no longer possible to produce a premium red wine with the existing vines.

They settled on the grape varieties Cabernet, Monastrell and Syrah and started planting seedlings from France at the end of 2012. Dieter Meier’s goal and philosophy was clearly formulated: he wanted to produce the best possible red wine on this terrain.

Unfortunately, not. Since the vineyard had completely collapsed, the terraces first had to be completely rebuilt. This was a special achievement and a labour of love as we could not bring heavy equipment up here because of the lack of a properly constructed access road. In addition, Ibizan farmers actually helped us with the help of dowsing rods to locate the right point for drilling a well on the property to ensure the water supply.

Wine is basically a very comfortable plant, so to say and the more you give the wine, the lazier it gets. But the more you stress the wine, the more it has to work hard to pull the nutrients out of the soil. And that, of course, is our goal. So, we deliberately water with the least amount possible so that the wine roots itself particularly deeply in the soil and brings the character of the earth into the grapes.

Ultimately, seven years. From 2012 to 2015 was the preparation period, in 2016 we harvested the first crop that went to market for the first time in 2019.

We are very satisfied and fortunately always sold out. Initially, however, there were many experts who did not want to believe that the wine was actually from the island. It is always a great pleasure for us to be able to convince all the disbelievers of the opposite at a wine tasting her on site (smiles). I’ve already had great evenings here with wine lovers from Texas, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Berlin and Zurich, all of whom we were able to inspire.

We have twelve terraces on the terrain. Each terrace is fermented separately in steel tanks. After three weeks, the fermentation is complete and then the wine goes into the barrel for a year, separated according to the respective terrace. Then the main work of Laura, our general manager and our chief oenologist, begins. Depending on the harvest results, she defines the profile of the cuvee. It varies every year, but still has the clear briefing to remain in the tradition of the previous vintages.

First of all, we are in love with quality products, we like colour, we like crunchiness, and we like contrasts. And above all, we like taste. We use fresh ingredients carefully selected, in many cases proceeding from local or organic production in Ibiza and from our own vegetable garden.

The best ingredients allow recipes to be simple and straightforward. The result is honest, tasty, food, that bursts with life, color, nutrients and of course with the love that we put into every step.

Spanish legislation states that you have to have three consecutive years of purely organic viticulture before you can be certified, and that is the case with the 2018 vintage. Fortunately, the soils were not contaminated and so we were able to grow organically from the beginning.

We could produce 8,000 bottles but it was and is Dieter’s explicit wish to produce the best in class, so we will stick to nearly 4,000 bottles per year at this terrain. We practice the Green Harvest methodology here. Before the grapes change their colour from green to purple, we cut half of them down.

The idea: if ten grapes are hanging on the vine, the nutrients go into just these ten grapes, but if you cut five away, the same amount only goes into the five grapes that are left. We reduce the amount to make sure that what we leave on the vine can absorb the maximum of nutrients and intensity.

Exactly. Whether it comes to harvest in the middle or end of August is decided by the weather. We always have three to four days of summer storms in Ibiza in August. And depending on how intense they are and when they occur, we schedule the week of the harvest. In this week, due to the very high heat during the day, we harvest from 7 a.m. to about 10 a.m. and in the evening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m..

In fact, we will produce a second and third wine. We planted another 20,000 new vines in the San Mateo area last year with the goal to produce a second red wine and maybe a Rose in the nearby future. Just last week we had first tastings, and it was very promising (smiles).