The Largest & Most Famous Bodega on MallorcaIt is now one hundred and fifty years ago that Macià Matias Batle laid the foundations for the bodega of the same name. The year was 1856 when he had erected the original Batle building at Biniali on Mallorca.Still today the building is in the possession of the family, even though the Bodega Macià Batle now has its head office in Santa Maria. Together with the wine-growing estate of Santa Catarina it is the largest and most famous bodega on Mallorca. Their wines have been singled out for awards on many occasions.The vintage from the very first press wine produced by the Batles was designated for domestic requirements and moreover served as an object of barter: in accordance with the motto: you give me beer, I give you wine. Much business was carried out thus. At that time, types of grape were grown such as Mantonegro, Callet, Fogoneu and Gorgollassa, with all of them being grown in one and the same field. At the time of the wine harvest the grape bunches were mixed together without more ado. Now the first coupage was ready!The bodega’s manager, Ramon Servalls i Batle, cannot help but grin when this production method is recounted today. After all, such a procedure in a modern winery would be simply inconceivable! Servalls i Batle, at the same time Chairman of the Balearic Winegrowers’ Association ‘Associació de Bodeguers de las Illes Balears,’ is at any rate convinced that solely quality wines can survive in the marketplace. And these days the utmost care, great creativity and every ounce of know-how is necessary from the wine harvest to the bottling. A homespun approach to wine-making will just not do.“In the past year we have produced around 650,000 bottles”, says Servalls i Batle. Grapes from 200 hectares [about 500 acres] of land were processed. The wines of Macià Batle bear the designation of origination ‘Denominación de Origen’ Binissalem. There are red, rosé, white and recently also two sweet wines on offer.Since 2001, moreover, a limited edition is brought out each year. These ‘Reserva Privada’ wines are decorated with labels created by famous artists who work and live in the Balearic Islands. Artists such as Joan Bennassar of Mallorca, Natasha Zupan of the USA or Jim Bird of the UK have already taken up the brush on behalf of Macià Batle.The well-known German artist Erwin Bechtold created the label for the 2003 special edition. “The best artists should decorate our best wines”, explains the manager of the wine-growing estate in this context. And thereby choice fell on the 81 year-old from San Carlos on Ibiza.The fact that it was Bechtold, who at the end of the 1940s worked in the Paris atelier of Fernand Léger – one of the most famous French painters – accepted the offer, this was felt as a godsend by the art-loving wine grower: “There we had all the luck in the world!”And because the artist, in his turn, was convinced that “wine and art belong to one and the same family,” he finally shook hands on it. “All those who are involved with art are sensitive people,” he says. “And they have a tendency in this connection to abandon themselves with predilection to fine food and even more to exquisite wines.” It is rumoured that he was paid in kind.