Balearic islands

Group of around 15 islands controlled by Spain, located in the western Mediterranean, with a land area of more than 5.000 square kilometres. The centre with Mallorca is located around 250 kilometres to the east of the Spanish mainland, roughly on the same degree of latitude as Valencia. The four main islands are Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa (Catalan name, the Castilian name is Ibiza) and Formentera. Politically, the Balearic islands are divided into two provinces, Gimnesias in the north (with Mallorca, Menorca and Cabrera), as well as Pitiusas (with Eivissa and Formentera) in the southwest. All the islands enjoy a warm, dry climate with around 300 days of sunshine annually. It is likely that the Phoenicians brought viticulture to the islands. Under Roman rule, the elder Pliny (23-79 AD) praised the wines. During Arab rule, which lasted for almost 5 centuries, from the 8th to the 12th century AD, viticulture was only able to survive because raisins were a popular foodstuff. In 1221, Jaime I. (1213-1276) conquered the islands, and later founded the independent kingdom of Aragón (which included Catalonia as well as Roussillon in France), this continued until 1343. During this time, wine was supplied to the Spanish royal court in Madrid. In the early 19th century, the vineyard area was ten times the size it is today. This was brought to an end by phylloxera at the end of the century, which destroyed the island viticulture in only three years. The growing tourist boom in the early 1960’s ensured an increase in the consumption of wine, although the island wines at this time were generally of rather poor quality. Today wine production (around 2.000 ha) is concentrated on the largest island, Mallorca (3.400 km²), it is of no commercial importance on the other islands. There are two DO’s on Mallorca, Binissalem and Plà i Llevant. The history of the Balearic islands has always had strong connections with Catalonia, and today quite a lot of Catalan is spoken, in addition to Castilian Spanish. After the end of the Franco era, many towns reverted to their Catalan names.