Son Cremat Vineyard
Early one morning in late summer, during the month of August, I arose before the rising sun, from my base in Mahon. Driving to the small vineyard of Son Cremat, I was full of excitement. Son Cremat is one of only nine vineyards on the island of Menorca. However, there is the beginnings of a serious industry, which will hopefully continue to grow.
The owner, who was a builder before his investment into his land, now spends all of his time and effort cultivating and caring for his vines. Chemical free and labored solely by hand, the growth is carefully looked over, for the production of 3 particular grape varieties.
The morning was perfect as I witnessed the sun rising through the low lying vines. I don’t know how large the estate is but 30-40 volunteers cleared the land in 3-4 hours. I guess relatively small. After our hard graft, there was a delicious breakfast supplied in thanks for the harvest. I continued to capture the process between mouthfuls of delicious sobrasada, barbecued meats & vegetables and ensaimadas with coffee.
The operation then moved inside as the grapes were stripped of anything which didn’t look or feel like a plump grape – a mechanised process. The grapes were then placed in a large barrel to extract the juice, by pressing. Finally, the process before bottling was the fermentation. Large steel drums were filled with different varieties of grape.
Our capture was complete and the rest of the morning was spent outside catching up with the volunteers. When I return to Menorca in a few weeks, I’ll be purchasing my box of 12 bottles of Chardonnay to enjoy over the the coming months.
Tasting sessions can be arranged in advance by calling the vineyard. I can highly recommend the tasting. I’ve been on two separate occasions with two different groups and they were both splendid!
A link to the 9 vineyards on the island can be viewed here. Click through to the website and click again on Vi to view the 9 vineyards and their locations.