Bodega Ribas

Bodega Ribas in Consell is the oldest winery in Mallorca and belongs to the island's roster of Mallorcan wineries in the central plain. The same family has been making wine here since 1711 – across ten generations, at the foot of the Serra de Tramuntana. The estate was founded by Pedro Ribas de Cabrera; today the siblings Araceli and Javier Servera run the cellar. What makes Bodega Ribas special Ribas is no clinical tasting operation but a living family estate. The stately 18th-century Ca'n Ribas, with its original barrel cellar, was extended in 2019 with a new building by architects Rafael Moneo and Canals Moneo Arquitectos – traditional on the outside, surprising within. That same year the winery joined the Grandes Pagos de España association. As early as 1877, a Ribas wine made from the Gargollassa grape won the "Medal of Perfection" at the National Wine Exhibition in Madrid. When phylloxera reached the island in 1891, the family was among the first to graft onto American rootstocks and keep producing. Wines & grape varieties Native varieties dominate the glass. The flagship is Manto Negro, joined by the nearly vanished Gargollassa that Ribas revived on Mallorca, plus the white Prensal and Giró Ros. Syrah, Callet and Viognier round out the range. Around 40 hectares of vines are farmed organically, with output kept deliberately low for the acreage – quality over quantity. Two lines form the core: the fresh, young Ribas range and the complex Sió range from old vines, named after the winemakers' mother. In exceptional vintages the estate makes its top wine, Ribas de Cabrera, from the oldest Manto Negro vines with a little Syrah. Curiosities follow, such as the Muscat wine Sioneta and "Desconfío de la gente que no bebe," named after a Humphrey Bogart line. Tasting & tours You need no reservation for the wine shop and a tasting by the glass in the quiet inner courtyard. To go deeper, book a guided tour through vineyard and cellar: the shorter version pours three wines with the estate's own olive oil; the two-hour Gourmet Tour Ca'n Ribas (from €47) pours four wines alongside Iberian ham from Jabugo, Balearic cheeses, Mallorcan almonds, olives and artisan bread with Ribas olive oil and flor de sal. For a full meal there is the longer gastro experience, served in the garden or the manor house. History & terroir The heart of the estate is its plot at Torrent Fals, an ancient stony riverbed. The roughly 40 hectares sit on sandy-loamy soils with limestone, marl and gravel in the island's central depression between the Tramuntana and the central ranges – shallow, well-drained, low in water retention. It is precisely this leanness that shapes the wines. Taste here and you taste more than 300 years of unbroken winemaking in a single place.