El Bulli's sommelier recommended our white wine and we sold out

Andreu Suñer is the owner of the small winery Vinyes i Vins Ca sa Padrina located in Sencelles. He welcomes us to his vineyards where we stroll and finish the interview at his winery facilities.

How did your interest in the world of wines begin?

In 1999, I enrolled in a course at the Fundació Universitat-Empresa that was an introduction to viticulture and enology, and I liked it so much that when I finished, together with a classmate, we decided to start this adventure of setting up our own winery. In 2009, we bought out his share of the company and now it is entirely owned by my family.

Did you have a family background in wine production?

Yes, my family from Can Tano in Sencelles had always produced wine for personal consumption and a bit more. The company we set up was, however, to dedicate ourselves to viticulture more professionally using modern techniques. It must be taken into account that the old concept of winemaking is not at all compatible with the times we live in. The systems used by our grandparents no longer work because what's needed now is very rigorous control of fermentation. Before, this couldn't be done due to the lack of adequate technology.

I got fully into enology because I consider myself a sentimental person. When I inherited my family's lands, although I had my life headed towards teaching, I began to ask myself many questions: what do I do? Do I parcel up the estate and fill it with cement building ten chalets to sell? Or do I continue with the family tradition of wine production and bet on the green of the vines? If now you can see all the splendor of the green vineyards, it's evident which option I chose.

Is this a small-scale business?

Of course! When people ask me if I have a winery, I always answer that I don't really have a winery but just a shed, because it's a very small business, a family company with only two employees focused on ten hectares in the municipality of Sencelles. We usually produce, depending on how the harvest has gone, between 20,000 and 25,000 bottles of red wine, about 7,000 of white wine, and rosé.

To show you how small we are, the sommelier of the former El Bulli restaurant, Ferran Centelles, recommended our Mollet and sales skyrocketed. In fact, we have sold out our white wine stock. In his wine club called wineissocial.com, he dedicated a few lines highlighting the authenticity of our wine, its indigenous character, its pronounced personality, which has been quite an award for us.

What types of wines does your winery produce?

We started in 2000 with a red wine now called Montenegro, which contains 60% manto negro, 20% merlot, 15% cabernet sauvignon, and the rest is syrah and callet.

In 2010, we launched our first white wine. It's called Mollet and is made with premsal blanc and chardonnay varieties.

The first rosé we have marketed was from the 2012 harvest. We labeled it as Rosat de Ca sa Padrina, and it's basically made with merlot and manto negro.

All these wines are made under the regulations of the Binissalem-Mallorca Designation of Origin. For us, it's a guarantee of quality.

Where do you sell your wines?

More or less half of our wines are sold in Mallorca. 20% is sold in the rest of Spain. The remaining 30% we export to Germany, Japan, Korea, the United States, etc. Personally, it fills me with pride to see the labels in Korean for the wine shipments ready to send to Korea, thinking that such a small company can be appreciated so far away…

What are your plans for the future?

I would like to bring a sweet wine to market. I've been in the testing phase for about four years now, experimenting with a combination of varieties, but I haven't yet achieved the exact point. It's important to remember that if I don't like a wine, it doesn't go to market. Until I consider it's at its point, I don't sell it.

Source: Diario de Mallorca, May 21, 2013