A small rural road leads inconspicuously into a vineyard – always a good sign for us! Turning through a modest gate reveals the handsomely designed, low-profile winery: Celler Tianna Negre.

As we walk in, the architectural lines and spaces are noticeably clear and comfortable, attractive and inviting. The flow brought us easily into the shop and tasting room, with its main glass wall inviting in perfect light for presenting and enjoying their wines – which you can taste either inside the shop or outside on the lovely adjacent patio. Here you can request select food and a glass or bottle as you enjoy some leisure time, or do a tasting – as you prefer! The shop and wine bar do not require reservations, but do book in advance for tours or group tastings, and indicate your language preference. Their facility can also handle events, such as “Yoga in the Vineyard” with their signature Kombucha on International Yoga Day, as well as business and team-building tastings.

The name Tianna Negre means dark or black princess, so named for the local red grapes of the vineyard! As the story goes, the mother Antonia Garau Arbós inherited an old family vineyard in Consell, planted with the autochthonous* Manto Negro grape (the Tianna Negre!) which had been re-planted in the traditional “politxo” style (on regularly spaced wooden poles) after the phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800s. She tended the small plot carefully, dreaming of her family making their own wine. Her family started to dream, and architect daughter Xisca Morey began to design. The result is this well designed winery whose first harvest was in September 2007. Other local grapes that are valued and grown here include Callet, Gorgollasa, Prensal Blanc, Escursac and Giró Ros.

*Word of the day on the Mallorca Wine Trail: Autochthonous, meaning indigenous, native, local. We just had to share that remarkable word!!!

Our Visit

As usual, we stopped by unannounced on a Friday afternoon after work and hoped for the best. Our MWT luck prevailed and we were able to join a tour starting in about half an hour, so we began our tasting of their 2021 wines immediately. We tasted their whites and rosés before the tour, and saved the reds for after. Danielle led our tasting, exuberant about the wines and exhausted by her long, busy-winery week.

Lili led our tour in English, very succinct and interesting! We went first to the tank and fermentation room where Lili showed us 15K and 20K liter tanks that towered over 2K and 5K tanks for smaller production grapes/wines like the Escursac varietal. Here she spoke of the ethos of this Family winery, and the inspiration of the architect daughter Xisca who planned for all the production needs in 2006. With designed sustainability through solar energy and water reclamation and repurposing, she finished with the visual impact of iron, stone and copper to fit into the rich red soil and stone terrain (the Mallorcan terroir “call vermell”). Lili told us that Tianna Negre became certified 100% organic in 2018, and at the time of this writing, they have 55 hectares between Binisalem and Consell, and 6-7 hectares that surround the winery.

In the lab, we learned that they are active in working with local grapes. For example they have been working with agricultural authorities at the Institut de Recerca I Formació Agrària (Institute of Research and Rural Development), and recently were instrumental in recovering the Escursac grape, supporting the vines for 7-8 years until they could finalize the paperwork to sell the product. They challenged themselves with a full line of Manto Negro wines (with great success in our minds), and are currently working to bring back local grapes that were virtually lost during the Phylloxera blight, including Escursac, Galmater, Mandó, Esperó de Gall, Gafarró, Quigat, Argamusa, Valent Negre, Valent Blanc, Callet Blanc and Vinater Blanc, Giró Negre, Batista (red), Callet de Cas Concos (red), Fogoneu Francés (red) and Manses de Tibbus (white).

These local grapes come with unique challenges.  For example, Escursac grapes are small and the vines provide a lower yield.  Callet skins produce less color than most red grapes, and even a mature bunch can have green grapes that must be removed by hand.  If you have read our previous Mallorca Wine Trail Visits you know that it is a challenge to keep the Callet skins with the juice long enough to produce an appetizing red color without over-maceration.  Many wineries blend Callet with other reds like Cabernet for that reason.

All Tianna Negre harvesting is done by hand, using 12-15 kg baskets so none of the grapes are crushed by grape weight. Grapes come cool to maceration and are kept at appropriate temperatures from then on. They have a cool-room for freshly harvested grapes, but being ecologically conscious, they moved to harvesting in the cool morning hours from 4:00am-7:00am. That works well for both the grapes and the laborers!

In the bottle room, we learned that during peak production they can fill and cork 1,000 bottles in one hour. They now produce around 350 thousand bottles per year, carefully hand selecting grapes and sacrificing kilos for quality. Many of these are distributed mainly to local restaurants and hotels.

In the cool of the barrel room, wines slept silently as Lili told us that American oak casks are reserved for the bolder French grapes like Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Muscat and Sauvignon Blanc, while the local grapes are kept in French oak to impart more subtle flavor. They only use these for 4 years to be sure of imparted flavor consistency. Here too, we saw the clay fermentation and resting eggs which provide micro-oxygenation, round and creamy attributes, but impart no flavors.

Lili also told us that thick skin makes a bodied wine. Local grapes are thin skinned and light. Another fact, there are very few bottles of wine they sell that go to oak. This is due mostly to the demand of the public, as the majority of wine sold on the island is during summer months and is white or rosé. What you see in the barrel room is what goes to barrel of the 350 thousand bottles.

At Tianna Negre the emphasis is on organic and ecologic wines, but Lili told us that the Ses Nines line is so popular, that they need to buy grapes from other growers to make enough to meet demand; so, they can’t have 100% ecologic Ses Nines wines because not all people they buy from have the certification. Instead, their Ses Nines Selecció is ecologic, with fewer bottles produced.

Local Interest Facts: This family has been making numerous different types of alcoholic beverages since 1898. Under the original name Antonio Nadal Distillery, they became famous for two: Hierbas Tunel de Mallorca and Palo Tunel. They had the original factory in Bunyola, and called their products Tunel after the nearby train tunnel of the historic Palma-Soller narrow gauge rail line. In 1989 it became Distributions Tunel under the descended Gabriel Morey, who had a dream to be the largest drink distributer in the Balearic Islands. The family now owns different sections of the company all under the family name Morey-Garau. Around 2012 they renovated and moved the main production to a warehouse in Marratxi, and now this is the largest distributer of drinks in the Balearic Islands, with in-house made, locally made, nationally made and internationally imported beverages. Currently, three of the children (5th generation) are in key roles of the business sections: Xisca Morey Garau with Tianna Negre Winery, Biel Angel Morey Garau in the Distillery, and Xavier Morey Garau in Distributions.

The Wines

All Tianna Negre wines from their vineyards are certified ecologic and dry, and the majority of their wines have a low sulfate count. Mallorca Wine Trail Fact: The minimum sulfate for regulation standards is 120g, and at Tianna Negre they have 30g on average.

Tianna Negre has several different lines, each with a white, rosé and red:
El Columpio – “A new Style of Wine” Modern winemaking techniques and flavors using Mallorcan and French varietals.

Km. 1:  Made with only local varietals, from grapes grown at the winery, so no more than a kilometer from processing. This line is Ecologic.

Velo: Named after a passion for bicycles – both on the island of Mallorca and in the family! Xavier is a triathlon runner and Biel too loves cycling. These are from the grape vines inherited by Antonia when she was 35 years old in her hometown of Consell. The Velo-line of Vélonegre (red), Vélorosé (rosé) and Véloblanc (white) are all made with 100% Manto Negro grapes. The white being a blanc de noir, and the rosé kept with skins to a point of perfect color and aroma. And the red was delicious too! This line is Ecologic.

Ses Nines: One of the original wine lines and considered their flagship line. Translation in English: The Children! The label shows a young girl skipping rope. This image is now a widely recognized symbol of this well-known winery. We learned a charming fact: Mother Antonia, now in her mid 70s, is the little girl pictured on the labels of the Ses Nines line! That little girl, skipping rope in the main square of Consell, is the same girl who played in the family vineyards as a child where she came to love them. The Ses Nines line is a tribute to Antonia and her childhood – in that wonderful tradition of naming wines for the matriarchs that we have seen several times now along our Mallorca Wine Trail! The Ses Nines is the Tianna Negre line most common in restaurants. The distribution arm of the family business has successfully promoted it!

Ses Nines Selecció: Made from the best grapes, this line is Ecologic.

Tianna Bocchoris: The name refers to the Bocchoris archeological site in Pollença and the ancient city of Bocchoris, one of the oldest settlements on the island dating back to pre-Roman times. This line is Ecologic.

Then there are a few specialty wines and lines made at Tianna Negre, like the Tianna Negre Sommelier, Randemar, and TN5 Boutique wines.  Others, like Es Tren are made at Tianna Negre specifically for restaurants as Mallorcan wines by-the-glass; and the the Bicicletes I Peces (Bicycles and Fish) line is made off-island specifically for Nadal Distributers and sold in Mallorca’s markets and at The Tianna Negre shop.