Over a century ago, Señor Pere Seda (Pedro Reus Morro 1886-1942) owned vineyards in the Manacor area of Mallorca, and this winery was founded by, and named after him. The Winery Pere Seda is a family run business (the same family since the beginning), producing approximately 600,000 bottles per year. Yes, that’s right, a huge enterprise, with all production done at their site in Manacor – from grape crates to shipping boxes. With grapes from over 100 hectares of local vineyards, they are in the D.O. Pla i Llevant, and are the biggest winery there. They use all natural cork, and sell young white, rosé and reds, Crianza and Reserva reds, and Cava (sparkling wine). Their grapes are Callet, Manto Negro, Giró Ros and Premsal, Tempranillo, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Macabeo, Muscatel and Chardonnay.

A little about the name: Pere is Mallorcan for Peter, and Seda means silk. Seda was perhaps his ‘mal nombre’ or ‘apodo’, something similar to a family nickname. These ‘nicknames’ are very common in Malorca, and often a person is only known by that. The tradition here is to name children after the grandparents’ first names (and wines too we’ve learned!), so a big family could have many Peres, which gets confusing. Hence the “mal nombre” to distinguish.

Massive steel tanks greeted us as we entered the gate, and instantly it was like we were in an Industrial Revolution era bottling plant. Big time operations call for big-time production. With no sign of tourism tastings nor classic Mallorcan architectural detail, this winery is all business. Hearing and seeing activity, we walked into the bottling area and watched the production line of gorgeously backlit rosé wine being bottled and boxed. The workers looked at us, but nobody approached us – not their job. This was the first time we had shown up at a bodega in full bottling production and it was a sight to behold! We wandered around alone for a while, and finally stopped a man on a loader who went and found our man Tofol (from the name Christobal, Christopher in English). Greeting us quizzically, it felt like we caught him off guard, and we guessed they don’t have many dropins! He was very gracious and thorough during our tour and tasting, yet we kept feeling like he needed to be somewhere else, and didn’t quite understand why we were there – self-education of course.

Getting the tour, everything was vast and well organized for maximum production value. The bottling, sealing, and labelling machines were gigantic and loud, the fermenting tanks towering and many: Row upon row, modern steel tanks and enormous wooden casks from the past, still in continuous use. We haven’t seen anything like these at other wineries, big or small. Writing this, we are curious how long these permanent tanks have been in use, and what the flavour choice is to ferment in these instead of steel – must go back and ask!

Tofol explained that the Pere Seda Winery has become so big that they don’t fit into the buildings any longer; with newer and multi-story tanks outside and behind the place just to keep up with demand. This was by far the most mechanized bodega that we have been to, and it was fascinating to see such industry all for our delicate friend – wine! Funny how you see a bottle of wine on the shelf at a store, and never wonder what its childhood was like. Now we know about Pere Seda wines!

Then Tofol took us downstairs to the aging area and suddenly we were in another world. The wonderfully cool barrel rooms, long halls and endless dim tunnels felt like vast catacombs. Room after cistern-like room of old fermentation chambers now housed bottles resting and coming to age. We had seen this before at Ribas and even Miquel Gelabert, but not on this scale!

It was incredible that hidden under the loud, big industry above, lay this labyrinth of small cellars and secret passages. Walking through these Tofol described their lines of wine:

• L’Arxiduc – Blends from local and foreign grapes.
• Mossèn Alcover and GVIVM – 2 variety blends from old growth vines and oak fermented
• Crianza and Reserva – American oak fermented.
• Novell – That year’s vintage
• Chardonnay – 100%: one label is aged in French oak and one goes straight to bottle.
• Sparkling – Cava with 2nd fermentation in the bottle

Pere Seda is one of the few Mallorcan wineries to make a Cava, Jose Ferrer being another. We look forward to trying it!

Ending the tour we were rewarded with a tasting in their reception salon. Standing in the baking summer sun, Tofol opened an anonymous door – and we were greeted by cool air and a beautiful ambiance of high ceilings, oak barrels, and glass tabletops. Here was the Mallorcan style we’d been missing! A small group with a distributor were there in a meeting, but we were granted a tasting anyways – lucky us!

We’re sure a reservation was a courtesy that we owed Tofol, but he rose to the occasion and gave us a great tasting.

Pere Seda is no small-scale production. There is wine, wine and more wine. It is incredible to see the contrast between the other bodegas that we have visited and this one, as it is one of the few Mallorcan wineries on this level. Pere Seda has a longstanding reputation, and is a reasonably priced, quality controlled wine; and that is an important product!

Tasting Choices: We did not try anything from L’Arxiduc line, which are Semi-Crianza white, rosé, and red; aged 4-6 months in barrel, and made of local and foreign varietals, nor the Novell line which are new, this year vintages. Tofol had offered us a tasting choice of three wines, and as we already had a solid understanding of Novell wines from different summer events (very pleasant and fresh) we skipped them now, but recommend you try them when looking for a people’s price local wine. Pere Sede also collaborates with other winemakers to produce signature bottles such as Myotragus Pinavaley. There are many dimensions to this winery!