Many antique documents, which were found and collected in the Balearics through the centuries, indicate that the origin of Spanish wine was semitic and that the first wine - which was produced in this part of the European continent was Phoenician.
History writers also suggest that the famous Balearic "stone throwers" - those men who fought at the side of Hannibal against the Roman empire - had an extraordinary wine thirst.
Today it is argued, through the discovery of many drinking-vessels from the 7th and 6th century B.C. in which the wine was transported over the Mediterranean sea, that sufficient wine always existed on the islands.
Another assumed fact is that the Romans, who conquered the Balearics under ´General Quinto Cecilio Metelo´ 123 B.C. were the first who brought and grew vines on the island. This changed rapidly with the conquest of Mallorca by the Arabs; the Koran not allowing the production of alcohol.
In autumn of 1229 the troops of ´Jaime I.´ liberated Mallorca from the Muslim rule and wine prohibition.
After restoring the Balearics to Christianity, one of the first actions of the King was to award licences for growing vines on the island. The first who benefited from these were the farmers and landowners of the villages Bunyola, Campos, Felanitx, Manacor, Porreres and Valldemossa.
Until the beginning of the 17th century the wine production in Mallorca was fairly constant.
From antique papers it is known that it came to a drastic reduction of the wine growing areas in 1622, especially around Alcudia, Arta, Inca, Manacor and Montuiri.
This was the consequence of a try to import cheap wine from Tarragona and Valencia.
This crisis caused the powerful aristocrats of the island to enact a new law, which helped the local vineyards. Farmers who grew vines got a 100% tax reduction. A few years later these protection arrangements showed a positive result : 8,8 million litres of wine were produced in 1777. This unbelievable amount increased to 14,8 million litres in 1790. In 1820 the Royal valuers recorded nearly 33 million litres of wine.
Until the 19th century the Majorcan wine enjoyed a ´golden season´.
While the Mallorcans set new records in wine growing every year, the wine producers on the other side of the world saw disaster in their vineyards.
At the end of the 19th century the disastrous "Filoxera" (wine louse) came to California and destroyed huge areas in the wine growing districts.
A few months later the Filoxera plague also arrived as a ´ship´s passenger´ in Europe and destroyed the French vineyards. French wine production went down to a minimum forcing the French to buy the good grapes for a high price from the Majorcans.
This enormous demand pushed the Mallorcan wine production up to 75 million litres. The consequence of this development was that the Majorcans established their own maritime transport companies to export their wines to France.
Unfortunately Filoxera was one of the first ´passengers´ back from France on the new ships!
In May 1899 some wine farmers from Algaida and Llucmayor detected the first signs of the ´Filoxera´ and within a year later the wine production was so low, that the new ships for exporting the wine became redundent. Around 1900 the export of Mallorcan wine went from approximately 50 million litres down to 3,5 million litres. From the former 30.000 hectares of wine producing fields only 2.000 hectares were left; almond trees were planted on the destroyed vineyards.