Episode 161: The Magic of Mallorca – Martin Ward of Wine Educators International
Martin Ward is the owner of Wine Educators International, a company focused on touring, learning about, and enjoying the finer aspects of food, wine, and culture. He also lives in Mallorca. In this episode Martin gives us an overview of Mallorcan wine and food, as well as his inspiration for introducing these wines and wines of the world through entertaining presentations and fine dining and luxury travel experiences.
Martin Ward of Wine Educators International
Martin is an informal and entertaining trainer and wine educator who passionately believes that the subjects of Wine and Food, either combined or separately, should be treated with respect yet enjoyment.
He has over several decades of experience working within the wine and wine training industry; experiencing all aspects of the food and wine culture, including:
- training and entertaining, both socially and professionally
- working in different world cultures and environments
- buying and marketing wine professionally
- delivering comprehensive wine modules worldwide
- researching and working in wine producing regions
- presenting at major and regional shows on behalf of producers and generic bodies
- working with multinational corporate organisations and wine producers
Why Mallorca? (2:30)
While Martin is originally from Leicester, England, he chose to move his life to Mallorca (Majorca). Mallorca is one of the Balearic islands off the coast of Spain. And while there is nothing wrong with his hometown of Leicester, life in the hospitality industry led him to reconsider his work-life balance situation.
When life gets stressful, the stressed, apparently, move to an island. “It had the perfect balance of slow way of life, climate, food, drink. What more could you want?” he told us, before bringing up the beaches, mountains, and scenery and a slight chuckle. “That’s why.” Yes, keep laughing Martin. We get it.
Mallorca Wine History Lesson (04:23)
While many people don’t think of Mallorcan wine as one of the old world wine regions, it’s certainly a region with a history of wine making that dates back to the Romans (see a trend here?). However, production is small which is one of the reasons why we don’t see a lot of it on the shelves in the US; Europe is another story.
As his bio mentions, Martin has spent decades working in nearly every aspect of the wine industry. We also get a succinct comparison to English wine history – which is something that is quite diverse, as Martin said. And we found that out a few episodes back, didn’t we? (In fact we cut out pretty much everything before the 20th century to get to the bubbly.)
For political and commercial reasons, just as in Martin’s native England, Mallorcan wine production ran into the same roadblocks until the 1960s. Mass tourism was, as we learned from other regions, was not good for wine quality with respect to mass production as a response to an influx of tourists.
Now, Mallorca has no fewer than 75 commercial, working wineries. Only a couple of decades ago there were just 12. It seems as if the industry is finding its commercial groove on an island that is “one hour wide and one hour long.” We’d like to think Martin’s moving there has something to do with this, but we may be a little partial.
Food & Wine in Mallorca (8:46)
Photo: http://www.illesbalearsqualitat.es/
Sporting a warm Mediterranean climate, Mallorca hosts red international grape varieties in its island vineyards such as Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.
However, there are three at least distinct varieties that no one else can claim: Calllet (red), Manto Negro (red), and Moll (Prensal Blanc).
Additionally, there are two Spanish Denominación de Origens – or DOs on the island. Pla I Llevant DO covers production of red, white, sparkling, liqueur, and rosé wines with the Callet grape and many, many other authorized varieties. It was established almost 20 years ago.
Binissalem DO covers quality red, white, and rosé wines mostly from the Manto Negro and Moll grapes. This one goes back nearly 30 years.
There are also regional and table wine appellations.
With the warm temperatures and 300+ days of sunshine a year, the harvest starts in early August. This means the wine styles are dominated by full-bodied, high alcohol reds exceeding 14%. These can be paired with Mallorcan tapas. But with such an abundance of fresh seafood, there is a good quantity of rosé wine, as well as good white wines with which to wash it down.
Corkdork Alert! (not in the show)
We found this website on the quality wine and food of the Balearic Islands. It’s loaded with goodies to supplement the goodness that Martin laid down for us!
Oh yes, there are even vintage ratings, wine style descriptions, production rules that have us all a flutter – and spirits, which we only touched on briefly – as well as cheeses, olives and more! Please cruise this page, click, drool, repeat:
Also, the Wines From Spain website always has great information.
Wine Educators International (20:58)
Wine Educators International is a training organization, but entertainment is essential to the educational mission. Martin believes it’s important to present information informally while eating and drinking. The focus on history, culture, geography, and the ultimate reason for regional wine styles is in the forefront of the experiences they offer, in addition to bringing people together to share an event.
Other tastings, such as gin and tonic workshops, are also explorations that Wine Educators International offers to their gustatory explorers. We even found a fun gin renaissance side road to meander down for a few minutes.
A Little Smoked Whale Tale Aside (23:39)
Because Wine Educators International and Dining With Style events take Martin and his guests to fabulous, but sometimes off-the-beaten path wine and food destinations, our stalking of his social media accounts led to this question:
“Have you ever had smoked whale carpaccio?”
His answer was delightful. We had to reflect on the dish that got away when Steph was in Norway, as well as one of our earliest (uncompressed audio alert!) episodes called: A Mid-Summer Night’s Whale Carpaccio.
We just can’t let it go, can we?
Don’t You Know Who I Am?! (27:20)
Don’t let the experts keep you down. Martin’s embarrassing wine story is a lesson for all of us. “Excuse me, sir, you do know that’s a red wine, don’t you?” Yes. We’ve all been there, but we’ll let you listen and sort out the details.
Connect With Martin Ward (31:35)
WINE EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL:
Twitter: @THEWINEEDUCATOR
Instagram: wineeducatorsinternational
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WEILtd
DINING WITH STYLE:
Twitter: @DININGwSTYLEeu
Instagram: diningwithstyle
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiningWithStyle
MALLORCA WINE TOURS:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MallorcaWineTours
Business people can find Martin and Wine Educators International on LinkedIn as well.
Shoutouts (35:58)
A great big shoutout is in order to our guest, Martin Ward, as well as our uber-supportive patrons!
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