Snow In July: The Vermar Tradition

The president of the Binissalem Designation of Origin regulatory council said the other day that the grape harvest is expected to be 25% lower than last year. The quality, however, will be exceptional. Will, therefore, the grapes being hurled around at the town's sports centre this Saturday lunchtime be of sufficient hurling quality? Maybe they are the low quality ones. Grapes that can afford be hurled. Let's hope so. If the harvest is a quarter lower, the last thing you can do with is a good grape or many being chucked about in joyous grape battle abandon. Grape battles are, in theory and probably in practice, not ideal for wine production.

At least when it comes to the grape-treading competition, you would suppose that some productive use could be made of all the stamping in barrels that will occur in the Plaça Església on Sunday. The purpose of the competition is, after all, the pursuit of the most juice. Or maybe they just leave it and drink it as grape juice.

The Vermar is one of Mallorca's prestige fiesta and fair occasions. The actual wine fair can seem almost secondary to all that proceeds it: the battle and the competitions. But without wine there would of course be no Vermar fiestas, no celebration of the grape harvest, no place for Binissalem right at the centre of the Mallorcan wine map.

These are fiestas that created tradition where tradition didn't exist. The "vermadores" and the "vermadors", the harvest maidens and the harvest young masters, were inventions of tradition once the Vermar emerged from the confines of an essentially private wine buffs event at Can Gelabert. These young people, granted roles of honour for the fiesta, will preside over the offer of the grape must - "most novell". Maybe this is a productive side to the grape-treading competition. The offer, with due ceremony, is made to Santa Maria de Robines, Our Lady of Robines, and also the parish church. Robines was the old name of the centre of power, a farmstead along with two others, one of which from Muslim times was Beni Salam.

Prior to this offer of the grape must there is a solemn mass, but the Vermar has never really been a religious fiesta. As with its acquired traditions, such as the vermadores and vermadors and even the grape battle, any religion was grafted onto that private function of 1965, one organised by the writer Llorenç Moyà. He, Moyà, was characteristic of the way in which men of culture (they were normally men) helped to shape traditions, fiestas and festivals. Other prime examples are Alexandre Ballester in Sa Pobla (even though he was originally from Inca), who was active with the demons' culture, or Miquel Bota Totxo, who was instrumental in the founding of the Pollensa Music Festival.

The centenary of Moyà's birth was recognised in Binissalem last year. Although accepted as one of the greats of Mallorca's literature in the twentieth century, the recognition he received during his lifetime was not as great as it might have been. And after he died in 1981, that recognition lessened still. His "revival", though, is such that he was honoured last year and that a book about him has been published. It was presented on Monday at the Can Gelabert Casa de Cultura, the venue for that gathering which was to spawn the Vermar fiestas. The image for the fiestas programme features a black and white profile of Moyà and some grapes.

The Vermar, therefore, has become a tribute to one man. It is surely unique among fiestas in this regard. And the fiestas have developed into an occasion for the arts that provide even more recognition of Moyà's contribution. Among this artistic endeavour is a glosador "combat". Typical of many a fiesta, the glosador verses have taken on a greater poetic depth at Binissalem. The first prize last year was for verses which referred to "one evening in July when it was on the point of snowing, a puput (hoopoe bird) walked to harvest with an owl and a camel dressed in fine silks". It went on to mention flies that carried on their wings the vines from Biniagual (a part of Binissalem) and a fool who looked at prices for going to Jerusalem because there was a bull from Bethlehem half sick from phylloxera with wine from Binissalem.

The phylloxera was the pest that devastated the vines in the late nineteenth century, a natural disaster still firmly embedded in the popular collective memory. It was one from which Binissalem was to eventually recover. And in 1965, Llorenç Moyà laid the foundations for the firm re-establishment of Binissalem at the heart of the island's wine trade. The Vermar fiestas rightly recognise and honour Llorenç Moyà.

Llorenç Moyà And The People's Fiestas

In Palma last week they took a significant step in the direction of something which should have long been the case. The town hall is to seek the far greater participation of residents in the make-up and organisation of the Sant Sebastià fiestas in January. While town halls, not only Palma's of course, have a key role in staging fiestas, there have been calls for greater involvement of the public. Fiestas are for the people, and the people very often have ideas that can break the monotony of the year-in, year-out routine of fiestas by breathing new life into them. Palma witnessed this last weekend when the Orgull Llonguet association organised the grand battle between the Canamunt and Canavall. Water pistols and water guns were at the ready at the Parc de la Mar and they proved to a great success as part of what are otherwise rather neglected fiestas for the Mare de Déu, the Virgin Mary's birthday.

This said, there is evidence from the villages of Mallorca of how public involvement, a grassroots movement if you like, has already been helping in boosting fiestas. A great deal of it has come from the "quintos" youth groups. They have been responsible for introducing what are an increasing number of "battles" into fiestas - the likes of Petra and Sencelles are only quite recent. And one can go back further in time, to the early years of the post-Franco era, to find how local associations were instrumental in fiesta revivalism and event creation. Sarau Alcudienc, the Alcúdia cultural association, is a prime example of a group which invented what have become certain "traditions", such as the figure of Rei en Jaume (King James I), quite a number of years before Santa Ponsa did so for its fiestas.

While individuals and groups have played their parts in shaping fiestas, they haven't, as a rule, been responsible for creating fiestas, for the whole kit and caboodle as they have become. In Binissalem, however, this was the case.

The town's Vermar grape harvest fiestas and fair started this weekend. A couple of nights of art have been added to what is one of Mallorca's premier fiestas, marked as it is by its own battle - of grapes - its treading contests and its wine fair. But these are fiestas which took hold almost by accident. There was no grand design for them when, in 1965, a writer from the town created a gathering of wine enthusiasts at the Can Gelabert cultural centre. By the following year, the gathering was morphing into a party, and the Vermar fiestas were born.

That writer was Llorenç Moyà. Born in Binissalem on the day of Epiphany, 6 January, 1916, the town hall is to honour him next year. It will be the year of Llorenç Moyà.

Vermar was largely his idea, and though it had an unmistakeable commercial element to it - the promotion of the local grape and bodegas - there was also a strong sense of embracing and reviving Mallorcan rural traditions, customs and indeed costumes. The role of the "vermadora", the fiestas' maid of honour, was invented and she was clad in traditional garb.

While Moyà will, for many, be most associated with the establishment and development of the fiestas, there was much more to him. The year in his honour will also be a celebration of his work as a writer and poet, one of the foremost names in Mallorcan literature, who came to prominence in the 1950s, a member of a new wave that was nonetheless influenced by earlier figures such as Miquel Costa i Llobera, the Pollensa poet, and Joan Alcover, who wrote the poem, "La Balanguera", that was to be set to music and to become Mallorca's hymn.

Moyà holds, therefore, an important position in Mallorca's culture and he is representative of the way in which writers and poets were instrumental in driving forward fiestas and events in their home towns and villages. To Moyà can be added the likes of Miquel Bota Totxo, important in establishing the Pollensa Festival and revitalising the Moors and Christians, and Alexandre Ballester, the man who knew everything about Sa Pobla.

Not everywhere in Mallorca will have an illustrious son (or daughter) with the claims of a Moyà, but most will have someone from the past who was key to the activation or re-activation of fiestas. The people's involvement is in fact something of a tradition. And now it too is being revived.

Not Dry: Mallorca's stone

Mallorca has a fair for just about everything. While many of the fairs are designed to excite taste buds or a desire to buy something to mess around on water with, some fairs can sound altogether less exciting or enticing. A celebration of stone might well be thought to fall into this category. But think again. Mallorca wouldn't be what Mallorca is without stone. It's reasonable to say that most places wouldn't be, but Mallorca is defined by its stone, by its different varieties that have adorned its architecture, by the white stone, the yellow stone, by the stone of pre-history, by the stone which shapes and marks out its landscape. Mallorca is stone as much as it is sea and sand.

In Binissalem they honour stone; the eleventh stone fair is taking place this weekend. It is an occasion for the not untypical accompaniments to a Mallorcan fair - giants, music of different types, demons banging drums, dancers dancing the ball de bot, and food (rabbit and noodles in Binissalem's case) - but it would not be the occasion it is without something on which it can be built. Stone.

Binissalem has its own stone variety. What is quarried there, technically one understands, is a marble. Its colour varies from dark blue to light beige, and a principal use of this local quartz-veined stone is for flooring. The stone at the fair will not be Binissalem's alone and nor will the stone products be solely those for building purposes. There is a highly innovative stone craft movement in Mallorca, one pursued by younger artisans, that has given rise to exceptional new designs. Some of these were exhibited at the Pollensa Fair last November, and Binissalem will also be showing them off.

But there is a much more traditional stone industry in Mallorca, evidence of which can be seen on its landscape. It can be walked on, walked over or even walked through, if you are an animal of the right proportions. It is the dry stone of Mallorca.

Dry stone working is a very old craft on the island. A class of worker known as the "marger" is said to have been noted among occupations at the time of King Jaume's conquest in the thirteenth century. More certainly, it was documented two centuries later. The marger is a dry stone worker. The occupation still exists of course, but it had been under threat. In the 1980s, because of a lack of demand and because of an aging profile of dry stone worker, it was in danger of disappearing. So, in 1986 the Sóller School of Margers was formed. Its primary objective was instruction to help with the restoration of dry stone walks. The Council of Mallorca developed on the work in the Sóller and has since instituted training programmes, especially aimed at younger people. There may not be a huge demand for original dry stone working, but there is significant demand for restoration work. The promotion of dry stone walks has helped to bring about the demand. It has been a good example of tourism, heritage and employment combining for their mutual benefit.

Though there is a question mark as to when the marger occupation was first noted, there is clear evidence that it was an occupation in the times immediately after the conquest, and that is the dry stone paths, which are reckoned to date from the thirteenth century. From the following century, there is also evidence of dry stone shelters having been built. These were created for a variety of purposes - as refuges, for storage, for animals and for housing workers such as charcoal burners, seaweed collectors and even snow gatherers, who also had the use of dry stone snow houses, those in which ice was stored and that was to be used in the making of early ice-cream with almonds.

But it is the dry stone walls which are probably the most visible examples of this old craft. They came in different forms rather depending on why they were built, for example for land or crop demarcation or for enclosing livestock. The latter - sheep, pigs, goats and game - were considered in their construction; hence why there are gaps to allow them through. There are also smaller gaps so that water can pass through them.

Stone, as the theme for a fair, may seem a little dry, as it were, but it most certainly isn't. It is bound up with Mallorca's history and with its present and future. In its different types and with its different purposes, it is hugely important. And it is on show in Binissalem.

MALLORCA TODAY - Son Saletes golf course is authorised by Council of Mallorca

The Council of Mallorca has approved the building of a golf course on the Son Saletes finca which lies predominantly in Sencelles and partially in Binissalem. The course has been declared as being in the "general interest", this despite opposition from Sencelles town hall. The debate at the Council, without mentioning names (or name to be more accurate), referred to "a friend of the Partido Popular" who is behind the golf course.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Binissalem golf course set to go ahead

The Council of Mallorca seems likely to give the green light to the construction of a golf course on the finca of Son Saletes that lies partly in Binissalem and partly in Sencelles. The Council's decision would seemingly take precedence over any decisions of the two town halls (Binissalem has recently reversed a local order prohibiting the construction of a golf course). As mentioned in an article (http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/ventura-fairway-binissalem-and-golf.html), the promoter of the course is Ventura Rubí, the president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles, and also the father of the secretary for communication in the cabinet of the Balearics presidency.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

Ventura Fairway: Binissalem and golf

The arguments surrounding the development of more golf courses on Mallorca are never far away from the shouts of "fore" as the business of golf hurtles towards environmentalists lurking in the rough who are forced to dash for cover and bury their heads in a sand bunker.

Four years ago, I wrote an article the title of which was "Heart and Soul". It was mainly to do with the projected golf course in Campos. Without going into the detail of that article, I concluded by saying that "the Campos case is important as it goes to the heart of many issues, namely what sort of developments are needed, the intransigence of a non-pragmatic environmental lobby, the incoherence of political decision-making and the needs of local communities. It is a story not just about a golf course but also about the future soul of Mallorca."

Nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. Golfing factionalism is as it was and political decision-making remains incoherent as well as being subject to whim, revisionism and dominant political party complexion. The future soul of Mallorca is still undecided, but we are edging more towards a state in which the treasure island becomes Leisure Island.

The Campos project has always made some sense. The town has little by way of tourism, so in purely economic terms the project has advantages, the same advantages that would accrue from the highly contentious hotel development near Es Trenc beach. Another disputed development, in Muro, has always made less sense, if only because of the existence of other courses nearby, Alcanada and Pollensa.

These two projects have dominated the arguments regarding further golfing development, but there is now a third, and one that threatens to become as mired in  the endless to-ing and fro-ing that Muro's has. It is the strange case of the Binissalem golf course, a case made stranger because the golf course would lie less in Binissalem than it would in neighbouring Sencelles.

In May 2010, the Council of Mallorca supported a proposal by Binissalem town hall to modify local planning regulations in order to stop the construction of a golf course on rustic land. The town hall, buoyed by the Council's support, revelled in being able to say that it was the first town in Mallorca to have modified planning regulations in order to expressly forbid golf development on rustic land. Meanwhile, Sencelles town hall had already imposed a moratorium of a year on any construction and in April 2011, it followed Binissalem's lead in prohibiting the construction.

The course seemed dead in the water, therefore. Until, that is, the Council of Mallorca, now under a different political regime (the Partido Popular), opened the way for the course to once more be developed. This was in January this year. And now, all of a sudden, Binissalem town hall has performed a complete U-turn and approved the development of sporting activities on rustic land, meaning the golf course. Sencelles would presumably have to follow suit, and it is here where the story becomes that bit more interesting as the promoter of the golf course is one Ventura Rubí. And he is? The president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles.

The political make-up of both town halls has changed since the prohibitions of 2010 and 2011, as also has that of the Council of Mallorca. So, here you have it: whim, dominant political party complexion and also some revisionism; the decision to prohibit construction had all been a mistake. Presumably, therefore, no one had actually meant to prohibit construction.

Further background to all this is the new tourism law and the provision for more agrotourism whereby existing properties on rustic land can be converted to tourist use (and Binissalem town hall has also agreed that there should be more agrotourism). Just by way of interest, who is the honorary president of the agrotourism association? Ventura Rubí.

Putting agrotourism together with a golf course and the fact that Binissalem and Sencelles are at the centre of Mallorca's wine industry, then the town hall's U-turn makes sense. It would open the area up to an upmarket brand of tourism that would benefit from the synergy of golf and wine.

But go back to 2008 and there were arguments that Mallorca had already reached golfing saturation point in terms of courses while these courses were being under-utilised. Golfing tourism has tended to grow but not hugely, while agrotourism has suffered from a fall in demand from its key mainland Spanish market. The Binissalem course makes some sense, but so does the one in Campos; more so perhaps. However, the question is less whether Binissalem's course makes sense and more whether any more courses on Mallorca make sense.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Double Dutch

Do you get embarrassed by double letters in embarrassment? Are you harassed by wondering whether it is one or two r's in harassment? Do you accommodate one or two c's or m's in accommodation? Spanish poses a similar dilemma. The Spaniards follow a dirección where the English take t. For the Spanish it is possible to allow only a posible, which would be impossible in English.

Double letters or to not double letters? That is the doublespeak question. You can take a bet on doubles. Try it. Double your money, double or quits. Either way it's likely to cause double trouble. Where's this all going? Does it sound like double Dutch?

It is the tyranny of the double letter. And the inverse double. Take the town of Binissalem. There is another place in Mallorca. It's called Binnisalem. At least it was in "The Bulletin". Again. The battle of the grapes took place in Binnisalem, said it. Must be somewhere near to another battle of grapes. In Binissalem. The Arabs eschew n's coming in two by two. Actually they don't, because the alphabet is different, but you get my drift - hopefully. Arabic is the source of the prefix. Think Bin Laden and not Binn Laden. Mallorca's bin home to bins for centuries - Biniali, Biniagual, Biniaraix. The island may not have been laden down with bins, but they've bin there nevertheless. In their n-singularity. But Binissalem poses the double problem of potential inverse doubleness. And so it proves. It's writ large in "The Bulletin". Wrongly.

Away from all this doubling up, the great grape battle of the Binissalem Vermar festivities took place on Saturday. Harlequins wingers would love it. The blood of red grape is closer to an outpouring of Group A than a joke-shop capsule. Let Tom Williams eat Merlot in future.

A grape battle may hold all the Inquisitorial threat of the Pythons' cushions and comfy chair, but in its messiness it is supremely stupid and therefore enormous fun. It is like paintball minus the faux-militarism. A question, though, is do they have changing-rooms and showers? Or do participants drive home and suffer the smell of stale red for several weeks after? Presumably they walk. It is as well that the grape harvest has been abundant. Otherwise the battle might cause a wine shortage. It is also as well that the weather was fine on Saturday. Otherwise the grape battle would have brought new meaning to the term wine lake.

Daft it may be, as daft as tomato battles that take place elsewhere, but daftness should be a pre-requisite of fiestas. There is little dafter, after all, than the rubber ducks in Can Picafort. And talking of that, together with the street theatre of Pollensa's Moors and Christians, I would submit for your consideration that the Binissalem battle and the Picafort ducks register as the three great fiesta events.

And following the battle came the treading. On Sunday they trod and they trod during the great grape-treading contest, the winners producing 5.6 litres of juice and trousering 240 euros into the bargain as well as - along with all the teams - taking home bottles of vino partly made from the juice produced last year. And they would have enjoyed their collapso and possibly have been seeing double, though it's doubtful that even with drink they would have spelt the name of their town with two n's and one s.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Abba, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuB8xWeA59I. Today's title - who was this, and what is the link with the Can Picafort ducks?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Rescue Me

Look over the hill, boys, it's the cavalry. Just in time. Just in time to save the winter and its benighted tourism. The cavalry's coming from the east - Poles, Hungarians, Czechs. Praise be for the collapse of the eastern bloc.

If only. Not that there isn't to be an eastern invasion. Just that it is one by pensioners being brought to the Balearics under the subsidised scheme for social tourism. 48,000 are expected during the low season. Well, it's something I suppose, and with unemployment likely to nudge over the psychological barrier of 80,000 and even as high as 100,000 by the new year, anything will do. However, though a few hotels may benefit, that will be about your lot. The eastern European oldsters are not likely to be packing the bars, restaurants and shops of the Mallorcan resorts. And let's just put this in context shall we. If one takes the annual tourism to be in the region of 12 million, this slow-moving cavalry charge amounts to 0.4 per cent.

Still, there are always those other fringe sources of tourism, like the golf. Always the golf. Except it isn't always the golf. The development in Campos having been deposited into a bunker, now we have Binissalem refusing to allow another one to tee-off. It was almost certainly unwarranted - the course, that is - but the town hall's refusal to support its construction just emphasises the stasis of new tourism developments and also the golfing gulf between what the town halls are prepared to allow and what the tourism authorities see (wrongly in most instances) as the great future for Mallorca's tourism and, in particular, its out-of-season tourism. Shame really. They could have built a gentle pitch and putt for the pensioners.

And sport of another sort is also under a cloud. We're back with Real Mallorca. While there would appear to be a German who might be mad enough to want to take over a club that is falling rapidly and may well drop out of La Liga the way the team is going, there is no firm bid. Nor is there one from Freddy Shepherd. Whoever takes the club over, if anyone, can probably get it for a song. Why Davidson ever proposed the 38 million, God alone knows. If money cannot be found by March, the club is likely to be unable to pay its employees. It already owes significant amounts to contractors. The reality for Real is that it might just cease to be. And there is no real sign of the cavalry or of a rescue.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bon Jovi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2vDn6Ph1YA). Today's title - who did this? Careful, it's not who you might think.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Bini And The Jets

In the Riki Lash column in "The Bulletin" on Sunday was a piece about driving while using a mobile. It said that if caught three times, this would result in the confiscation of one's licence (as opposed to "license"; well, he is American). What it also said was that it didn't matter whether that licence was foreign, it would still be taken away. Now, it would be highly unlikely, I would suggest, that a tourist would be stopped three times for using a mobile during a short stint in Mallorca, so this has to refer more to those who live here. The fact is that there is a whole other issue here, and it is one that I wonder if all expats are fully aware of. If a resident, one must have - by law - a Spanish driving licence. A UK/European one is not deemed valid. At the start of this year, a law was enacted which elevated the lack of a licence to the status more of a criminal offence, as opposed to an administrative oversight, which it had previously been. A non-Spanish licence is embraced under this law, and contravention can potentially result in a huge fine or worse.

This law is a complete nonsense of course. It sounds more like a way of extracting some 18 euros for the process of converting the licence. But whatever the thinking, the fact is that there may well be many here who are driving without a valid licence. If so, then don't go too close to Trafico's controls; rather, get yourself down to the Trafico building sharpish and get the licence changed.

Whilst on "The Bulletin", is it not possible for someone to run an eye over the copy in the form of a proof? It had stuff about the Vermar in Binissalem. On each occasion, it spelt the town with two n's and one s. Small matter it may seem, but this is a town in Mallorca, famous as a wine centre, and it should be simple enough to get its spelling right, while the Arabic prefix "bini" is not unique to Binissalem. There is, for example, the village of Biniali, not that far from Binissalem. By contrast, in the same edition the excellent "Rural Life" column by George Giri - excellent for its informativeness - got the spelling right.


Mention of the Alcúdia Fair the other day brings me to the coincidence in respect of what I spoke about on 15 September regarding "show cooking". At the fair there will be its own show cooking, that by Juanjo of the revered Genestar restaurant. For those who do not know, Genestar is by the Auditorium in the old town. At one time it was called El Pequeño Gourmet before it was gutted, given a complete makeover and made to look as though it's a high-class kitchen shop. When it was first completed I went in expecting to find Santos or Xoane model kitchen installations. To that end I was disappointed. It was, and is, a restaurant.


A different form of cuisine is currently being given a "run" or circuit around Alcúdia. It's a ham run. This is not a case of jetting around the town with a ham in tow or something like that; it's very much more sedate. Basically, a bunch of restaurants serve up some Iberian ham on given days. Seemingly, the scoffing of some ham is free so long as you buy a beer or something else. Quite why they have this "circuito de jamón" I'm not entirely sure; it's not as if you can't get Iberian ham in many an establishment. Moreover, it's more likely to be locals who go for some freebies, and they are already familiar with the ham. Anyway, whatever the point of it all, if you fancy some ham from superior black pig stock, the next stop on the run is at the fine Cerveceria Gambrinus in Puerto Alcúdia on 26 September (Gambrinus is next to Sandra's bar) and then the equally fine Malanga (formerly the Mestizo restaurant) on 3 October. I've put a list of participating restaurants on the WHAT'S ON BLOG.


As the season begins to wind down, word comes that it's going to end rather earlier than normal for some hotels. Notably, the Lagomonte will not be limping on beyond the first weekend of October. From what I can make out, it's not been the greatest of seasons for the hotel. Whatever, they're calling it quits early. The Mac hotels are apparently also closing before the end-October half-term period. There is a commonality here - Lagomonte and the Macs are full-on all-inclusives. Some while ago I drew attention to the fact that self-catering or half-board places such as the Alcúdia Beach and Delfín Azul were doing just fine compared to the all-inclusives. Perhaps it is the ultra-economical AI that is bearing the brunt of the economic downturn.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - U2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEflc7YXo10). Today's title - a corruption of what and by whom?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

That's Not Fair

The summer fiestas start to fade, but as they do, they merge with and morph into another form of tradition - the fair. This is a seamless continuum of event that will be reversed at Christmas and into the new year. No event more symbolises the transition from summer to the autumnal fair than the Binissalem Vermar. It yearns for and does not want to lose the slowly disappearing summer by its insistence on fiesta but accepts the time of year with the celebration of the grape harvest. Vermar means grape harvest.

The Binissalem event is as drawn out as the Can Picafort August fiesta, but, unlike that summer party, its length enables it to straddle seasons; it starts in summer and ends in autumn. It is equinoctial fiesta. The Vermar, a vinous grand tasting, treads grapes and presents a battle of almost festishistic down-and-dirty rolling in crushed fruit. Binissalem, the home also of the dry-stone wall fiesta, is the centre of rural celebration; its parties are statements of difference. Yet one wonders if the Vermar may continue at the time of the turn of the seasons. Climate change, so we are told, is leading to grape ripening occurring earlier and to new challenges to wine-makers. Spain has more land devoted to vines than any other country. Rising temperatures threaten not only the grape industry but also the fiestas.

The autumn fair is something that can be found in many towns across the island. Alcúdia has its own fair at the start of October. But being a Mallorcan event, it cannot dispense with the trappings of the fiesta. Accordingly, alongside the farm machinery, the stands and the animals are the giants, the folk dance and the inevitable night party with its DJs and bands, raging from the old-town centre and keeping the neighbours awake. At the fair are all manner of local curiosities - from fans and hats to custom cars of eccentric design and highly-tuned engines. The fairs are also occasions for the island to show off - governmental publicity stunts for the environment and tourism and industry's wares in the form of, for example, Mallorcan wines. They are fine events, but one wonders quite what they achieve. Alcúdia's fair bears similarities each year. It is though they are events for preaching to the already knowing or converted. But they, like the fiestas, are tradition. And tradition goes an awfully long way in Mallorca.

For information on both the Vermar and the Alcúdia Fair, go to the What's On Blog - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.

And if, in wet and miserable summer Britain for instance, you are wondering whether climate change is all but a figment of the imagination, try this ... Tucked away in a piece in "The Diario" the other day was a thing which reported the views of a Nobel prize winner. He says that south-west Europe, which includes Mallorca, could anticipate an increase in average temperatures of up to six degrees over the next six years. Six degrees! Over six years! Is he kidding? Presumably he isn't. But if it were to be the case, then frankly I think we should be extremely worried. And quite why this has not been more widely reported, I am not sure. Six degrees. It's just not fair; perhaps they'll have to shift all the fairs to December if that's the case.

QUIZ
Yesterday's title - the single "The Gap" wasn't that good, so instead here is something that was - The Thompson Twins, "All Fall Out" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y_91nGEDYw). Today's title - this is a line from a current song; she's still a rock star and she's a colour.

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From Russia With Love

This is the season for statistics. I may have described them before as being “fatuous”, but they do serve a purpose if only for me to be able to point out apparent inconsistencies. Let’s take the case of Russian tourism, a market perceived as being well doshed-up and therefore of interest to any a tourist-based economy. Yesterday, I noted that Russian tourism to the Balearics in the months to end-August had risen by just over 4%. This is a figure provided by a Balearics organisation for investigation and touristic technologies - CITTIB. Today, “The Bulletin” reports the Balearic Minister for Tourism as saying that in the first seven months (i.e. till end-July) that figure was up by 12.4%. Now, there isn’t actually a discrepancy here, because if one adds the numbers for August alone, the total - for the EIGHT months - is just a touch under 23,000 (in line with the CITTIB figures), the Minister pointing out that the figure for the SEVEN months was 15,769. I hope you’re following all of this.

But what the Minister has done is to report a healthy percentage rise for seven months and not take into account the fact that Russian tourism in August fell by over 10% over 2006, hence the 4% figure for the EIGHT months. 12.4 sounds better than 4.2, I think it’s fair to say. Which just all goes to show - as ever - that you can prove whatever you want with statistics. Fatuous? No, that’s unfair, but they should be read and interpreted with caution.


COFFEE
Apparently there is a travelling exhibition going around designed to promote awareness of “fair trade” coffee from central America. Worthy stuff, but mention of coffee prompts me to spotlight someone who has contributed hugely to the Mallorcan and Spanish holiday and life experience. Indeed without him one could argue the whole experience would not be quite the same. Achille Gaggia. Who he?

Gaggia was a Milanese bar owner. In 1938, he patented the Espresso coffee machine. The smell of freshly-prepared coffee is satisfying enough wherever one is, but add that smell to the warmth of a morning on holiday and it is highly evocative. Gaggia said that the machine “makes it quite difficult to make really bad coffee”, something I wouldn’t necessarily concur with. There are places hereabouts that make fabulous coffee. Why it should vary so much I don’t really know, but - and by all means offer alternatives - the coffee at Cas Capella in Alcúdia takes some beating. Don’t ask me why.

(Source for Gaggia reference: Peter Hennessy, “Having It So Good: Britain In The Fifties”, Allen Lane, 2006.)


VERMAR
Binissalem is currently enjoying its annual wine and grape fiesta - the Vermar. This is a jolly old thrash. People tread grapes, roll in them, throw them, get smothered in them, and with all the rain around they make wine in the process. Given that sampling is an obvious feature of the event, best not to take the car, which is why No Frills’ day out to the Vermar on Sunday would have been an ideal excuse. But I can’t make it. Damn.


QUIZ
Yesterday - As rightly pointed out by Anne Marie just back from Puerto Pollensa, it was Rex Harrison. The female part was Julie Andrews in the stage version of “My Fair Lady” but not Audrey Hepburn in the film. As Aud was not reckoned to be much of a singer, the vocal was actually Marni Nixon. Today’s title - who sang this Bond theme tune?

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