Stories from the island. The ones worth telling.

There is a generation of Mallorcan winemakers who could have left. The island's wine industry collapsed in the early twentieth century — phylloxera, economics, the easier money of tourism. The vineyards went. For decades, Mallorca made barely any wine worth talking about.

Then something changed. In the 1990s and 2000s, a small group of families decided that the indigenous grapes — Manto Negro, Callet, Giro Ros, Prensal Blanc — were worth saving. Not because it was commercially obvious. Because it mattered.

We visited three of them this spring. What we found was not nostalgia. It was something more interesting than that: a group of people who have thought deeply about what they are doing and why, and who make wine that could only come from this place.

The grape doesn't exist anywhere else. The soil doesn't exist anywhere else. The wine couldn't exist anywhere else. Why would I want to make something that could?

That is Pere, whose family has been farming the same 12 hectares since his great-grandfather planted the first vines in 1934. He is 42. He studied oenology in Bordeaux and came back to Mallorca. Everyone thought he was making a mistake. He doesn't think about it anymore.

The wine he makes — a Manto Negro aged in clay amphora — is unlike anything we had tasted before. Deep, structured, with a mineral quality that recalls the limestone beneath the vines. He produces 1,800 bottles per year. He has a waiting list.

We asked him what he wanted people to understand about Mallorcan wine. He thought about it for a long time.

That it has been here longer than the tourists. And that it will be here after.

The phrase 'slow tourism' has become something of a marketing term. It appears on travel sites alongside pictures of cobblestone streets and linen shirts, usually promising an 'authentic' experience that will be delivered on a four-day itinerary packed with highlights.

That is not what we mean when we use it. What we mean is simpler and more demanding: going to fewer places, staying longer, paying more attention.

Mallorca is one of the most visited islands in the world. In the summer months, certain areas receive a volume of visitors that their infrastructure, their ecosystems, and their communities cannot absorb. Roads become car parks. Coves become swimming pools. Villages become performance spaces for other people's holidays.

We are not interested in adding to that. Every decision we make — the size of our groups, the timing of our visits, the locations we choose and the ones we avoid — is made with an awareness of what tourism does to the places it touches.

Slow tourism, as we practice it, means: we go to places that are not overwhelmed. We go at times when our presence adds to rather than subtracts from the experience of being there. We bring groups of eight, not forty. We spend money with local businesses, not international platforms. We come back.

None of this is a sacrifice. Done well, this kind of travel produces experiences that are deeper, richer and more memorable than anything achieved by moving faster. The guest who spends a morning pressing olive oil with a Mallorcan family comes home with something that no highlight reel can replicate.

The island will reward you for slowing down. Every time.

Carolina Adan Caro paints the island in a way that bypasses description. The work is not representational — you won't find landscape paintings or architectural records in her studio. What you find instead is a visual language of sensation: the feeling of Mallorca, not the look of it.

We visited her studio on a morning in April. She was working on a large canvas, black and gold and red, the words 'Art is Life' written and overwritten until they became texture rather than text. She didn't stop when we came in.

We talked about the island as she worked. About what it means to be from here. About whether growing up on an island changes the way you see.

You know the light is not like anywhere else. It has a different quality in the afternoon — thicker somehow, slower. Everything looks slightly unreal.

Her work has been exhibited across Europe. She is now represented by galleries in Barcelona, Hamburg, and London. She chooses to live and work on Mallorca.

The prints she produces in collaboration with Mallorca is Life are a way of making the work accessible without reproducing it. Each edition is small, each signed, each a genuine piece rather than a reproduction. We asked if it bothered her, the commercial dimension.

Art reaches people. However it does that — exhibition, print, a shirt someone wears on the street — it has reached someone. That's the point.

Top-class live music, Mediterranean food and a wonderful mood until the early hours: summer was celebrated in Santa Ponça.

SANTA PONÇA. Summer temperatures, high-calibre live music and an exuberant atmosphere until dawn: the Star Press Media Night, held on 8 August 2026 at the Mallorca Country Club in Santa Ponça, became a glittering social occasion.

The musical highlight came from Bruce Kapusta. With his unmistakable cornet playing and his moving voice, the artist delighted the guests and proved once again how impressively virtuosity and great emotion can come together. His performances shaped the special atmosphere of the evening.

The Media Night also had plenty to offer at the table. The catering by the restaurant Mola at the Mallorca Country Club spoiled guests with excellent dishes, accompanied by fine wines from the mallorca-is-life® label that rounded off the summer evening in style.

Music, good food and Mallorcan summer nights.

Among the prominent guests were Mallorca bestselling author Michael Johannes and his wife Julia. Only two days earlier, Mallorca Magazin had published a major feature on the writer, his books and his work on the island.

When the performances finally turned into a party night, hardly anyone stayed seated. In pleasantly warm temperatures there was dancing, celebrating and laughter — until the early hours. The Star Press Media Night showed impressively how elegantly music, good food and Mallorcan summer nights can come together.