From the atlas
Bodega Son Antem
At A Glance
Producer: Son Antem Alaró Location: Alaró, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain Established: 2019 (first vintage 2021) Key grapes: Callet, Monastrell, Syrah, Chardonnay Organic: Certified from the 2023 vintage Hectares: 18, hand-farmed by the Lidby family
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The Producer
Son Antem Alaró sits in the municipality of Alaró, at the foot of the Serra de Tramuntana, Mallorca's limestone spine. Johan and Malin Lidby, a Swedish couple, planted the estate in 2019 and vinified their first commercial vintage in 2021. Everything from the pruning to the bottling is done by the family themselves, across 18 hectares of ten different grape varieties on a property with agricultural roots stretching back to 1693.
Three things separate Son Antem from the beach-adjacent wines that occupy most of Mallorca's shelf space: the physical position in the mountain foothills, the commitment to Callet as the estate's most expressive grape, and an organic certification reached within four years of planting the first vine. The bottles do not attempt to compete with dense, sun-drenched Mediterranean reds. They are lighter, herb-led, and mineral, shaped more by altitude and cool mountain air than by summer heat.
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Place
Alaró is a small inland town on Mallorca's northwestern flank, directly below the Serra de Tramuntana, a mountain range that runs the length of the island and moderates the Mediterranean climate considerably. Vineyards in the foothills receive cooler nights than the coastal plains, which slows ripening and holds natural acidity in the grapes. The result, in the glass, is wines with less density and more aromatic lift than the broad-shouldered reds that Mallorca's warm reputation might suggest.
Mallorca's wine production sits under the Vins de la Terra Illes Balears designation, the regional category that covers table wines from the Balearic Islands outside the island's two formal Denominació d'Origen zones. The Tramuntana foothills are not themselves a delimited appellation, but the physical geography is consequential: cooler temperatures, rocky limestone-influenced soils, and the kind of sparse, fragrant scrub vegetation that shows up in the wines as thyme, wild herb, and smoky mineral.
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Soil And Site
The estate sits in the foothills rather than on the valley floor, which limits irrigation stress and encourages roots to work deeper into the rocky subsoil. Limestone and clay are the dominant soil types in the Alaró area, with variation across the 18-hectare property that the Lidbys describe as a mosaic of soils and varieties. That variation is not decorative language: the wines are made to reflect it. Different parcels carry different varieties, and the range is built around that diversity rather than a single flagship grape or a uniform house style.
Organic certification arrived with the 2023 vintage, two years after the first commercial release. In a young vineyard planted without decades of accumulated chemical inputs, the transition was logistically simpler than at older estates, and the timing reflects a founding philosophy rather than a late conversion.
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Story
Johan and Malin Lidby had been coming to Mallorca since 2009. Over a decade, the island shifted from a holiday destination to something closer to a permanent intention. When they came across Son Antem Alaró, a property with more than three centuries of agricultural history, the decision was almost instantaneous. They committed to taking it over in under ten minutes of standing on the land.
What followed was not a renovation of an existing wine operation. The Lidbys planted the vineyard in 2019 from scratch, choosing ten varieties and laying out the parcels themselves. Two years later, in 2021, they harvested and vinified the first commercial vintage. By 2023, the estate had organic certification. The speed of that progression, from bare land to certified organic production in four years, reflects a project built around conviction rather than cautious market testing. The family does not employ a separate vineyard crew or a consulting winemaker. Every decision traces back to Johan and Malin.
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Vineyards And Cellar
All 18 hectares are managed by hand. No mechanical harvesting, no contracted vineyard management. The hand work allows selective picking across the estate's varied parcels, which matters most for Callet, a grape with irregular ripening that benefits from careful harvest timing.
In the cellar, the approach is low-intervention. S'Era, the 100% Callet wine, undergoes 12 days of maceration and six months in oak before bottling, giving the pale-coloured grape enough contact to develop herb and mineral complexity without losing its natural lightness. Vespre, the Syrah and Monastrell blend, spends time in oak as well, with the oak integrated into a fuller, darker profile rather than used as a softening agent. Alba, the Chardonnay, ages for ten months in large old foudres, which preserve freshness and aromatic detail rather than imposing wood flavour. The common thread across all three is a winemaking hand that adds time and careful maceration but does not impose density the site has not produced.
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Wines
The range organises itself around two axes: indigenous versus international varieties, and lighter versus fuller body.
S'Era is 100% Callet, the indigenous Mallorcan grape. The 2024 vintage shows forest raspberry, strawberry, fresh herbs, smoky mineral, and pomegranate at 12% alcohol, a profile that reads more like a northern Rhône light red than a warm Mediterranean wine.
Vespre blends 53% Syrah with 47% Monastrell, a pairing that combines Syrah's pepper and violet lift with Monastrell's darker, more savoury frame. The 2023 vintage carries blackberry, wild raspberry, thyme, black pepper, smoked charcuterie, violet, and black olives. It is fuller and more structured than S'Era, but not a heavy wine.
Alba is the white anchor, Chardonnay aged ten months in old foudres, with a tropical-spice profile and a contrast between browned butter and fresh lemon.
The estate also produces wines under the Camins de Mallorca line, including a Callet and a red blend, alongside Malva and Aura. These sit within the same hand-farmed, organic frame as the core range and reflect the variety mosaic planted across the property.
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In The Glass
S'Era is the most distinctive wine on the table. Callet at 12% alcohol is a grape that behaves differently from almost everything else Mallorca produces: the colour is pale garnet, the nose is fresh and lifted rather than concentrated, and the palate opens with forest berry and pomegranate before moving into a layer of smoky mineral and dried herbs. The tannins are fine and the acidity is lively. It does not ask to be paired with heavy food.
Vespre shifts the register entirely. The Syrah and Monastrell combination delivers a darker, denser mid-palate, with blackberry and black olive at the centre and black pepper and smoked meat on the edges. The tannins are firmer, the finish longer. Where S'Era asks for charcuterie or grilled vegetables, Vespre wants a lamb chop or a hard sheep's cheese.
Alba sits apart from both reds. The foudre ageing on Chardonnay builds texture and a note of warm spice without turning the wine heavy. The lemon freshness underneath keeps it from collapsing into richness.
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A Bottle To Understand It
Start with S'Era. It is 100% Callet, the grape indigenous to Mallorca, and at 12% alcohol it makes the clearest argument for what the Tramuntana foothills produce: pale colour, fine tannin, fresh herb, forest berry, and smoky mineral, with an acidity that keeps the wine light and food-friendly. Twelve days of maceration and six months in oak add definition without weight. It is not a typical Mediterranean red, and that is precisely the point. S'Era shows the estate's character more directly than any other bottle in the range.
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Anecdote
Johan and Malin Lidby had been visiting Mallorca since 2009, a decade of summers that shifted from tourism to something more deliberate. When they stood on the Son Antem property in Alaró in 2019, on land that had been farmed since 1693, they did not ask for time to think. The decision to take over Son Antem was made in under ten minutes. What that commitment meant in practice was significant: the estate had no planted vineyard. The Lidbys would need to plant 18 hectares from scratch, choose the varieties, lay out the parcels, and build a cellar operation without an existing team. They planted in 2019, harvested their first commercial grapes in 2021, and held an organic certificate by 2023. The ten minutes on that hillside produced, four years later, a working wine estate.
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Final Word
Son Antem Alaró is four years old. Its most interesting bottle is made from a grape most wine drinkers have never encountered. The family that runs it did not come from wine. None of that is a weakness. The Tramuntana foothills give Callet a cooler, more aromatic frame than the hot-plain versions of the grape, and the hand-farmed, organic approach produces wines with more clarity and definition than their modest alcohol levels might suggest. S'Era is worth seeking out for anyone who wants to understand what indigenous Mallorcan wine can be when it is farmed carefully and left to speak for itself.
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Sources
- https://www.sonantemalaro.es/en/
- https://www.sonantemalaro.es/en/about/
- https://wineanorak.com/2026/04/15/the-wines-of-son-antem-alaro-mallorca-spain/
- https://www.sonantemalaro.es/en/wines-2023/
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/son-antem-9600701/
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/son-antem-9230301/