The redevelopment of the Hotel Formentor has attracted a great deal of attention and has been dogged by controversies. But the project doesn't only include the hotel. There is also the estate and the plan for improvements to some 1,250 hectares of land. Once the hotel does reopen - this is due to be in April 2024 - guided tours of the estate will be available. Visitors will be able to see the vineyards, the olive grove, the new orchards, and the forest around Ses Cases Velles (the old houses)* as well as the interior of these buildings.
Miquel Carreras is in charge of the agricultural and forestry project and has been working on it since last year. He describes it as "a model finca" in the way in which tourism benefits conservation. Value is to be added to the produce from the land. The environment will be cared for and the "unknown face of Formentor" will be promoted.
A key objective, he explains, is a transformation of all agricultural activity and processes into ecological ones. There will, for example, be a decrease of the environmental footprint by reducing the water footprint; this will be through reused water. "We also envisage a decrease in the carbon footprint by producing zero kilometre food and using synthetic fertilizers."
A seven-hectare area is for the vineyards. The grapes, white and red, are predominantly native to Mallorca. French Viogner, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah have also been planted. The wine that comes from the finca will have the PGI Vi de la Terra de Mallorca mark. The image and labelling are being worked on; a presentation is scheduled to coincide with the reopening of the hotel.
In terms of forest management, Carreras says that there is a "wealth of biodiversity". "It is an ecosystem that has not altered very much. It's enormous and we are undertaking various improvement, recovery and reuse projects." Firebreaks that had disappeared are being rehabilitated and crushed forest material, mainly pine, will be used for gardens and orchards. A plan to recover the oak forest has already led to the appearance of white truffles.
* Ses Cases Velles belonged, as did the whole estate, to the family of Pollensa priest and poet Miquel Costa i Llobera. Adan Diehl, the Argentine whose idea it was eventually to build the hotel, bought the land from the family for 520,000 pesetas in 1928. The hotel opened in 1929, three teams of workers having worked eight-hour shifts.