Can Det

The mill, told properly

Can Det is a family oil and citrus property in the valley of Sóller, on the north-west coast of Mallorca. The earliest documents that speak of the Can Det line, the producer's history page records, date to 1525, and the first family testament, from 1561 and kept in the municipal archive, belonged to Pedro Ozonas, an ancestor of the present owners. Seventeen generations on, the property is run by two brothers of the same descent, and the family's account keeps every one of those generations tied to the making of oil and the growing of citrus in the valley.

In 2020 the Asociación Española de Municipios del Olivo (AEMO) awarded its prize for the Best Monumental Olive Tree in Spain to the olive of Can Det, which stands in the municipality of Fornalutx, in the Serra de Tramuntana. AEMO's citation describes a tree of the native Empeltre Mallorquina variety with a trunk of more than 6.5 metres in circumference, holds that it was probably planted by the Muslims of the island around the ninth century and puts its age at more than 1,100 years, and records that the jury was led by Dr Angjelina Belaj, director of the World Olive Germplasm Bank at IFAPA Córdoba. The same citation names the Deyà Canals family as the tree's keepers and calls the Can Det tafona the last press mill on the island.

The mill still works to the rhythm of the harvest: the producer's visits page notes that tours between 15 October and 15 January can watch production underway, and that the year-round visit takes in the historic house, the garden and the tafona before a tasting in the family dining room.

From the public record: candet.es · aemo.es