Bodegas: La Cigarrera

The history of this interesting old bodega goes back to 1758 when the well-known Barcelona businessman Joseph Colom Darbo  established himself in Sanlucar and rented some buildings in the Callejon del Truco from the Mercedarios Descalzos monks, where he started up in business.  A few years later in 1771, along with his son Francisco de Paula Colom Borrego, he founded Colom y Compañia, under which banner they conducted all their various business. Ten years later they expanded, renting another property, this time from the Convent of Madre de Dios, consisting of a dilapidated house and three contiguous sites at the little square of the convent, converting them into a fairly primitive bodega.

Don Joseph died in 1791 and the two business premises were passed to his five sons who continued expanding the wine business by renting from the Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzman in 1798 another house in the Calle Truco, called, oddly, the “Ammunition Oven”. Then in 1802 they bought some bodegas from D. Jose Helvant, with an entrance in the Calle Torno de Madre de Dios. By 1842 the houses and bodegas were all property of the family firm Colom y Compañia, and soon Rafael Colom y Palma bought out the other inheritors from the wine business. He later died leaving no direct heirs, and his estate was left to different members of the family, although the bodega we see now was bought in 1891 by Manuel Hidalgo Colom, one of those inheritors, and paternal great grandfather of the Hidalgo Garcia de Velasco brothers who run the firm today. It was he who continued expansion of the business and who launched the flagship brand, Manzanilla La Cigarrera.

On the death of D Manuel, his daughter Emilia inherited the bodega in Calle Truco and her brother Manuel Jose, the house, and on his death, his son Rafael Hidalgo Otaolarruchi unified the house and the bodega creating the bodega as it is now, in the Plaza Madre de Dios in the Barrio Bajo (the lower part of the town closer to the river), and dedicating the firm to wine only. In 1990 his widow Maria del Pilar Garcia de Velasco Perez inherited the business, and is the current owner, but it is run by her two sons, who form the ninth generation of this family business.

For many years the firm owned vineyards, but nowadays it buys fermented and racked musts from local growers and cooperatives. They were almacenistas until very recently –1998 - when changes to the Denominacion de Origen regulations allowed the brothers to bottle and market their wines. While 90% of production (or @ 11,000 cases) is Manzanilla La Cigarrera, (named after the girls who once sold cigarettes in the streets) the firm also produces a range of other Sherries. The bodega has three”naves”of butts, Colom, Cabral and Sarnilla which surround a pretty Andalusian style central patio. There is a bar/restaurant within the bodega and which extends into the patio, decorated with Sherry and bullfighting paraphernalia, and a shop where one can buy the wines.

The wines:

Manzanilla Fina La Cigarrera (4-5 years old depending on sales, seven criaderas and a solera)

Manzanilla Pasada La Cigarrera (since 2011, nearly 20 years old, from only 4 butts)

Amontillado La Cigarrera

Amontillado VOS (officially a minimum of 20 years old, but much older, from a single butt owned by the brothers’ great great grandmother)

Oloroso La Cigarrera

Moscatel La Cigarrera (sun-dried grapes)

PX La Cigarrera

Visits?  Yes. Visits in Spanish and English lasting around 25 minutes ending up with a tasting in the XVIII century patio. Visits are every 30 minutes including Saturdays, between 10.00 and 14.30.

Contact:

Address: Plaza Madre de Dios, S/N, 11540 Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cadiz

Tel: (+34) 956 381 285

Web: www.bodegaslacigarrera.com