Bodegas: Cota 45 Ramiro Ibáñez

Quite a local legend in Sanlúcar, Ramiro Ibáñez Espinar, is a restless and talented winemaker who, with experience in Bordeaux and Australia as well as his native Sanlúcar, runs a winemakeing consultancy under the name GL Cero used by various bodegas in the Marco de Jerez. He is s hugely enthusiastic about the potential of albariza soil and the recovery of traditional local grape varieties, many of which are all but lost, and which are no longer permitted in the Consejo regulations. He makes all sorts of interesting wines to demonstrate the terroir and personality of each vineyard and grape variety without letting too much flor obscure it.

Ramiro with his Encruzijado (foto:verema)

Ramiro was a founder member of Manifiesto 119, a group of like-minded local wine producers who want to experiment with the old varieties and winemaking techniques, make unfortified Sherry and give more importance to the grapes and the vineyard, not to mention restoring casas de viña. They chose this name after the 119 grape varieties (40 of them in Cádiz) catalogued in Andalucía in 1807 by the first Spanish ampelographer (one who studies grape varieties), Simón de Rojas Clemente. Like Ramiro the group makes table wines as well as Sherry, and while few of them carry the DO they are still sought after and hard to obtain due to the small quantities made.

A typical experimental wine at Cota 45 (foto:verema)

As a consultant winemaker he made two vintages of Exceptional Harvest for Ximénez Spínola, worked with Primitivo Collantes on their Fino Arroyuelo, Viña la Callejuela with their 2012 vintage Manzanilla, and Juan Piñero with his Camborio and Maruja. He also made a Tintilla for Hacienda La Parrilla Alta. It was Ramiro who set up the Mayeteria Sanluqueña, a group of small growers whom he encouraged to make their own wine rather than just sell grapes for little profit. In his own right, and occasionally with others like Armando Guerra, he is busy making experimental wines, always grown in and expressing as far as possible his beloved albariza soil. Along with another maverick winemaker, Willy Perez, he wrote a book "Las Añadas en el Marco de Jerez". Here are some of the projects:

Pitijopos Volume I is a set of 6 wines all barrel fermented Palomino from 2014 but from 6 different vineyards. Forthcoming sets will show similar differences from different vineyards. Another project is Ube, old vine Palomino from different clones fermented in an old Manzanilla butt without flor. Then there is Pandorga, a PX from Carrascal made the old way, sunned and fermented but not fortified, and sold at a year old. Precede is a lovely Palomino fermented and aged in Sherry butts for 36 months without flor. Encrucijado is a Palo Cortado made from about 50% Palomino and 5 other traditional varieties fermented in butt where it ages for 10 months under flor and 10 oxidatively, depending on the vintage. It is bottled at a natural strength of 15.5%. The first release of Zerej, made in conjunction with Armando Guerra Monge of Guerrita fame, consists of 120 sets of 4 magnums showing the effect of flor from mosto fermented in butts to 2 year old Manzanilla to 11 year old Manzanilla Pasada to an 18 year old Amontillado. Nearly all of these are already sold out, and there are waiting lists.

His consultancy work provided him with sufficient resources to establish his own bodega in 2015. It is tiny at barely 60 square metres, but beautifully situated on the banks of the Guadalquivir in the Bajo de Guía, looking out over the river towards the Coto Doñana, open to all the breezes. He converted an old boat repair workshop into a bodega with the usual albero floor, room to press grapes and store 25 butts propped up on the traditional local limestone (roca ostionera) which is full of fossilised oyster shells. He calls it his “Albarizatorio” (albariza laboratory). Cota 45 refers to the 45 metre altitude above sea level of some of the best albariza.

An Interesting Interview with Ramiro Ibañez Espinar

Ramiro Ibañez Espinar has degrees in agriculture and oenology. Born in Sanlucar, he began his career in the Sherry zone before going off to other wine producing areas of Spain and other countries. Now back, and after working for various bodegas he has decided to become a winemaking and viticulture consultant, doing much research, especially into vineyards. He has produced an interesting wine which he calls “Encrucijado 2012. His latest idea is looking for the “Real” Palo Cortado. Here is an interview with him in Mas Jerez with fellow Jerez oenologist, Reyes Gomez:

Ramiro with his Encrucijado (foto + jerez)

What exactly is Encrucijado 2012?

It is an artisan vintage wine aged under flor. It is made with Palomino Fino and five other native varieties which historically played a minor role and may have helped the natural development of Palo Cortado. Basically, it is a very young Palo Cortado.

It is Sherry, but outside the DO?

It cannot be a DO wine because it uses grapes which, although they are as old and historic as the Palomino, are no longer included in the Reglamento.

What are the Pros and Cons of going it alone?

The freedom gives one more knowledge, and access to different soils, grape varieties, wines, different vinifications, and the possibility of getting to know the great unknown personalities of Jerez vitiviniculture who have a treasure trove of wisdom. On the other hand, one’s diary is full and one covers considerable distances, but that’s fine.

You are committing yourself to the recuperation of the individual Jerez vineyards. Is that where the future lies?

For a very long time there have been Sherries on whose labels the Pago (vineyard area) or actual vineyard where they came from were indicated. Many others could have done this but chose not to. And of course these wines have an outstanding pedigree. Looking through the thousands of years of history of what is now the Sherry area, you can see that the one common denominator in all these thirty centuries is our soil, the albariza. During this time all sorts of grape varieties white and red have come and gone, dry wines, sweet wines, unfortified wines. Not even biological ageing, oxidative ageing and the solera system, which only appeared in the last couple of hundred years, could be considered indispensable. However much all the civilisations which have passed through here improved the wines grown on albariza, our soil will have something special independently of the grape and winemaking technique. So somehow some of us are trying to put the importance of the albariza area and its individual vineyards back on the map. At least some bodegas recognise this importance.

Now THAT'S Albariza! (foto + Jerez)

Are hand-made individual wines valued in the area?

Such wines are made by artisans all over the area, some are fantastic, some not so good, but they all have personality and express their origin. Hopefully we will see before too long lots of small, quality producers like in France.

With which dish would you match Encrucijado 2012?

Baked sea bass, shellfish soup, duck pate, gilthead baked in salt or any Asian dish.

Any future projects, or are your hands full with Encrucijada?

In a few weeks I’ll be releasing an artisan white wine from one of the oldest single vineyards in the area made from Palomino, but here there are still old pre clonal revolution vines.There is a lot to do, and many projects in the pipeline.