21.8.15 Harvest at Barbadillo and González Byass

Bodegas Barbadillo has begun harvesting and hope to pick 10 million kilos of grapes which they say are of excellent quality. They reckon the harvest will last till the first week of September. About 2.5 million kilos will come from the firm’s own 300 hectares of vineyard in Santa Lucía and Gibalbín. The rest will come from the 35 contracted growers’ vineyards in Jerez and Sanlúcar. They are picking about half a million kilos daily, split between mechanical and hand harvesting. The machines work at night till morning and the humans work from dawn till it gets too hot.

So far sugar readings are between 11.5ᴼ and 12ᴼ Beaumé and with the forecast cooling of temperatures the ripening will revert to normal. Much of th harvest will go for the firm’s top selling white table wine brand Castillo de San Diego which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year. They also make a sparkling wine Beta, for which the Chardonnay was picked at the end of July. It is already fermented and awaits the Palomino to join it in the blend. Meanwhile with the red grapes they will pick Merlot at the end of this month and later the Tempranillo, Syrah, Petit Verdot and Cabernet.

Hand picking at Barbadillo (foto:diariojerez)

González Byass has also been harvesting at their 15.5 hectare La Racha vineyard, one of their holdings in the Pago Macharnudo. They have been picking by hand here and at night for the last four years. The 39 pickers are all men. They used to be mostly women as the men were working in construction, but the crisis put an end to that. Each worker picks some 600 kilos of grapes and the harvest will take two or at the most three days. The grapes go to a selection table where any bad bunches will be discarded. The pickers all have hi-viz jackets and lights on their heads and with the tractors’ headlights as well, there is enough light to see, but the noise from the engines makes conversation difficult.

20.8.15 Harvest 2015; Tintilla Festival

The 2015 harvest could be one of the longest in recent years, but as ever, it depends on the weather. At the moment it is practically certain that there will be vineyards which will not be finished harvesting till the second week of September, meaning the harvest will have taken six weeks, as the first grapes were picked in the first week of August.

The weather has slowed down ripening especially in vineyards close to the coast, while inland the grapes are pretty ripe already at about 11.3ᴼ Beaumé which will provide a similar and sufficient level of alcohol. Ripening in the coastal vineyards has slowed thanks to the Poniente (west wind) which has cooled things down a bit. Consejo director, César Saldaña, says that the harvest is going smoothly and as usual started with the inland vineyards around Jerez and certain areas near Trebujena and El Puerto de Santa María, but for the moment the coastal grapes are not yet ripe enough. They need to have 10.5ᴼ Beaumé to be ripe enough so it is best to let them keep ripening and form enough sugar to keep fortification alcohol to a minimum.

César points out that it is difficult to generalise in a year like this because of such variations in the heat and the wind. Instability in the weather causes oscillations in the harvest, but that doesn’t mean the high temperatures and the Levante, won’t be back next week and speed things up again. So far, nine of the thirty-one presses are in action, and 11 million out of the expected 70 million kilos of grapes have been picked. Initial calculations from the vineyards already picked show a yield of slightly more than expected, perhaps 3-5%.

The VII Tintilla de Rota Festival will take place between the 24^th and the 29^th August. It is organised by Bodegas El Gato, a prominent producer – and one of the few. The Torre de la Merced hall will be the venue for tastings, a conference and a concert, while there will also be a traditional treading of the grapes in the Plaza Bartolomé Pérez and a theatrical visit to El Gato bodegas. 

José Antonio Rodriguez Muñoz, the foremost expert on this rare wine and author of a book on the subject will be on hand and speak at the conference. If you are interested in cycling, the Vuelta de España will be in the Cádiz area at the same time. You could also take a look at the new bridge over the bay of Cádiz.

Bodegas: Sacristía AB Selección Antonio Barbadillo Mateos.

Antonio Barbadillo Mateos left the Barbadillo family bodega in 2008 with the idea of establishing a business sourcing and bottling the finest jewels of Andalusian winemaking. In Autumn 2010 he and his wife and four sons began Sacristia AB Seleccion. This is not a bodega, he simply sources the finest wine and has it bottled. Based in Sanlücar he specialises in Manzanilla but is not confined to it. 

Antonio with the then mayor. He's tall isn't he?! (foto:sanlucardebarrameda.tv)

He is a large man, physically, personally and professionally, charming and with extraordinary skills such as being able to tell which neighbourhood a Manzanilla had matured in. He has, of course, an exemplary family background. For his Manzanilla he already had a shortlist of possible suppliers, finally choosing the iconic Sánchez Ayala. For the first release he tasted his way through 80 solera butts and chose 32 from which to make his blend. The quantities from each were not always the same and once the blend was made it was allowed to settle at 5-6ᴼ before bottling en rama.

Antonio Sr and Jr presenting the new wine (foto:cosasdecome)

He is also looking into Amontillados, Olorosos, Palos Cortados and both Jerez and Montilla PX, and has already launched A very old (@ 60 years old) Amontillado and a 50 year old Oloros from Jerez. The labels’ AB/barrel logo was designed by his son Antonio. At the start he had hoped to bottle Manzanilla in 4 seasonal sacas, but hasn't managed to achieve this so far. The wines he has released are of impeccable quality and character, however.

Sacristia was used at the Copa Jerez. Note the magnum labels!

Sacas to date:

Manzanilla (“La señorita de Sanlúcar” as Antonio likes to call it!)

2010: (October, Sánchez Ayala), 2011: (May, Sánchez Ayala), 2012: (April + September, Sánchez Ayala), 2013: (January, Francisco Yuste + May, Sanchez Ayala also in magnum) 2014: 2 sacas (June and      He filled 150 magnums but is only selling 115. The rest he will keep to observe how the wine evolves in bottle. It evolves more slowly in magnum. 2015: (September, Francisco Yuste)

Amontillado

2014 (from an ancient solera once owned by the Conde de Aldama, now owned by Francisco Yuste. It is around 60 years old and there are only 350 half bottles).

Oloroso

50 years old from Jerez but the bodega is a secret for the time being for some reason. Anyway it is his first non-Sanlucar wine.

Website: www.sacristiaab.com

Sherry and the Social Networks

Domingo Díaz wrote an excellent piece in today’s Diario de Jerez about how in this day and age we are lost if we are not connected to the social networks. Some people of a “certain age” think that all this is for the youth of today, but it isn’t. While these forms of communication are fun, they have also become necessary, but we need to understand how to use them. We need to be out there in the real world and stay in touch with our friends, our family - and our business.

The electronic world is here, like it or not, and we have to make the most of it. There is much more to it than “selfies,” tweeting on the train, liking something on Facebook or just having a website. It is about communicating ideas, getting in touch with people – whom you might not even know – and it is immediate. Just walk down the street and look how many people are gazing at “devices.”

So this brings me to the point. If you have a website, it MUST be up to date. Any new products, gold medals won etc MUST be there. People wanting information will look at the website or at a Twitter/Facebook etc page and be disappointed and put off if the information is not there. This is, after all the "information age". Many products nowadays have QR codes on the label which take the consumer directly via their mobile phone to the producer’s website for more information – and hopefully this will attract a new customer. As long as the information is up to date.

Please, therefore, can some of the Sherry bodegas do something to update their sites? Some are excellent but many are either out of date or lacking information. It might  require a full-time person to do the job, but their salary could be covered by increased interest in the product - and sales of it. Let’s get Sherry into the XXI century. After all, the youth of today are our future consumers - and we need them.

Fascinating Old Price Lists

On clearing out a cupboard I came upon some old trade price lists from the early 1960s, and just had to share them with you. They show just how much the wine trade has changed since then! In Britain, of course, even the money has changed: these prices are wholesale and in pounds, shillings and pence. German wines still had a market but there were very few Italian wines. The only New World wines were fortified ones form Australia and South Africa. Unfortunately Spanish wines were restricted to imitations of big French names like Graves or Chablis, (bottled as such in the UK one must point out, as most wines still were) but a lot of fine French wine is listed.

(foto:leithhistory.co.uk)

“Empire Wines” were still available: mainly “Sherries” from Cyprus, South Africa, and Australia, whose Emu winery was producing something called “Sir John’s Sherry Sack.” Hmmm!  Another feature - or should I say horror - is “British Wines” which were poor imitations of Port and Sherry. Then there is Tarragona, a fortified (then) red from Cataluña which was popular till the late 1970s.

JG Thomson was an Edinburgh merchant established in 1709 and based in the ancient and beautiful Vaults in Leith (now home to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society). There are two pages of Sherry in the list which include their own brands, along with Bertola, Domecq, Duff Gordon, Findlater (a London shipper), Garvey, González Byass, MacKenzie, AR Ruiz, Sandeman and Williams & Humbert.  Now that’s a good list! MacKenzie’s Fino “El Catador” is priced at £0/19/6 (just under £1- but more like £18 at today’s value). It is heart rending, though, to see how many brands – let alone bodegas – which no longer exist.

(foto:realmendrinkrose.wordpress.com)

Another list, that of D Cameron & Co (the long gone Scottish division of what was then Gilbey Vintners – now Diageo) from 1964/5, and it also contains some modern “no-no’s” like “Viña Paceta Rioja Claret” and “Emu Australian Burgundy”, however the (proper) Sherry is more interesting. Gilbeys had huge stocks of Sherry in Jerez, and owned brands such as Royal Tan, Aperitif, Bonita, Listan Pale and Rustan Brown. The list is padded out with wines from producers such as Harvey, Domecq, Osborne, Reál Tesoro, González Byass and Williams & Humbert. Again, a good list.

Ad from 1950 (foto:gracesguide.co.uk)

I myself had a modest wine merchant business in the 1980’s and we stocked a large range of Sherry from González Byass, Osborne, Bobadilla, Harveys, Williams & Humbert, Hidalgo, Garvey, La Guita, Barbadillo and the full range of Lustau Almacenistas. The most expensive Sherry was the Almacenista Amontillado de Jerez ½ from Rosario Benítez Girón at £8.99. Those were the days. Now It is a real hassle to find an interesting Sherry without going to the fountain head (as Byron put it) – Jerez.

Manzanilla en Rama Sacristía AB 15% saca junio 2014, Antonio Barbadillo Mateos

Appearance
Fairly deep and very slightly dull strawy brassy gold with some legs.
Nose
Full on slightly saline beachy character, damp briny yeastiness coming through with a dry strawy scrubland note, damp barrels, seaweed, all sorts of coastal aromas yet not much oxidation or that more savoury Manzanilla Pasada smell. At this age it could be pasada but is fresher than that.
Palate
Starts full then relents, tangy, saline and bitter, almost a wild one but stops short - just. Intensely flavoured and complex with all sorts of nuances like membrillo, camomile, olive brine, bread dough and even a slight herbal note, just goes on and on.
Comments
This amazing wine is the "primera saca" for 2014 and one supposes/hopes there will be another - and something in the pipeline for 2015! This contrasts with what Antonio has said in the past, that he was going to do quarterly, seasonal sacas. Despite the label saying "Primera Saca" in 2010, there was only one that year, the first year. 2011 was the same story. Hopefully he will achieve the seasonal sacas soon, but it must be hard work doing what he is doing. Each saca is around 4,000-6,000 half bottles (except the Amontillado) and the wine is 8-10 years old. He started buying wine from Sanchez Ayala but has more recently moved to Francisco Yuste. As yet I'm not sure where this came from, but I suspect Yuste as it was contract bottled, and Sanchez Ayala have a bottling line. Anyway, if you can find it - BUY IT!
Price
@ 15€ per half bottle in Spain. UK importer Ehrmanns

Bodegas: Portales Pérez SL

Now in its fifth generation, the Portales family firm has always been in the wine business but only more recently, in 1997, did Maria José  Portales realise her dream by starting to commercialise their wines. Before that they were simply producers of wine which they supplied to other bodegas, but decided to market their own brand: Manzanilla Los Caireles, launched in 2002. A cairel is a little charm to decorate riding clothes or the reins of the horses Sanlúcar is so famous for. Maria Jose's niece Pilar is the oenologist while her nephew José  takes care of the despacho and the commercial side of things.

They have two bodegas, San Antonio, constructed in 1821 which houses the Amontillado, Oloroso and PX and the other is a wonderful casa-bodega built in the XVI century in Calle Carmen Viejo. It was once the house of a cargador de Indias, a merchant who sold goods to the American colonies. This beautiful old building is a conservation award-winning house with a central patio and an adjacent low-roofed bodega which is incredibly atmospheric.

There is a slight baroque air about it and it is right on the edge of the lower and upper areas of Sanlúcar with a great damp atmosphere in the bodega that the flor loves. This is the Manzanilla bodega containing over 300 butts. Everything is done the artisan way and they use the minimum of treatment so the Manzanilla can be as natural as possible. The wines have a real flavour of Sanlúcar.

The wines are:

The los Caireles range: Manzanilla(@4.5 years), Manzanilla Pasada (7-8 years) , Amontillado, Oloroso, Cream

Addresses:

C/San Francisco,23 corner C/San Antonio, 11540 Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz

C/Carmen Viejo, 30 (thecasa-bodega)

Telephone: 686 294 711

Web: no website. bodegascaireles@gmail.com

Vists: Yes (in Spanish) but need to be arranged.There is a shop at Calle San Francisco.