Of all the different styles of Sherry,
Manzanilla is the only wine with its own separate Denominación de Origen within
the overall Sherry DO of Jerez-Xeres-Sherry: Manzanilla Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
granted in 1964. The reason is that it is different despite being made from the
same grapes and by the same process. Oddly, according to the regulations Fino
can be produced in Sanlúcar but Manzanilla can’t be produced anywhere else,
though the grapes for Manzanilla can come from anywhere in the Sherry production zone. But as someone once said, "Manzanilla is born of a romance between the sea and the west wind."
This delightful style of Sherry could be
defined as a wine always aged biologically under a film of flor yeast and
bottled at various stages of ageing from very young to very old. It is fresh,
bone dry and has pungent saline almondy yeasty notes like sea breezes with a
hint of dried flowers in its youth, up to tangier, savoury, nutty autolysed
yeast notes when older. Manzanilla is the style of Sherry most profoundly
affected by the flor yeast since the moist coastal atmosphere promotes its
growth.
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| Sanlucar at the mouth of the Guadalquivir looking roughly north |
Once the powerful climatic effect was
understood, bodegas were built in the best possible locations and oriented to
get the most from the humid Atlantic breezes. Furthermore, esparto grass
“curtains” on the windows and the earth floors are often sprayed with water to
accentuate the coolness and humidity, anything to keep the flor happy.
Because of this, Manzanillas can age for long
periods without losing their freshness, as long as the butts are refreshed regularly.
In Sanlúcar therefore, soleras have many more criaderas (or “clases” as they
are called locally) than in Jerez, and the butts are refreshed more frequently.
In Sanlúcar it is not uncommon for this to happen monthly, while it would be
more likely quarterly in Jerez.
Sanlúcar de Barrameda is in a unique situation
at the mouth of the river Guadalquivir with direct access to the Atlantic. The
town lies on the south bank opposite the extensive UNESCO protected marshlands
of the Coto Doñana. This geographical position provides a unique fresh, humid microclimate
for the production of Manzanilla, as well as providing plenty of the chalky
white “albariza” soil which is ideal for the growing of the Palomino grape. The
main local vineyard areas or pagos are Miraflores and El Hornillo.
There is ample evidence that wine has been
produced here for some 3,000 years, pre-dating the arrival of the Greeks and
the Phoenicians. Successive colonists realised the quality of the wines and
production and export grew. But it was not until the XIII century, after the
re-conquest from the Moors in 1264, when wine became the principal source of
wealth to the town. The lord of Sanlúcar, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán “El Bueno” was
awarded privileges by the grateful Catholic Monarchs, one of which was to hold open
fairs each year, and these began to attract foreign traders such as the
Bretons, English and Flemish. He was also granted the right to load and unload cargo
in port, and Sanlúcar grew to be one of the most important ports of the late
middle ages.
In 1492 the Americas were discovered, and soon
a new seafaring route was opened to “Las Indias”, with Sevilla, further
upstream, granted the commercial monopoly of the American trade. This made Sanlúcar
an important port for the provisioning of shipping, as some ships were too big
to reach Seville, and there were many “Cargadores a Indias” (“provisioners for
the Indies”) loading ships with both export goods and provisions for the
journey (including the local wine naturally) or transferring arriving goods onto smaller vessels for delivery in
Sevilla.
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| Sanlucar from the river XVI century |
With foreign trade increasing, especially in
wine, traders were given further privileges as an encouragement. Many,
especially the English settled in the area and founded the trading company Compañía
de Andalucía in 1530, based at the Church of St. George which was built on land
given to them by the Duke. By now the vineyard area had increased massively and
many traders were vineyard owners and wine producers, but life soon
deteriorated due to the unstable political situation between England and Spain.
With a protestant Queen Elizabeth reigning in
England and the great wealth being brought back to Spain by sea, English
raiders such as Hawkins and Drake posed a constant threat, leading to the
Spanish Armada of 1588. The Spanish Inquisition made life difficult for English
traders in Sanlúcar, but though wine exports slowed, they by no means stopped.
The wines of Sanlúcar really took off in the
second half of the XVIII century. By the time of the census of 1777 the town
had a population of 15,000 of whom 116 were foreign. At this time agriculture and
viticulture were the most important activities, followed closely by maritime
trade with 26 cargadores a Indias. The main exports were wines, spirits and
salt, while the most important imports were sugar and cacao. By the end of the
century some cargadores had moved their business to Cádiz yet still lived in
Sanlúcar, where many diversified into the wine trade, looking north rather than
west for business.
Towards the end of the XVIII century much had
been invested in the vineyards, and a wine they called Manzanilla first appeared.
The first recorded reference to it is in 1781 at a Cádiz council meeting. It
won great popularity especially in Cádiz being lighter than the usual oxidised more
Oloroso styles of a single year which had been the norm. There is no written
evidence, but it is thought that the idea of the solera came from the taverns,
often run by “montañeses” or people from the north of Spain. They noticed that
when a barrel of Manzanilla was not regularly topped up the flor yeast which
developed on the surface made the wine more interesting, and producers
experimented with ways to do this on a bigger scale. The development of
Manzanilla and the solera went hand in hand.
With the XIX century came war with Napoleon and
French occupation during which 1,700 butts of wine disappeared and in the 1830s
the loss of the American colonies. Yet Sanlúcar was on the verge of its golden
age as wealthy expats returned in the second half of the century. The bourgeois
class was emerging and the wine business was growing with increased investment
in vineyards and the construction of bigger bodegas. The railway arrived in
1877 facilitating sales further afield within Spain. Phylloxera in France
helped increase exports. Manzanilla became the most popular wine in Spain and
beyond. Bodegas in Jerez and El Puerto all listed Manzanilla. But it all
crashed to a halt when Phylloxera arrived in Sanlúcar in 1894 wiping out many
vineyards and smaller bodegas.
The XX century saw gradual recuperation but was
very quiet until after the 1940s when sales began to increase again through till
the end of the 1970s when sales of Sherry in general began to plummet.
Currently Manzanilla is extremely popular especially at the ferias, but Fino
sales are currently ahead.
Etymologically speaking the word Manzanilla is
tricky. If you order it outside Andalucía you will get a cup of camomile (Sp.
Manzanilla) tea. Both will do you good but one is much more fun than the other. It
could be named after a town called Manzanilla in the province of Huelva. Academics
have argued about the word’s origin for years as there is no historical
documentation. In the days before accurate records and Denominaciónes de Origen
it was quite common for wines to go from one area to another either for
blending or for export from a suitable port – such as Sanlúcar. The wine from
Sanlúcar could have been named for its similarity to the other (ie “like
Manzanilla wine”). After all, Amontillado is named as being “like Montilla
wine”. Certainly many wines are named after the place they come from. Other
possibilities are that it is named after the occasional floral camomile-like
aroma found in some Manzanillas or after the slight apple (Sp. manzana)
aroma. Then there are Manzanilla Olives, the briny aroma of which can often be detected in the wine. Whatever the case, the word Manzanilla has meant Fino-style wine from
Sanlúcar for well over 200 years. Another curiosity is the fact that while wine
is a masculine word in Spanish (el vino), Manzanilla is feminine, and many labels reflect
that eg: Gabriela, La Guita, Aurora, La Goya, La Gitana etc. There have
certainly been a few prominent women producing Manzanilla over the years.
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| Javier Hidalgo of La Gitana with typical Sanlucar cane venencia |
This wonderful liquid is bottled in various
forms. Manzanilla Fina is a young wine heavily filtered for the everyday
market, the bread and butter of the bodegas. Wine labelled simply Manzanilla
can vary from Fina to some quite old wine, say 3 – 9 years old. Then comes
Manzanilla Pasada, a wine which has spent longer in solera and is usually sold
at well over 8 years old. This has much more complexity thanks to longer flor
contact and some autolytic flavours from the dead yeast cells at the bottom of
the butt. It is similar to a Jerez Fino-Amontillado, but in Sanlúcar a wine can
be very old before they want to use the word Amontillado. For instance La Guita
has a “Manzanilla Pasada Vieja” which is about 22 years old and an even older
Viejísima. They used to use terms like Manzanilla Amontillada and Manzanilla
Olorosa (fragrant rather than an Oloroso) but they were deemed too confusing.
Now labels must have one descriptor of the wine so an old Manzanilla Pasada
will probably have to say Amontillado. La Guita’s Manzanilla Pasada Vieja
mentioned above is labelled by Equipo Navazos as Amontillado yet it still has
strong zippy Manzanilla characteristics.
Finally there are the En Rama wines, a style
pioneered in Sanlúcar, which are usually selected for their good character and
bottled with minimal “stabilisation” (or excessive filtration). They have lost
much less of their colour and solera flavour and are quite delicious. We are
told to drink them as fresh as possible, but they will happily age in bottle –
some are even bottled in magnum for that specific purpose.
