Manzanilla 2015 Pago Añina 17%, Viña Callejuela

Appearance

Yellow gold with a slight brassy tinge, bright and clean.

Nose

Quite complex, lean and saline with faint notes of beach, iodine quayside ropes followed by lots of dank flor. It starts quite muscular then develops more elegance and a little more weight as it opens out and begins to fill the palate. There is a slight nutty butteriness and a very gentle oxidative note.

Palate

Fairly full, a shade fuller than the Callejuela, with beautifully judged acidity making it lively but friendly and just right to get the flavour across. And there´s plenty of that with slight hints of brine and oxidation which give it a serious quality, good texture and terrific length.

Comments

After the great success of the 2012 vintage Manzanilla, the idea, promulgated by Ramiro Ibáñez, has become a welcome fixture at Viña Callejuela. In that year they left 11 butts in sobretablas (fortified but ageing statically) with the idea of bottling one butt per year, starting in 2015, to let aficionados witness how the same wine develops over time from Manzanilla fina through to Amontillado. This wine however, is from a single vintage (2015) so different every year, and a single pago, one of the three  in which they own vineyard: Macharnudo, Callejuela and this Añina. Production was around 900 x 50 cl bottles.

Price

26.80 per 50cl, De Albariza

Manzanilla 2015 Pago Callejuela 17%, Viña Callejuela

Appearance

Mid depth brassy strawy gold with old gold highlights.

Nose

Quite full with lots of doughy strawy yeastiness, you can really smell humidity here and lots of flor and autumnal aromas. Being a vintage wine and not having been topped up it is more concentrated than usual for its age, deeper and more serious, less zip and more depth. There are hints of briny sourdough and even traces of oxidation. Very complex and interesting.

Palate

It is very full, quite a lot fuller and more concentrated than the solera Manzanillas and is quite masculine with  loads of nuances. There are slightly buttery, faintly oxidised and very bitter notes giving layers of wonderful complexity which just keep on building and lingers for ages. Lovely.

Comments

Bottled in May 2019, this is one of the three second releases of three "Solera de Almacenista" single vintage single pago Manzanillas from the Blanco brothers at Viña Callejuela. The grapes came from their own vineyards, from which they also produce their table wines, in the pagos Macharnudo, Añina and of course this Callejuela. Once fortified, the wines from each pago are aged biologically and statically in "sobretablas" and not in solera, much as they were in the past. The wine therefore faithfully reflects the characteristics of the vintage and the vineyard. Callejuela is close to the sea at an altitude of some 60 metres, and you certainly notice that in the wine. Production was around 600 x 50 cl bottles.

Price

26.80 per 50cl, De Albariza