Castillo de Argüeso 2017 11.5%, Bodegas Argüeso

Appearance
Bright, pale strawy gold with golden reflections.
Nose

Young and fresh and interesting and with a little weight behind.First there are aromas of fruit: apple mainly, then grasses and herbs - with a distinct trace of camomile  -  then a salty, briny note and even a faint hint of confectionery. Appealing and characterful.

Palate

Broadly similar on the palate; the apple is good and ripe and there is a gentle texture of grapeskin and chalk. Acidity is fairly low but sufficient and there is a barely perceptible oxidative note, so the wine is well rounded and smooth with that classic Palomino appley fruit and a decently long finish.

Comments

This wine is very good value, not because it is cheap but because it is cheap and good. It is 100% Palomino from the albariza vineyards of Sanlúcar, the same source as the firm´s delightful Manzanillas. It is fermented at low temperature to retain all the primary aromas and bottled as soon as it is ready. Simple as that really, but a job well done. It could be described as a polished up mosto or an unfortified Manzanilla, and either way it is a very attractive wine.

Price
3.25 euros, Licores Corredera

Manzanilla Apartada saca 2018 15%, Las Botas

Appearance
Mid depth slightly strawy and brassy gold with golden highlights.
Nose

The nose is pure Argüeso which, to me at least, has a unique and delightful slightly dank character and the flor is really yeasty and doesn´t smell excessively bitter. You can even make out the yeast on the walls of the old bodegas. There are notes of salted bitter almond, brine and humidity all kept in check by a crisp flor edge. This is lovely.

Palate

Bone dry, slightly crisp, briny, saline and savoury, clean and intense, with bitter almond notes, there are gently buttery, very slightly autolytic nuances of cabezuela and the whole is beautifully harmonious and super fresh. For a wine of this age, oxidation is remarkably light and rather than being an overt Pasada, which it is really,  the wine retains its Manzanilla character, albeit with great complexity and style. Excellent.

Comments

For the 2018 (3rd) saca of Manzanilla Apartada Raul Villabrille of Balandro Vinos has returned to Bodegas Argüeso in Calle Mar in Sanlúcar, as well he might since their wines are excellent. He has naturally returned to their best solera as well, selecting 10.3 arrobas of wine from butts 1 and 2, and 8.3 arrobas from butts 15 and 35. (an arroba is 16.66 litres so he selected about 482 litres in total meaning nearly 1,000 x 50cl bottles, filled with no clarification or filtration whatever. The solera dates back to the very early XIX century and is supported on rough limestone full of oyster shells, so typical of Sanlúcar. The selection was made on three criteria: flor influence and the levels of salinity and bitter almond (acetaldehyde) and the result is, perhaps inevitably, excellent, and this classic Manzanilla has an average age of about 12 years.

Price

15.60 per 50cl, Licores Corredera

Manzanilla San León White Label 15%, Bodegas Argüeso

Appearance

Fairly pale golden Straw with bright golden highlights.

Nose

The super fresh and fairly intense maritime aromas are not surprising as the bodega is among the closest to the estuary. They are strongly saline with very pungent flor, bitter almond and dry scrub along with faint notes of seaweed and esparto in the background.  Cracking nose.

Palate

Intense and full of character, it is a big Manzanilla with considerable concentration and yet there are only faint notes of cabezuela; the bitter yeastiness is mostly – but not all - from the wine’s surface, and there is no shortage of that. It epitomises the Spanish word “punzante” (sharp) but in a wine context, meaning up-front, crisp, incisive, pungent. In the very long finish there are briny notes of sourdough and cabezuela and a dry chalky texture. It is amazigly complex for wine which is not yet really a Manzanilla pasada - though it is getting close.

Comments

This wine was launched comparatively recently and fairly quietly – until it won the Manzanilla Trophy at the International Wine Challenge 2017. It is a blend of selected butts in the Manzanilla solera which dates back to 1822 and it has an average age of over 6 years. Back in the day Don León de Argüeso separated out some particularly good butts to form his own private stock and that is now sold as Reserva de Familia, the firm’s top Manzanilla. This wine however, is arguably better still – I tasted them side by side, along with the standard San León, and while there are obvious similarities, this one is darker in colour - probably en rama but there's no mention of this - more intense, bitter and wild, possibly at the expense of elegance, but certainly not class. The label resembles one used in the past. Most of the firm’s production is Manzanilla with the wine being sold at various ages under various brands: Fina, La E (draught only), Medallas, San León and Reserva de Familia, and frankly they are all excellent. Judging by the quality of this wine I reckon even more interesting Manzanillas could yet be to come from this revitalised bodega. Great price too.

Price
5.95 euros per 50cl, De Albariza

Castillo de Argüeso NV 11.5% Bodegas Argüeso

Appearance

Bright pale golden straw with golden glints.

Nose

An interesting mix of fruit and salt. Really salty and mineral with lots of fresh sea air and a raw young green Palomino fruit. Unusual but natural. No flor, no crianza, just a mosto cleaned up for bottling, but with some real Palomino character. Like Manzanilla without the flor.

Palate

Fresh, light and clean with comparatively low acid and a bit less salty than the nose, but that allows the grape itself to really comes through with gentle leafy appley fruit. It could only be Palomino and is all the better for that.

Comments

From the Manzanilla specialists Herederos de Argüeso, now part of Francisco Yuste, this is 100% Palomino grown in albariza soils in the Sanlúcar area. It is a straight Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz table wine at only 11.5%, possibly because the grapes were picked earlier to retain acidity, but it works well at what used to be a normal strength. I do wish they would put vintage dates on the labels, even if they were stamped on with the lot number or onto the cork. Obviously one wants to avoid having to print new labels every year, but the consumer needs an idea of the wine's age. This will be 2015/2016 and it is very good value.

Price

4.85 euros, Licores Corredera

Manzanilla en rama La "E" 15%, Bodegas Argüeso

Appearance

Bright glinting golden straw, light legs.

Nose

Fresh, fairly saline with plenty of yeasty bready flor with a hint of that attractive bitterness. There is a strong almond note and the slightest background trace of autolysis giving a surprising amount of complexity to a wine which is no more than five years old.

Palate

Fresh pure Manzanilla, fairly soft with good depth and real Sanlucar character, a hint of texture and good length. As the wine warms up more flavour comes through, so what more could one want for the money?

Comments

This is one of the wines offered en rama direct from the butt at Argüeso, but which are not bottled, so you have to buy it "a granel" or on draught. The standard container is a 2 litre plastic bottle, yet I was pleased by the freshness and quality for the price nonetheless. Argüeso also sell this wine in various sizes of BIB, but now only to the bar and restaurant trade. It is the younger of the two granel Manzanillas they offer, the other being Viruta. Many bodegas have despachos de vino, a bar or shop where one can buy in bulk or by the bottle and they are well worth investigating.
Price
About 4 euros per litre

Manzanilla San León Reserva de Familia 15%, Argüeso

Appearance

Lightish yellowy straw with golden highlights, legs.

Nose

Forthcoming Manzanilla Pasada nose with notes of esparto, dried flowers, salinity, beach and of course, flor. There are slight traces of nutty butteriness from autolysis which round off the previous notes and add depth to what is quite a complex and very sanluqueño nose.

Palate

A decent acidity carries the flavour through, tangy, bone dry, slightly yeasty and still with a trace of fruit.It has good presence on the palate and really good length.

Comments

Precisely when a Manzanilla becomes Pasada is up to individual judgement. There is no mention of "pasada" on the label, but this wine is close to that point, where Manzanilla becomes really interesting. For that reason for a long time it was kept for family use, but it is now the bodega's flagship Manzanilla.  It is very good, with its own personality, but sometimes hard to get - even from the bodega, in my experience (twice). It is aged for about eight years.

Price

13.50 euros from Licores Corredera