16.1.17 The Resurgence of Cayetano del Pino

This small and well respected bodega established in 1886 has a long and rather varied history. It was founded by Cayetano del Pino Vázquez and before too long grew to be one of the greats of Jerez, but a bad partner and bad advice following the premature death of the founder’s son cut short the success of this family business, and its founder’s dream, nearly finishing it off. After many decades in the shadows as an almacenista, getting by on infrequent sales of old wines and the occasional solera to other bodegas –albeit at a decent price – and what little can be earned from bulk sales, the del Pino family is back on the scene with renewed hopes and its own brands.

(foto:diariodejerez)

The bodega is owned in equal parts by the four grandchildren of the founder, though it is their children, Gerardo, Enrique, Santiago and María Teresa del Pino and JoséLuis Otte, the fourth generation of the family, who are running it – though they have other jobs. Cayetano del Pino does not produce Finos or Olorosos. In the bodega in Plaza Silos, which was bought from Pedro Domecq over thirty years ago, there is only room for the ageing of Amontillados and Palos Cortados. They are distributed roughly 50/50 among just over 1,000 butts including ten exceptional butts of Palo Cortado which have been kept separately for over twenty years for consumption by the family which has now decided they should be shared.

The “Palo Cortado 1/10”, which has only been topped up as necessary to replace evaporation over the last fifteen years - the time needed by the family to balance its stocks - will soon be put on the market. Sales have been put exclusively in the hands of Jaime Carvajal, a wine professional with many years of experience, who works with bodegas in the area to produce and launch new wines. For Carvajal, this agreement is a “gift from the Gods”; the aperitif for what he hopes will be a long and prosperous relationship, and which will help to re-launch a bodega whose prestigious wine is sold to Lustau for their Almacenista range under its own name.

(foto:diariodejerez)

Gerardo del Pino who runs the bodega, explains that the new wine will be available in limited quantities from a single annual saca which will produce 2,000 half litre bottles, a new format which the bodega is adopting for all its wines including another exceptional Palo Cortado, the 1/5, bottled at upwards of 35 years old. The selection for the 1/5 was done from butts in the old bodega Santa Ana on the Arcos road, where the wine was fermented in butt, the old fashioned way. The 1/10, on the other hand, was selected in the bodega at Plaza Silos and is ready to get cracking in the marketplace.

The presentation of the new wine, which will retail at around 40 euros, harks back to the firm’s old labels, of which there have been some 600 over the years, surely the highest number in Jerez, and some of the most beautiful. The large new label represents a harvest girl with a basket of newly-picked grapes on her shoulder, and the cork and capsule are of the highest quality. The founder’s great grandchildren believe that the renewed interest in Sherry is not a passing phase. They believe it has come to stay and this interest lies in the top end wines which are exactly what they provide.

Cayetano del Pino’s Sparkling Vermouth

Now that Vermouth is back in vogue, let’s look back at an old classic from Jerez which would give the modern ones a run for their money. This brainchild of Cayetano del Pino y Vázquez was “Vermouth Champagne Santa Elena”, launched in about 1895 to huge success. 

This is how it was so eloquently described in a publication called “Reseña de las Bodegas de Jerez” by R Mena and Nephew in 1900: “Based on Jerez Fino with natural essences and bitters and with a natural, prudent and hygienic alcoholic strength, he created from all these elements a compound capable of competing with the most select known to this day, and while it was appreciated by the palate of the gourmet, medical science recognised it not only for its state of purity but for being a medicament, aperitif and tonic for certain ailments of the stomach and imbalance of the blood.”

Proof of its efficacy came in the form of medical opinion from the most notable doctors in Spain – forty-one of them! Added to this was a letter written to the bodega by the eminent gastronome Don Ángel Muro in 1897 highlighting the goodness in this kind of drink which is composed of over 75% of “fixed substances” and sugars and a strength of 13%, and recommending the product as the best aperitif and blood purifier capable of accompanying a good meal and admirably aiding digestion.

Mena goes on to state his admiration not only for the product but also for Don Cayetano del Pino, “a person who by his talent, hard work, knowledge and honour has placed himself in the front row of the most industrious men of Jerez, and who was awarded the Gold Cross of the Red Cross for the benefits experienced in Red Cross hospitals by anaemic soldiers repatriated from Cuba.”

One of the notable Spanish doctors even recommended the product to King Alfonso XIII and the bodega thus became suppliers to the royal household, the king himself paying a visit in 1897.

Amontillado Solera 18%, Cayetano del Pino

Appearance

Mid golden amber with brassy old gold highlights, legs.

Nose

Oxidative notes predominate with traces of implied sweetness, American oak, straw and lots of nuts. It has a certain bitter almond crispness attributable to its background in biological ageing balanced by a roundness from oxidative ageing and a sort of umami/vanilla note. Stylish and interesting.

Palate

Fairly light at first then grows as it warms on the palate, with a certain tang and full of flavour. There is a slightly open textured feel and a gentle grip without it being tannic, and it has terrific length.

Comments

This once famous bodega which supplied the royal household of king Alfonso XIII acts as more of an almacenista nowadays. They only make Amontillado and Palo Cortado, but they are excellent. Their Sherries are out there, and while hard to find, they are most rewarding when you do.This wine started as a Fino fortified to 15.5% and was allowed to age through the criaderas till it reached 17.5% at which point the ageing became completely oxidative, and the whole process took 20 years. What a bargain! Production is very small at 2810 bottles annually, and the wine is bottled en rama.
Price
12.60 euros from Licores Corredera

Palo Cortado Viejisimo1/5 21%, Cayetano del Pino

Appearance

Amber with copper traces fading to trace of green at the rim. Legs.

Nose

Most attractive, well developed, intense and forthcoming, fresh and incredibly refined. Lots of toasted hazelnuts and almonds, hints of wax, oak, walnut and old bodega barrels. Full and very complex yet fresh and clean.

Palate

Full, crisp and fresh, a hint of vanilla and intensely nutty with a certain walnutty bitterness and a touch of wood tannin countered by gentle glyceric sweetness which balances it out nicely. Full-on flavour and terrific length. A beautiful wine.

Comments

This is the older of the two Palos Cortados offered by the bodega. It is about 35 years old and comes from a solera of just five butts. This is fed from a 22 butt Palo Cortado solera from which some wine is sold at around 15 years average age. The wine is bottled with minimal filtration by Sanchez Romate. International Wine Challenge Gold Medal 2014

Price

£ 21.00 per half bottle only available from the Wine Society.

Bodegas: Cayetano del Pino & Cia.

This small bodega was established in 1886 by Don Cayetano del Pino y Vázquez (1835-1918 ) a native of La Carlota, Córdoba. By 1858, aged only 23 he was showing prowess as a salesman and worked for a brand called "Antón Pericón. In Sevilla, he became acquainted with important contacts such as Alberto Romero and soon after Manuel de La Calzada, son of a popular banker. With their help he was able to realise his dream of establishing a bodega. On the 19th November 1896 the company of Cayetano del Pino y Compañía was founded and registered at Calle del Rosario, 16, Jerez.

The bodega was located at Plaza Cocheras, 3 and only four years later the firm moved to the Calle de Armas de Santiago into much bigger, more comfortable and very picturesque premises opposite the Tempul gardens. There were three main bodegas in the complex: San Bernabé, San Vicente and Santísima Trinidad, the latter being the site of the bottling and despatch. There was also machinery, cooperage, printing and distilling with a workforce of over 150 people, including a sales force. The bodega even had TWO telephones! In only a few years Cayetano had turned a dream into a modern bodega company up there with the Sherry barons. By 1900 he had nearly 600 labels.

The bodegas in Armas de Santiago

In 1904 King Alfonso XIII visited the bodega which was an official supplier to the Royal Household.{He also took tea - yes, really! - at Domecq as well as visiting Gonzalez Byass}. In 1905 Cayetano's friend and fellow bodeguero Carlos Mauricio Morales Sevil proposed him for the Civil Order of Alfonso XII in recognition of his invention of the natural ageing of wines. (? I wish I knew!) The bodega was also winning medals for quality. It was also selling some brands from the defunct Bodega Cramp Suter & Co. under licence.

Cayetano del Pino Balbotin (Foto Jerez Siempre)

In the 1890s Cayetano married Bernabea Balbontín, born in Sevilla in 1869. They had two sons, and Cayetano del Pino Balbontin (1896-1935) ran the business successfully from the early XX century until his untimely death, when his brother Enrique, a noted footballer who played for Xerez Deportivo, took over. At this stage the bodega was still prominent with a considerable workforce. When Enrique died, his sisters ran the business with the help of an accountant, Jose Luis Sisto, and then in 1962, Cayetano’s children, Maria Jesus, Cayetano, Angel and Enrique del Pino Bohorquez took over.

By the end of the 1970s, the Sherry business in general had begun to contract along with wine consumption and many vineyards were grubbed up. That, along with management difficulties slowly converted this important firm into a much smaller almacenista, and it even closed for 12 years, but selling no wine for this period allowed it to age and it improved greatly which worked out well for the family. While the bodega is Registered at the Consejo Regulador as a bodega de Crianza y Expedicion, they operate principally as almacenistas, now from a smaller bodega at Plaza de Silos, 3, bought from Domecq in 1983. They also constructed a warehouse on the Carretera de Arcos. The firm remains in family hands: Cayetano del Pino Bohorquez is president, Gerardo del Pino Iñíguez is the manager assisted by his cousin José Enrique Otte del Pino who is the oenologist, and his brother Miguel Ángel as a director. Federico Merino looks after the accounts.

Racking around the turn of the century (Foto Jerez Siempre)

Some of their many older brands were:

Monja Quina, Ponche Pino, Coñac Pino, Manzanillas El Espartero and El Litri, Oloroso San Enrique, Amontillado Pasado Adela, Amontillado Fino Ladies, Amontillado Viva Sevilla!, Pedro Ximenez Extra Superior, Lagartijillo Palma Fina, and their special sparkling vermouth Santa Elena, all with beautiful colourful labels depicting either beautiful women or bullfighting scenes. They even offered a Port.

The bodega as it looks today in Plaza de Silos

Some of their wine is available through Emilio Lustau’s Almacenista range, indeed Lustau buy some of their Amontillado to refresh their Botaina. The other wines are bottled for them by Sanchez Romate. Unusually, they do not sell Fino or Oloroso.

Palo cortado 1/15 (@15 yo) and a Palo Cortado Viejisimo 1/5 (over 35 yo and an exclusivity of the Wine Society), Palo Cortado 1/10 at over 30 years old, Palo Cortado Solera Cayetano del Pino at over 20 years and Amontillado Solera aged for over 20 years.

Visits? By previous appointment

Address: Plaza de Silos,3 11404 Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz)

Telephone: 956 345 736

Website: http://bodegascayetanodelpino.com/