13.7.19 Bodegas Urium Expand into Sanlúcar

The expansion of Bodegas Urium into Sanlúcar is beginning to reach its conclusioin. For nearly three years the Ruiz family have been working through all the procedures and formalities to convert their old building back into a bodega. This historic site was once the bodega of Viuda de E Manjón whose famous brand was Manzanilla El Rocío and which latterly belonged to González Byass till they dropped it a decade or so ago. Sine then the building was used as a restaurant (called Currito) for a while before falling into disuse till the Ruiz family decided to age their own Manzanilla. 

All the butts have been refurbished

This is not straightforward and naturally requires considerable investment, so the bodega has been filling up slowly, starting with 50 butts from Francisco Yuste and adding to that the best-seasoned butts they could find around the trade. They now have 104 which will suffice for the time being. There is still plenty of space however, as the restaurant only occupied part of the building, and one idea for that is a tasting room. Meanwhile they are working on a special limited edition Manzanilla to launch the bodega, and later on an Amontillado as well.

Amontillado Perpendicular 18%, Las Botas

Appearance

Mahogany fading to amber with copper glints and the faintest trace of green at the rim.
Nose
Attractive, fairly intense and unusual with a distinct note of bitter orange along with toasted hazelnuts and almonds and gentle spice notes like vanilla and cinnamon. There are all sorts of nuances like pipe tobacco and oak.
Palate
It starts off quite full but soon displays considerable elegance, being well rounded and dry yet without any aggressive tannin. That orange character is still there but the nuts come through as it develops on the palate. There is a passing note of antique furniture as it fades, long and elegant
Comments

This wine is from the first saca of 700 bottles which comes from Bodegas Urium in Jerez. It is a blend of varying proportions of wine with a long period of biological ageing from four selected butts in the firm's Amontillado solera, and has an average age of over 20 years. The wine is bottled unfiltered. The name Perpendicular alludes to the two types of ageing involved; biological and oxidative. The Las Botas range is the brainchild of sommelier Raul Villabrille and César Velazquez of Balandro Vinos in Sevilla. Their first releases have been extremely good and the project augurs very well.

Price
29.80 euros per 50cl, La Tienda del Jerez

Palo Cortado Horizontal 20%, Las Botas

Appearance
Bright chestnut tinged deep amber with copper and gold highlights.

Nose

Refined, elegant, sophisticated and fresh with distinct hazelnut and almond aromas along with notes of polished furniture, tobacco and caramel. There are gentle notes of exotic woods too, and the wine lies right between Amontillado and Oloroso, focused and generous.

Palate

Impressive on entry, packed with flavour, complex and attractive, perfectly balanced between volatile acidity and glyceric sweetness with a nice tang leading through to those caramelly nuts and wood flavours and a trace of vanilla. There is hardly any tannin and it has terrific length. Excellent.
Comments

This delightful Palo Cortado is a limited bottling of 850 x 50cl bottles selected from Bodegas Urium. The original mosto came from the pago Carrascal and the name “Horizontal” refers to the fact that the wine didn’t go through any awkward stages and seemed determined to be a Palo Cortado right from the first clasification. César Velazquez of Balandro Vinos and sommelier Raúl Villabrille marked four butts for their particular character and made a blend using greater or smaller amounts from each. The wine has an approximate average age of 28 years and was bottled in September 2017 without any filtration or stabilisation. 

Price
31.90 per 50cl, La Tienda del Jerez

Brandy Mons Urium Solera Gran Reserva 36%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance

Deep walnut mahogany with copper highlights fading through amber to a faintly green tinged rim.

Nose

Full and rich with distinct notes of vanilla and oak, walnut and toasted almond, all nicely harmonised with age. There is a hint of caramel sweetness balancing the spice from the oak and adding to the considerable complexity of a fairly powerful brandy.

Palate

Classic Jerez brandy; rich, full, characterful and round with plenty of oak yet not excessively tannic despite its age. There are distinct Oloroso notes and a faint rancio note along with nuts and a faint trace of dried fruits. The intense flavour lasts for ages and it takes a drop of water well.

Comments

Produced specially for Urium as this small bodega doesn't have the room for a brandy solera, it is occasionally bottled in limited amounts, and is an excellent brandy, though Urium don't make a big thing of it; it doesn't even feature on the website though it certainly deserves to.

Price
21.10 euros, Licores Corredera

Sorry.....couldn't wait!

Amontillado Clásico Mons Urium 17.5%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance

Bright deep amber/topaz with coppery highlights, legs.

Nose

Full yet elegant with attractive aromas of the cooper's workshop, toasted almonds and vanilla and a trace of caramel. It has that crispness born of crianza biologica and plenty of the roundness and generosity from the later oxidative ageing making it extremely harmonious and attractive.

Palate

Elegant and assertive at the same time. There is the slight Fino bite at first which is rounded off almost straight away by a warming implied nutty sweetness with touches of American oak keeping it tight and nicely balanced without restraining the charm. Long and delicious.

Comments

This is from Urium's standard "Clásico" range introduced in 2011. It has an approximate average age of 15 years. The small family-owned bodega has some really special wines - up to a 100 year old Palo Cortado - and deserves to be taken seriously as they are above average quality and represent great value for money.

Price

About 13 euros

25.9.16 Good News for UK Sherry Lovers!

Now that Sherry is beginning to recuperate its rightful position in the UK market, aficionados of the outstanding wines of Jerez will be pleased to know of a source of genuine “proper” artisan Sherry, produced by hand in small family owned bodegas and in very limited quantities. The wines range in style from bone dry Fino to the equally dry Oloroso VORS with an average age of 45 years. Most of them are dry but there are sweet ones too, and all are top quality. Currently the focus is on a range of wines from each of two classic bodegas; Urium and Faustino González, both in Jerez.

Sherry Educator and lover Helen Highley of the blog criadera.com has for some time been importing these wines for the trade but is now offering them to the public as well through her website http://sherryboutique.com/ The online store launches on the 30^th September with, amazingly, no minimum order. These wines are superb, so come Friday, your chance to order some of these amazing wines will be here!

Mons Urium Cream 18%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance

Quite deep chestnut brown with a trace of burnt umber and coppery tints, legs

Nose

Serious, savoury almost umami hints are followed by aromas of pasas which do not dominate the Oloroso, it is comparatively dry on the nose but quite deep with traces of cinnamon, walnut and almonds cooked in caramel (garrapiñadas) and a lovely smell of bodega.

Palate

Fairly sweet at the start but the PX doesn't obscure the Oloroso - the proportions are just right. There is a gentle tang which helps with balance and it is not too sweet. The savoury note remains and makes an interesting counterpoint to the sweetness. At the end the palate is left with lingering flavour rather than cloying sweetness.

Comments

This is a delicious "proper" Cream Sherry made with properly aged wines. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a solera blend. It is somewhere about 15 years old with around 20% PX.

Price

The bottle shown here is the standard 75cl, but the one I got at the bodega was a 50cl at 8.70 euros so scaling it up would give a price of about 13 euros. Available in the UK from Sherry Boutique.

 

Oloroso VORS Mons Urium 20%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance
Deep mahogany, pronounced reddy-coppery tints and a trace of green at the rim, legs.
Nose
Full and quite powerful with the almost bitter walnut and oak notes rounded out by some glyceric sweetness. There is a hint of fresh pipe tobacco, the smell of the workshop of a carpenter who restores antique furniture, a cinnamon note, even Oxford marmalade, yet all these and more are in perfect, fresh-as-a-daisy harmony. Only age can do that, and it certainly has here.
Palate
Plenty of sweetness and charm on entry and more than enough to mitigate the gently tannic woody, nutty notes of long barrel ageing. Full bodied, well rounded with warm spice nuances and very long, it is an absolute classic, a beautiful Oloroso. A friend who was not keen on Oloroso loved this!
Comments
From a solera aged about 100 years. I feel the wine itself is much more than 30 years old, it is so complex, charming and rewarding.
Price

€ 33.00 in Spain. Available in the UK from Sherry Boutique

Amontillado Mons Urium VORS 18%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance

Amber to light mahogany with copper tints, slight trace green to rim, legs.

Nose

Supremely elegant and fairly intense almost honeyed toasted almonds and hazelnuts, traces of oak, a hint of glyceric sweetness is perfectly balanced by a gentle sharp note from the crianza biologica along with a hint of tobacco. A serious yet charming Amontillado.

Palate

Reasonably crisp on entry then spreads attractive nutty, barrel flavours round the palate. There is some gentle tannin there but not enough to upset the equilibrium with the glycerine. Clean, complex, lively and precise, it has terrific length and isn't so concentrated as to dominate food. Lovely.

Comments

Certainly all of 30 years old, and I would venture to suggest a good few more. This is a classic old Amontillado which shows all its component parts yet they are perfectly harmonised with considerable age. It is bottled with virtually no filtration, and tastes exactly as it does in the bodega. Like we all wish we could do, it wears its heart on its sleeve and is ageing gracefully.

Price

€ 33 per 50cl bottle in Spain. Available in UK from Sherry Boutique

Oloroso Saca 2015 21%, Sacristía AB

Appearance

Old natural mahogany with an antique patina, fading through amber to a hint of green on the rim with copper highlights and slow legs.

Nose

Intense and utterly charming with notes of wax, bitter orange marmalade, cinnamon, almost incense, and a trace of toasted almond and walnut. There is a rich glyceric quality: a certain unctuousness implying sweetness and a slight vanilla note from the oak, but that is balanced by a slightly more bitter woodiness inevitable in a wine of this age but still controlled. Charming but serious.

Palate

That touch of sweetness carries the wine through. It is a big full bodied wine and there is plenty of wood tannin and volatile acidity yet everything is balanced. Spices, dried orange peel and a very slightly burnt note only add to the complexity of a very old, noble and concentrated wine.

Comments

This beautiful wine was selected by Antonio Barbadillo Mateos from Bodegas Urium in Jerez and released at the end of last September. Urium has some wonderful old wines and this is an absolute charmer. It is the first wine Antonio has selected which does not come from Sanlúcar, and it is very old, at least 50 years and is bottled directly from the butt without any kind of filtration. Probably it belonged to the almacenista Josefa Pérez Rosado from whom Alonso Ruiz bought the bodega in 2006. It is sealed with a high quality driven cork and red wax.

Price

60 Euros for a 50cl bottle.

Fino en rama Mons Urium 15%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance

Strawy, brassy gold with golden highlights, a shade deeper than filtered wines, legs

Nose

Interesting, forthcoming and really quite complex. It is extremely fresh with slightly muted but certainly noticeable flor, less bitter than Manzanilla and more almondy, lots of sour bread dough and slight grassy, herbal traces. There are very slight but attractive waxy notes, and it is quite full and assertive with a definite spring in its step.

Palate

Again quite full, generous and incredibly fresh. Acidity is quite low but is is still beautifully balanced between the developing bitterness of the flor and the sweeter almondy side but that flor helps give it a such a long clean finish. There is just so much character here, it is far better than many.

Comments

This wine is quite delicious and has about 8 years under flor. The solera has 66 butts and the very old bodega is situated in one of the highest parts of Jerez where it can make the most of the poniente (west) wind, and it can certainly be seen in this wine. Like its owner, Alonso Ruiz, it is a real character. The bodega also has older Finos: 10 and 12 years old and a single butt of Fino which still has some vestiges of flor at 30 years old! Nowhere on the label does it mention being en rama, a fact which would surely help sales, but then I doubt if a wine this good needs any help, and it would be a crime to filter it. It tastes remarkably similar to the wine drawn straight from the solera.

Price

11 euros for a 50cl bottle. Available in UK from Sherry Boutique

Palo Cortado VORS Mons Urium 19%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance

Attractive bright chestnut amber with gold and copper tints and a trace of green at the rim, legs.

Nose

Intensely fragrant with lots of hazelnut and traces of garrapiñada, orange zest, cinnamon, polished antique furniture and bodega barrels. It needs time to show its endless aromatic nuances which are not made more difficult by the higher alcohol levels in some wines of this age.

Palate

Fresh and nutty on entry, almost tight even, but it slowly reveals a more open texture, traces of warm spice and a bit of body. Many Palos Cortados are slightly fuller, more Oloroso in style but I feel this still retains more the Amontillado style thanks to its precision, yet as the palate develops some of those generous Oloroso characteristics do develop, particularly traces of raisin and cinnamon. Long and endlessly fascinating with a hint of tannic dryness which one can easily forgive.

Comments

This exquisite old wine is actually over 40 years old (nearer 45) and yet its alcoholic strength is not excessive, allowing its great elegance and balance to shine through. This solera feeds another which takes the wine to well in excess of 100 years (Gran Señor) and even at that age it still has this amazing drinkability without over-concentration. 

Price

€ 33 in Spain. Available in UK from Sherry Boutique

The Most Expensive Wine in Spain

It is Sherry, naturally. Alonso Ruíz bought the old bodega of the almacenista Josefa Pérez Rosado in Calle Muro, Jerez, in 2006 and founded Bodegas Urium. Here he found a single butt of magnificent old Palo Cortado lost among other butts of old wine. This treasure turned out to be over 140 years old and with a strength of 19ᴼ. It was so good Alonso felt people should be able to try it. There is so little however, that only 15 bottles can be filled each year and there is a waiting list for them.

It is called Gran Señor de Urium and is presented in a Czech royal crystal decanter from the famous Moser factory with 24 carat gold plating on the neck and stopper. This comes in a pure silver box weighing 4 kilos handmade by a Spanish artisan silversmith. If you need to ask the price, you can’t afford it, so I asked on your behalf:  €36,750.00 and no, you can’t afford it!

4.7.15 New UK Source of Interesting Sherry

When I studied languages at school I was taught the difference between “active” and “passive” moods, and this came to mind when discussing Sherry availability in the UK yesterday with Helen Highley of criadera.com. Many Sherry bodegas have “representation” in the UK which amounts to almost nothing. The importer has no sales force or distribution beyond their own location, no promotional activity, and at least one has no website. The wine is imported to fill a gap on their list. This situation is no good for Sherry aficionados, always looking out for something interesting, and no good for the bodega. This represents the passive mood.

Luckily the active mood is here and there is at last change in the air. Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of tasting some exciting Sherries with Helen and Roberto Rodrigo of Goya 23, Edinburgh’s best Spanish deli. Helen had brought a range of wines from two bodegas which she is importing in a small way (at first!) with the idea of building up a range of interesting Sherries which she can retail online to connoisseurs, or sell through carefully selected specialist wine merchants. This is an entirely separate venture from Criadera which will in no way affect its impartiality.

The bodegas in question are Urium and Faustino González, both in Jerez, and it was fascinating to see how the wines contrasted. Both had their distinct house style, but how distinct they were, with Urium showing real polish and finesse compared to the wilder racier style of Faustino González. Both bodegas make delicious wines of unimpeachable quality, they are just different, and that’s what made the tasting – indeed Sherry itself - so interesting.

From Urium were:

Fino en Rama (50cl, around 8 years old, saca May 2015)

Smooth with traces olive brine and ever-developing flor

Amontillado (50cl, around 15 years old)

Very elegant, quite fragrant and balanced, proper Amontillado

Palo Cortado (50cl, around 15 years old)

Very attractive with a trace of cinnamon on the nose, elegant on palate

Oloroso (50cl, around 15 years old)

Fairly full with savoury hint and trace of oak, some charm

PX (50cl, around 15 years old)

Velvety with coffee, chocolate, fig and raisin, charming but serious

And from Faustino González:

Fino en Rama (half bottle, around 10 years old, saca April 2015)

Bursting with flor zip

Amontillado en Rama (75cl, 18-20 years old)

Still notes of flor (!) racy bitterness balanced by implied sweetness, unusual and exciting

Palo Cortado en Rama(75cl, 18-20 years old)

Even a trace of flor here too, but hazelnuts on the nose and a slightly savoury, tangy palate

Oloroso en Rama (75cl, 18-20 years old)

Savoury notes, traces marmalade and cinnamon, generous and very fine

The online service will be called sherryboutique.com but will not go live for three or four months when Helen hopes to have all the necessary arrangements in place. If all goes well she hopes to expand the range, so watch out for this, it is a great idea and deserves support.

Manzanilla Pasada En Rama Mons Urium 15%, Bodegas Urium

Appearance
Deepish strawy gold with  the slightest haze - from lack of filtration, some legs.
Nose
Very attractive, yeast laden nose with real character. Lots of camomile and dried flowers, salted almonds and bread dough, as well as a briny bitterness which grows. There are aromas of dampness, humidity, and so the flor must have been quite thick. Despite the bitterness and dryness, there is a charming almost appley roundness as well, and not as much autolysis or oxidation as I'd imagined.
Palate
Fairly full, amazingly soft and yeasty with still a trace of fruit, low acidity compensated for by that saline bitterness. It is mouthfilling yet very (much too) easy to drink. For all that roundness, it has a very dry finish which lingers for some time pestering you to buy another bottle. Which you should, it's lovely.
Comments
Limited edition of 10,000 50cl bottles. This is from the 4th series. The solera is tiny, so the wine is not as widely available as one might like. The wine is 8-10 years old and is bought from an almacenista in Sanlucar. Strangely, the label does not indicate that it was bottled en rama, but it was. This is a serious bodega, and their Fino is also bottled en rama.
Price
About 8-10 Euros in Spain for the 50cl bottle. Uk Importer Jose Fine Wines

Bodegas: Urium

Urium is a family bodega situated in the Calle Muro, which runs alongside the old city wall in the old barrio Santiago quarter of Jerez. At one time there were many bodegas here, but most have gradually disappeared. This one was bought from a former manager at Valdespino and almacenista in 2006. As a firm, then, it is very recent, only registering with the Consejo Regulador in September 2009 and then starting to sell the wines. It is owned and run by Alonso Ruiz Olivares, a businessman from Moguer (Huelva) and Sherry aficionado, his daughter Rocio Ruiz Lopez, who is also the enologist and her husband Mario. Sr. Ruiz bought the bodega along with its fine old stocks and renamed it after the Roman name for Moguer: Mons Urium (or golden mountain). The bodega is very small, with only about 500 butts, and consists of two warehouses with a central patio where they age the vinegar. Of the butts they bought, some 60 were not up to their standards and were sold off and replaced by better ones from old soleras around Jerez, and they were easy enough to obtain since in those days of crisis many small firms were closing.

After 3 years of hard work getting things together, a party was held in the bodega to which various bloggers, members of the gastronomic world and foreign buyers were invited. They also held a reception at the Consejo Regulador, attended by the president, the mayor of Jerez and various councillors. After the reception, a menu maridaje was enjoyed by the guests.

The old bodega in Calle Muro - strange not to see lots of parked cars!

The age of the wine stocks allowed them to produce a range of VORS (over 30 year old) wines straight away, to which they added a Fino solera and buy in Manzanilla from an almacenista in Sanlucar. They own no vineyard so buy mosto from growers in Balbaina with whom they collaborate closely. All wines are bottled en rama. Interestingly one of the botas punta of the fino solera lost its flor for some reason, and yet it miraculously returned two years later. Its average age is some 15 years, and thanks to a couple of years without flor shows oxidative notes and so could best be described as Fino-Amontillado. It is a lovely wine, known as Fino Elena, but not bottled.

In 2011 they created the Classic Range in innovative bottles of their own 50cl design, in tall clear glass. In 2016 the family bought the old San Francisco bodega in Sanlucar's Barrio Bajo which was once home to Manzanilla El Rocio. It had been used as a restaurant (Currito) for a while and it is currently being re-converted back to bodega use. In 2017 they created one butt of completely natural Medium Dry Sherry for the winning Dutch contestants in the Copa Jerez. In fact Urium wines have often been chosen for this competition.

Alonso and Rocio

The range consists of:

Fino en Rama, Manzanilla Pasada, both about 8 years old

Classic Range, all 15 years old or more: Pale Cream, Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado, Cream, PX

VORS Range: all about 45 years old: Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso and PX  limited release and all in numbered bottles

They also have a really special Palo Cortado, over 100 years old and known as el Gran Senor, from a solera of just one butt and a 60 year old PX.
Occasionally they sell a fine brandy.

Address: C/Muro, 28, 11404 Jerez de la Frontera,  Cadiz

Tel: (+34) 956 335 597

Web: www.urium.es

Visits: yes, by appointment