Manzanilla en rama Carvajal 15%, Carvajal Wines SA

Appearance

Mid strawy gold with golden highlights.

Nose

Fairly light at first but it soon comes out. Fresh sea air and olive brine salinity with a little bitterness from the flor, traces of straw, herbs and some minerality from the albariza. It is a serious wine with the faintest oxidative and cabezuela  notes adding a lightly buttery complexity. Vet attractive.

Palate

Quite full, with considerable depth and perfect balance of mineral, acetaldehyde and acidity with the more buttery autolytic character of the cabezuela. The flavour is quite intense with a lovely bitter edge and the usual dry chalky texture and long clean tasty finish.

Comments

Jaime Carlos de Carvajal Castrillón, who spent many years working for González Byass in the province of Cádiz, set up Carvajal Wines back in 2014, and now sells a range of wines which he selects from bodegas in the Marco de Jerez for his own label. He started by making a selection of red wines produced by Barbadillo under a 5 year contract resulting in his excellent Cobijado and is now selling Palo Cortado from Cayetano del Pino and selecting a range of wines from Delgado Zuleta in Sanlúcar which they bottle for him en rama. While the own label Sherries all have circus-related imagery on the labels they are wines of serious quality.

Price

15.65, Licores Corredera

Amontillado en rama 17.5%, Carvajal Wines SA

Appearance

Bright amber fading through straw with old gold highlights to a trace of green at the rim.

Nose

Well rounded oxidative notes balance with the crisper slightly saline character you´d expect from Sanlúcar and faintly sweet soft toasted almond and hazelnut praline and sourdough bread crust notes. There is notable complexity here with traces of tobacco and dry autumn leaves and a sort of robust elegance making for a very attractive wine.

Palate

There are still faint traces of its Manzanilla past with hints of minerality, salinity and a slightly higher acidity giving a certain crispness, but all that is offset by a trace of glycerine and those tight nutty flavours. This is a serious wine which manages to combine the raw wild maritime character of Manzanilla with the elegance of a well aged Amontillado, and it has terrific length.

Comments

Jaime de Carvajal worked for many years with González Byass, and certainly knows his wines. In recent years he has been working on his own projects, starting with the excellent red wine Cobijado, the result of a joint project with Barbadillo, and now he is working with Delgado Zuleta with a range of Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso and a Medium of fine quality as well as representing the wines of Cayetano del Pino in Jerez. This wine has real character and is very good value for money.

Price

17.25 euros, Licores Corredera

Carvajal Wines SL

Jaime Carlos de Carvajal Castrillón spent 25 years working for González Byass, as export director and later as director of GB´s successful Tintilla de Rota Project at the Finca Moncloa near Arcos. With many years of experience in the wine trade under his belt, he decided to set up on his own to produce an excellent red wine from Cádiz and he arrived at a deal with Bodegas Barbadillo whereby he was allowed to select and purchase wine from their large stocks to make his own individual blend. The result was 7,000 bottles of the excellent Cobijado 2013, with production doubling in 2015. In 2014 he registered his company Carvajal Wines SL. and the initial 5 year contract with Barbadillo has been renewed.

Sherry is irresistible of course, and so he then signed a deal with Delgado Zuleta in Sanlúcar by which he selected wines from their soleras to sell under his own label and which they bottle for him en rama. He is currently offering Manzanilla, Oloroso and Amontillado, all of very high quality. Recently he has taken on the distribution of the wines of Cayetano del Pino in Jerez  which include a

30 year old Palo Cortado 1/10, a 20 year old Palo Cortado Solera and a 20 year old Amontillado. With the exception of these, which are already bottled for Del Pino by Romate, all the Carvajal Sherries have circus-related imagery on the labels such as a trapeze, a strongman etc., but this in no way implies that the wines are not of serious quality, which they are. He also offers a Rosado called Son de Rosa, produced in Somontano.