6.1.19 Various News Items

It is great to be able to report on the expansion rather than the closure of a Sherry bodega. Things have been going well in recent years for José Luis Barrero, owner of the Sanlúcar bodega Sánchez Ayala so he has decided to invest in increased wine stocks in order to grow the business and this will require the purchase of another bodega in which to store it all. So far he has bought no fewer than 670 top quality well seasoned American oak butts but until he can acquire a suitable bodega he has rented a warehouse in the outskirts of Sanlúcar where he is filling them with wine. To these he will add a further 300 butts of wine which he has stored at his vineyard Las Cañas.

Some of the butts awaiting filling.

Meanwhile the girls at Cuatro Ojos Wines in El Puerto de Santa María have produced another dry Moscatel called La Má. There is a lovely expression that “The Moscatel de Alejandría dies of pain if it can´t see the sea” since it likes to grow on sandy soils in places like Chipiona, where these grapes come from. It is made exclusively for the three Michelin star restaurant Aponiente in El Puerto, an impressive accolade for a tiny artisan bodega established only 3 years ago.

The 4 Ojos girls with their wines. La Má is 2nd from right.

   

Diez Mérito have introduced a smart new label for the Pemartín Sherries:

The Spanish Association of Wine Writers and Journalists (AEPEV) has announced its choice of the best wines and spirits from Spain for 2018. They selected the best from 575 suggested brands in 11 categories and Andalucía was the region with the most awards. From the province of Cádiz the following won prizes:

Noé PX, González Byass

Tintilla de Rota Finca Moncloa, González Byass

Cuatro Palmas, González Byass

Palo Cortado VORS, Bodegas Tradición

Brandy SGR Cardenal Mendoza, Sánchez Romate

Brandy SGR Lepanto PX, González Byass

Desvelao 2017 12.5%, Cuatro Ojos Wines

Appearance
Bright pale golden straw with the faintest hint of green and golden highlights.
Nose
Intense and super fresh aroma of Moscatel with lots of fruit notes like mandarin, kiwi and peach with hints of white flowers and tea. There is a faint mineral note and a trace of flor which add a balancing and slightly more serious note, but all told, a lovely nose.
Palate
Clean, fresh and zippy with an attractive tangy yet balanced acidity, and there is lots of that mandarin fruit along with a slight apple note and a very slightly bitter edge and a dry chalky texture. This is delicious, pure and very refreshing with good length.
Comments

This is the second commercial vintage of Desvelao, a wine  made the artisan way by the three Cuatro Ojos girls in their small bodega in El Puerto de Santa María. It is a fairly unusual style of wine being 100% Moscatel de Alejandría but fermented dry, and it works really well. The grapes come from the albariza soils of Finca La Blanquita in the pago Balbaína where they are hand-picked and pressed, and the must is then taken to the bodega. This must is used to make 3 wines: Contra Tiempo, Molinero and Desvelao, but they are made in slightly different ways. It is fermented at low temperature with natural yeast for a couple of days before the addition of selected yeast and Desvelao has the added flavour imparted by flor yeast during 3 months of ageing in tank on the lees. The wine is bottled without filtration and rested in bottle for a couple of months before sale. Only around 400 bottles produced. I do wish they would put the vintage on the label, albeit this one is different to last year's.

Price
15.50, De Albariza

Desvelao 2016 11%, Cuatro Ojos Wines

Appearance

Pale lemony gold with a faint green tinge and golden highlights.

Nose

Forthcoming and super fresh with all the fragrance of Moscatel. Lots of floral notes with citrus blossom and honeysuckle and then there are the fruit notes with pear and a hints of lime peel and lemon icing, yet behind that impressive nose are very slight saline and mineral hints and a distant trace of bitterness from flor.

Palate

Just as impressive on the palate with perfectly judged acidity driving all that fruit and a gentle hint of green tea. The wine is dry and quite light with a very light dry chalky texture, a clean minerality and a slightly bitter saline trace which betray the albariza where the vines grew and the flor under which it was aged briefly - only just enough to be noticeable.

Comments

The brand name Desvelao is a play on words. Desvelar means to reveal but here it means taken from under the velo (veil) of flor, yet the wine is a revelation and something very unusual being Moscatel grown in albariza, and this is the first release. It is basically the same wine as the lees aged Molinero but with the time spent on lees spent also under flor for a period of around three months. It is made by three girls with great ideas and considerable skill in El Puerto de Santa Maria.

Price
20,50 Licores Corredera

Molinero 2016 11%, Cuatro Ojos Wines

Appearance
Bright pale golden straw with golden glints.
Nose
Attractive and quite intense Moscatel nose, fragrant - almost perfumed - and very floral with notes of jasmine, citrus blossom and honeysuckle and a definite grapiness with the faintest hints of mineral and salinity.
Palate
Fresh and dry with loads of grapey flavour up front. Acidity is fairly low but you wouldn't really notice as there is a clean mineral backbone which helps maintain balance, and a faint creaminess, and there is a chalky texture too, no doubt from the albariza. It has a long delicate fragrant finish.
Comments

This is the first release of this interesting wine made by three girls in El Puerto de Santa Maria. It is named in honour of their viti-viniculture tutor Araceli Molinero and is made from Moscatel grapes grown in albariza soil. The must is fermented in tank and the wine is aged, surprisingly, in old Amontillado and Oloroso butts for 3 months on its lees before bottling without filtration. It spends two months in numbered bottles before release. A vintage date on the label would be helpful. 

Price
20.50 euros Licores Corredera

A Pulso 2017 12%, Cuatro Ojos Wines

Appearance

Light, transparent young ruby red with a pink tinge to the rim.

Nose

Fresh and bursting with forest berry fruit and faint background traces of tea and licorice, open and light, full of youthful exuberance with a passing resemblance to Beaujolais primeur, but different grapes.

Palate

Again lots of fruit, berries plums, cherries, and pretty light with only gentle structure and depth. It is a pleasant red wine which would match white meats, perhaps lightly cooled, but is for enjoying now as it is not very suitable for bottle ageing.

Comments

Much of the lightness, freshness and fruitiness can be explained by the fact that the wine was made by carbonic maceration, like Beaujolais primeur. The grapes are destemmed and placed whole in a sealed stainless steel tank where some grapes are crushed under the weight of the rest. This releases juice which begins to ferment emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide causing the other grapes to ferment intracellularly - from the inside. This gives a wine which is low in tannin and structure but soft light and fruity. After fermentation the tank is emptied and the solids trodden by foot for more extraction. The wine was bottled in early December. It would be helpful if they would include on the label grape variety/ies (in this case, I believe it is Syrah) and vintage, which is information the consumer would probably find more useful than the winemaking process.

Price

12.45 De Albariza

Contratiempo 2016 12.5% Cuatro Ojos Wines

Appearance

Bright pale gold with silvery gold highlights.

Nose

Fresh, clean and fruity with aromas of apple, and traces of lime peel and sweeties, floral hints of jasmine and lily backed up by a mineral, saline twist which means it could be from albariza. There is a natural air about it and and a delicate charm.

Palate

It tastes very much as it smells, with a slightly fuller rounder body than expected. It is good and dry yet there is a passing suggestion of sweetness and it grows on the palate, gives of its best and then leaves a gentle, clean, fuity, minerally and really quite long finish.

Comments

This very attractive dry Moscatel wine is very young, not long bottled, and is still finding its feet. It is made in El Puerto de Santa Maria from organic grapes sourced in Chipiona. They are partly de-stemmed and fermented at controlled temperature in stainless steel tanks, and after malolactic the wine is left to settle on its lees. It only undergoes a very gentle filtration before being bottled and labelled by hand. This is only the second release and consists of just 1300 bottles. I couldn't find a year on the cork or the labels (I found out having done some research, and, of course tasting it) and I do wish people would put vintages on their labels or at least an understandable lot number. There are various sound reasons for doing so, mainly so you know how old the wine is. It does the producer no good if someone buys a wine which has declined after sitting on a shelf for years. Obviously with this wine and certain others from the area, quantities are so small that the wine should have sold out before the arrival of the next vintage, but it can't be guaranteed. Also, it might attract customers if the grape variety were on the label. People want detail nowadays, and an explanation of the philosophy behind the brand name is not enough.

Price
12.45 euros, De Albariza