Bodegas: Fernández-Gao

This firm dates back to 1750 according to its labels, making it one of the earliest of the bigger firms. It was founded by Manuel Fernández who came from the north of Spain but was living in Jerez. He was succeeded by his son Juan Alonso Fernández, also born in the north but married to the Jerezana Ana María López. They were wine producers selling to the bodegas.

Their son was José María Fernández y López (1798-1864) who went on to marry the Sevillana Josefa María González de Molina. Between 1818 and 1828 the firm had extensive vineyards in good pagos and began to sell most of the wine they produced to Manuel María González, founder of González Byass.

One of their three children, José María Fernández González (1843-1914) went for further education to England, thus guaranteeing the continuity of the firm. He married Francisca de Asís Gao Fernández de los Rios and they had seven children. As well as being a lawyer and leading bodeguero/businessman, he was noted in politics as a member of the liberal party, becoming mayor of Jerez in 1909 and president of the Tempúl Water Company. He bought the Viña san Agustín vineyard.

In 1896 he formed an association with Manuel Cantillo y García, who had a bodega in Calle Arcos (later bought by Manuel de Misa) creating the wine company Fernández y Cantillo which would last for a few decades. Some years before, he had already bought part of the wine business and equipment of the British Consul, CH Furlong.

As a result of family matters, Fernando Fernández Gao y González, born in 1878 the son of José María and Francisca de Asís Gao, took over the business in 1919. After Cantillo’s death in 1914 the trading name was changed from Fernández y Cantillo to Fernández-Gao Hermanos and would remain the same till 1956. They were operating largely as producers/almacenistas. Fernando received special dispensation to unite his two surnames into one: Fernández-Gao. He was married to Ana María González y Travieso.

Among the firm’s best-known wines were Fino La Mina and two Amontillados Finos: Albarizuela and El 68 (year the solera was established), Oloroso El 50, Royal Sherry and Manzanilla La Africana. Among the brandies were Legendario, Timonel and Novecientos Cuatro, as well as Fegach Gin. Many of these attractive labels were designed by the Jerez graphic artist José Luis Torres. Such was the firm’s reputation that in 1919 the newspaper ABC dedicated a full reportage to it. On Fernando’s death in 1949, ownership of the bodega was split among his and his siblings’ (Matilde, Fernando and Ramiro José Fernández Gao) children.

The bodega in Calle Arcos still stands today

In 1953 Fernando’s children set up a company Hijos de Fernando Fernández-Gao y González at a bodega in Calle Lechugas, but it only lasted ten years before they sold out to Pedro Domecq. Matilde’s children set up a company Bilbao Fernánedez-Gao, but that only lasted five years. Ramiro José’s children sold out to McKenzie next door in 1967. Ramiro, who was chosen as Capataz de Honor at the Fiestas de la Vendimia in 1960, and his stepbrother Diego Ferguson would become directors of Harveys who bought out McKenzie in 1970.

But that was only a temporary ending to the story. In 2014 Antonio Sánchez Gago, a Jerez businessman bought the company name and brand names of Fernández-Gao and re-launched the firm using some old family soleras. He bought a couple of old bodegas which he has restored, in Calle Pajarete (ex Real Tesoro) and in Calle Arcos - 100 metres from where the original firm started out.

Interior patio of the Calle Arcos bodega next to Lustau

The smart new range of wines

29.5.16 Vinoble: New Wines from Harveys, Barbadillo; Corpus Christi

It is inside the Alcazar as well, everywhere

Jerez was alive today with visitors to the unique biennial wine fair Vinoble which covers sweet and fortified wines of the world. Needless to say there was a strong Sherry presence and a huge range of wines available for tasting. There were wine producers everywhere! Launched today was a new range of Sherries from Harveys (literally bottled yesterday!) and a couple of really interesting and delicious table wines from Barbadillo.

The Harvey wines were:

Fino: Fresh light and clean, about 5 years old, green label

Amontillado: Amber, dry, light and fresh, about 12 years old, orange label

Palo Cortado: Amber, very nutty and fairly light, about 15 years old, red label

Oloroso: Gold to mahogany fairly crisp, very Oloroso, aged about 12 years, maroon label

Pedro Ximénez: Deep blacky brown, lots of toffee, trace oak, aged 10 years, long, grey label

This is a really good range, I’ll post pictures as soon as I get the promised press release….

The Barbadillo wines were:

Mirabrás 2014: 40 year old Palomino vines from the Cerro de Leyes vineyard fermented in ex Manzanilla butts after a few days’ sunning and aged under flor in butt and tank. Delicious crisp apple and unripe apricot aromas, and might age interestingly.

Tintilla Nude 2015: “Insultingly young red” Tintilla grapes from the Gibalbín vineyard fermented using carbonic maceration. There is no front label, hence “nude”.

Again, these are just released so no pictures yet…

Jerez was also alive with people celebrating Corpus Christi, following the procession of the municipal band and members of the religious brotherhoods carrying altars through the streets in clouds of incense. This year the procession was shortened, but still covered 18 streets. Between the Plaza Arenal and the Plaza de la Yerba huge brotherhood insignias were laid out on the ground in coloured salt. Quite a spectacle, unless you wanted to cross the street.

30.11.15 Harveys, Terry, Fundador Sold

Beam Suntory has confirmed the sale of its entire Spanish operation which consists of Sherry brands Harveys and Terry and the brandies Fundador, Centenario and Tres Cepas. The deal includes the brands and the production facilities in Jerez and Tomelloso. The purchaser is Emperador, a spirits company based in the Philippines and the purchase price is €275 million.

A Harveys bodega (foto:coboscatering)

While it is not a surprise that a spirits company is off-loading a wine company, it is a surprise that another spirits company is buying it. As brandy specialists the obvious attraction to Emperador was the brandy, but we will see how long they keep the Sherry, in this corporate age firms buy what they really want and soon get rid of any inconveniences.

Bristol Milk

For centuries Bristol was an important wine shipping port bringing in vast quantities of Sherry since Tudor times. It arrived in butts generally as a vintage wine, in the old days anyway, and was matured and blended in cellars in Bristol. The earliest known reference to Bristol Milk is from 1634 in a manuscript at the British Museum, and there are many other references too.

Samuel Pepys enjoyed it in the XVII century when visiting Bristol, and recorded it in his diary: “They did give us… plenty of brave wine… and above all, Bristol Milk.” In the same century Thomas Fuller, a clergyman who wrote “History of the Worthies of England”, was convinced that the wine’s name originated thus: “Some will have called it milk because such wine is the first moisture given to infants in this city.” It was not uncommon to use it on teething babies. It is said that Manuel María González Ángel, founder of González Byass, being a rather sickly child received from his mother a daily spoonful of Sherry, and he then lived to 75, founding a Sherry empire on the way. The Price of Wales (later Edward VII) remarked that Bristol “must have damn’ fine cows.” This style of Sherry was extremely popular, being mainly drunk in the morning, and was as likely as not a direct descendant of Sack.

(foto:bristolreads.com)

Bristol Milk was, naturally, mainly produced in Bristol, though its Amoroso characteristics were not unique. Bristolians had no legal protection for the name and others did produce it, for example González Byass had a “Sedoso Bristol Milk” and Eduardo Delage had a “London Milk”.  The only protection for the wine in the earlier days was a 1651 order that sledges be used to carry goods through the streets lest the vibrations of wagons disturb the Bristol Milk! The principal producers were Harveys (est. 1796), JR Phillips (est. 1739), Howells (est. 1786) and Averys (est. 1793), none of whom sell Bristol Milk any longer. In fact nobody does.  

A beermat from brewery-owned JR Phillips (foto:ebay.ie)

The main reason it has disappeared, of course was the arrival in the 1880s of a much more complex blend which Harveys came up with and registered as a trademark: “Bristol Cream.”  It could thus not be produced by anyone else. One can see the wisdom of this as it went on to become the world’s best- selling Sherry. They did not register the word “Cream”, however, and a new style of Sherry was born, open to all.

 It is quite simply an Oloroso of no great age blended with PX to form a sweet golden amber wine. In those days the wines were aged separately and blended before sale, but the longer the blend spent in its butt, the better it became. Harveys Bristol Milk was labelled “Extra Superior Golden Sherry” and they went one step further by bottling the wine unfiltered and with a two inch driven cork so that it could be matured in bottle. It was magnificent but difficult to sell and they ceased bottling it in the 1970s, selling much off at auction. Bristol Milk itself ceased in the 1980s. What a shame!

Advert for Harveys Bristol Milk (foto:uk.storeslider.com)

Jan Read quotes a wonderful story about John Harvey & Sons. In 1949 the Ministry of Food wrote to them reminding them that under the regulations it was an offence to mislead the public as to the nature or nutritional value of food. This implied that Bristol Milk was not in fact milk. Harveys replied courteously if slightly mischievously that Bristol Milk had been in existence for 300 years longer than the Ministry and presumed that the same objection must logically be applied to Bristol Cream and thus to shaving cream, hair cream, shoe cream etc. suggesting that they too have a nutritional value.

So there it is: a historic tradition of nearly 350 years: gone.  None of the few surviving Bristol wine merchants blend Sherry there now, but at least Bristol Cream survives, now produced in Jerez.

Bodegas: Matthiesen Furlong & Co.

This was once an important firm, consisting of a partnership between Henry Matthiesen, and Charles Harman Furlong established in 1834. They had offices at 36 Great Tower Street in London and they acquired an old Jesuit Monastery, abandoned after the order’s expulsion by the state in 1835, which served as their rather unusual bodega.

According to Vizetelly in 1876 the nave, aisles, choir and cloisters were all crowded with butts of Sherry 3 tiers high. In the former refectory were large vats used for maturing and fining, and the largest was used for blending. There were all sorts of modern appliances such as an apparatus for steaming new butts. The firm also owned vineyard in the Pago Cuartillos NE of Jerez which produced about 200 butts. A relative, Peter Furlong owned a finca with olives and vines between Jerez and Rota near El Puerto which today is known as the Finca El Olivar de Forlón (the Spanish spelling of Furlong). A young couple is now producing creditable table wines here under the name Bodegas Forlong.

CH Furlong (foto:jerezdecine)

Charles Furlong was the British Vice Consul in Jerez between 1861 and 1868, succeeding Charles Peter Gordon who was sacked for allowing his almost fanatical Catholicism to interfere with his work and who took every opportunity to attack his successor, who was a Protestant.

By 1870 the London office had become aware that Furlong was using illegal winemaking practices and that the quality of the wines had slipped. Walter John Buck was sent out ostensibly to learn the business, but was soon able to confirm that indeed that was the case. Before long, Furlong was “retired” back to England and Buck duly replaced him at the bodega.

Walter J Buck (foto:entornoajerez)

Buck was a keen naturalist, writing “Wild Spain” and “Unexplored Spain” along with Abel Chapman, and was an accomplished musician and popular man. The Matthiesen Furlong partnership dissolved 1876 and Buck joined Sandeman, the firm changing its title to Sandeman, Buck y Cia In 1879. In the same year Sandeman took over the bankrupt firm of Pemartin.

Buck’s place was taken at Matthiesen Furlong by the Catalán Enrique Coll, who before very long decided to join the Church. In 1884 the Jesuits returned and the bodega had to be disbanded. The stocks and equipment went to José María Fernández y González, who had started a bodega business in Jerez established in 1888 and owned the Viña San Agustín.  It later passed to his successors, Fernández Gao Hermanos. It duly went to their successors, Hijos de Fernando Fernández Gao y González, before being bought out by McKenzie (established 1852), who in turn were bought out by Harveys.

Bodegas: Martínez Gassiot

Sebastián González Martínez was the nephew of Sabastián Martínez Pérez (1747-1800), a successful merchant from the Rioja who had established himself in Cádiz as an exporter of Sherry to Britain. He married Jane Gobbett, the widow of his partner Martínez de la Cuadra and had various children.

Sebastian Gonzalez Martinez (foto JL Jimenez)

In 1790 he founded his own company specialising in the export of Sherry, Port and Habana cigars from an office in Mincing Lane, London. In 1822 John Peter Gassiot (1797-1877) joined him forming the firm Martínez Gassiot & Co. Gassiot was an enthusiastic amateur scientist whose particular interest was electricity, and he did much work with James Clerk Maxwell. He and Martinez acquired a lodge (bodega) in Oporto in 1834, leaving its management to John Fleurriet Delaforce, who would go on to found the famous Port house of that name.

John Peter Gassiot Senior (foto JL Jimenez)

Soon they were joined by John Peter’s sons Charles Ware Gassiot (1826-1902) and John Peter Jr. (1820-?) who married María Manuela Moreno de Mora y Vitón whose family were important in the wine business in El Puerto de Santa María and had business connexions in England as well as Habana and Honduras. It is very likely that this was a source of both cigars and Sherry, though the firm did buy a lot of wine from Cuvillo, also in El Puerto de Santa María.

Label for the American market (foto JLJimenez)

Sebastián retired in 1849 when the firm was the largest importer of Port and Sherry to the United Kingdom, and its control passed into the hands of the Gassiot family. Charles really helped the business to thrive, and with no children he built a collection of art and contributed much to charity. On his death he left his art to the City of London and his money to St Thomas Hospital. John Peter Jr. also died childless, leaving a fine portrait of his father to the Vintners Company.

On the death of the brothers, and with no children from either, the firm became a public company in 1902 and was eventually taken over by Harveys in 1961 and merged with Cockburn, so there was no more Sherry. The old offices in Mincing Lane were destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the London blitz in 1940. The Martínez Gassiot brand is now more of a sous-marque, especially since the firm was acquired by the Symington Group in 2006, but there have been quite regular Martinez vintage port declarations since.

Much information from Jose Luis Jimenez

See also post on Sherry shippers who also dealt in Port

Bodegas: Cuvillo y Cia.

Carlos del Cuvillo y Sancho was born in El Puerto de Santa Maria in 1869.  In 1908 he bought a bodega there called MM de Mora which had been established in 1783. It grew to become one of the town’s largest and most respected bodegas and also had premises in Sanlucar. The firm owned the El Limbo y Santa Ana vineyard in the Pago Balbaina.

Old advertisement (Imagen Gentedel Puerto)

Cuvillo supplied a lot of Sherry to Martinez Gassiot, the Port and Sherry shippers, and also to Harveys of Bristol, especially for their Bristol Cream. In 1961 Rumasa got the Harveys contract (not entirely fairly, it is said), but Cuvillo continued to supply wine via Rumasa till 1983 when the Rumasa crash left them with huge stocks they could not hope to sell, and they were bankrupted in 1985. By this time, Harveys had their own bodegas in Jerez. The old Cuvillo bodega in Calle Los Moros now houses the Municipal Archive, while the others now house the old De Bandera soleras of M Gil Luque, part of Grupo Estevez.

Old Cuvillo bodega now Archive (Imagen Diario de Cadiz)

Some of their Brands were:

Amontillado-Fino Basilio, Fino C, Amontillado A.XII, Corona Cream, Dulce 1a, Las Seis (Light, pale Cocktail Sherry), East India Superior (Full, rich), Solera Santa Isabel (choicest rich nutty Sherry), Sangre y Trabajadero Oloroso, Manzanilla La Gineta, Jerez Naviero, Oloroso Fabuloso (reputedly over 100 yers old)

Carlos Gutierrez Colosia bought the Sangre y Trabajadero solera, which he had always admired, from Cuvillo, retaining the (virtually) original label. Trabajadero refers to the cooperage and Sangre to the street name where it was located.

14.1.14 Suntory Buys Beam

The Japanese distiller Suntory has just bought the American group Jim Beam, for nearly 12 billion euros. Beam is proprietor of a number of important spirit brands such as Scotch Whiskies Laphroaig, Ardmore, Bowmore, Auchentoshan, Glen Garioch and Teachers; Irish Whiskey Cooley; Canadian Club; Tequila Sauza; Courvoisier Cognac  and the Spanish brands Larios gin; Domecq Fundador brandy; Terry Centenario brandy and the Terry Sherry bodegas, not to mention Harveys, whose Bristol Cream is the world’s biggest selling Sherry.

Suntory quietly beat Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits company, to the deal, which is still awaiting final shareholder and regulatory approval, and would make Suntory the third biggest spirits company in the world. For Evaristo Babe, the president of Fedejerez, the body which represents the bodegas, the deal is good news as Suntory understands the language of wine. For some time Beam and Suntory have been distributing each other’s brands in their respective areas, including Sherry.

Lost Bodegas: MacKenzie

Scotsman Kenneth MacKenzie came to Jerez about 1842 and in either 1852 or 1860 established a shipping business. The bodega, which was next door to that of Marques de Misa, once contained a pool with a pair of Mississippi alligators. The firm specialised in Amontillado and Cream styles, much destined for sale to Harveys in Bristol. The wines were good, winning various medals over the years, and a brandy was also produced.

MacKenzie was one of quite a few Sherry shippers who also had interests in Port, and he joined with one William Minchin Driscoll in 1870 to form the firm Mackenzie Driscoll in Oporto, becoming a private limited company in 1900. This lasted till the hard times of the post war era and was sold to Ferreira. The last MacKenzie Port shipped was the 1966. The old lodge at Vila Nova de Gaia now belongs to Andresen, and the name MacKenzie is now as lost in Portugal as it is in Spain.

His nephew, Peter MacKenzie, became the resident partner in Jerez and eventually succeeded his uncle. He never even bothered to learn Spanish. In 1958 the firm ceased supplying bulk wines to Harveys, who then made an agreement with Rumasa to supply them for 99 years,allowing for the enormous expansion of Rumasa. In 1966 Harveys were taken over by Showerings and they in turn by Allied Breweries in 1968.

Harveys scrapped their agreement with Rumasa, and with Allied finance went on a buying spree and bought MacKenzie in 1970 along with 4,000 butts of wine and 40 hectares of vineyard. They had for long bought wine from MacKenzie, so the circle was squared. They also bought Marques de Misa, Palomino and Vergara and Fernando A de Terry. At this time MacKenzie was run by Diego Ferguson from a family originating in Banffshire, Scotland, Maria Luisa Ferguson and Ramiro Fernandez-Gao who joined the firm as it merged with his own, Ramiro Fernandez-Gao. One of the seven old XIX century MacKenzie bodegas is now occupied by Emilio Lustau, and the rest of the complex is occupied by Harveys.

(www.todocoleccion.net)

News from Jerez 18.9.12

Beam Global offer last of this year's Alcazar tastings

The final of the Great Tastings held in the Alcazar of Jerez as part of the Fiestas de la Vendimia was sponsored by Beam Global, owners of Harveys and Terry. The enologist, Manuel Jose Valcarcel, showed various of their wines married with food to very happy diners.

Harveys win top prize

Harveys Fine Old Amontillado VORS won the Champion Award trophy at the recent IWC (International Wine Challenge) in London. More than 1,000 wines had been entered, and this wine also won the Sherry trophy and the Amontillado trophy. Antonio Jose Souto, director of Beam Bodegas said that Harveys had a wonderful range of wines and that they won trophies every year. Their enologist Manuel Jose Valcarcel has 28 years of experience.

Bodegas: Harveys

The name Harveys is synonymous with Sherry, and their Bristol Cream was once the biggest selling brand. Times and tastes have changed and now Tio Pepe is the biggest selling brand. Bristol Cream is still a big seller however and a high quality wine, though most of their other brands are long forgotten. Does anyone remember Merienda, Isabelita, Club Amontillado, Bristol Dry, Reina Victoria, Shooting Sherry, Bank, Gran Solera, Tico, Luncheon Dry, Copper Beech, Bristol Fino, Bristol Milk (of which there used to be a fantastic driven-cork version for laying down like Port)?

The firm was established at 12, Denmark Street, Bristol in 1796 by one William Perry in cellars on the site of what was once a XIII century monastery and later a medieval wine cellar known as Gaunt House. From the beginning, Perry specialised in the shipping of Sherry and Port, but also dealt in Madeira and wines from the Rhine and the Canaries. Naturally he sold Bristol Milk, a sweetened oloroso which was very popular in Bristol, the earliest written record (in the British Museum) of which goes back to 1634.

John Harvey (1806-78) whose father and grandfather were celebrated seafarers, joined the firm in 1822 at only 16 years of age. William Perry died about this time. In 1829, John joined an associated firm in Kidderminster, ten miles or so distant. He moved there, married and lived above the shop, while his younger brother Charles took over his post in Bristol. The cellars were extended to reach Bristol docks from where butts of Sherry and Port were trundled along tunnels to their cellars. The mainly oloroso and PX Sherry was imported in butts and aged in Bristol till deemed ready for sale or blending.

The early 1860's were important years for the company. John, with his other brother Edward had been perfecting a new blend which included an even older oloroso than that in Bristol Milk. No name had been decided for it, however. One day in 1882, an aristocratic lady who was visiting the cellars, tasted their Bristol milk and comparing it to the latest blend declared that "If the first is Bristol Milk, then this must be the Cream!" Bristol Cream was born, and went on to phenomenal success throughout the "sweet Sherry era".

John Harvey, having taken over the firm, decided to re-name it John Harvey & Sons in 1871, and his two sons, John and Edward worked with him, taking over after his death in 1878. The firm remained in family hands through their sons till 1966. Bristol Cream was registered as a trademark in 1882, and in 1895 they received the Royal Warrant. The XX century saw a younger generation join the firm and much needed modernisation was undertaken. Their first publicity campaign took place.

The original cellars in Denmark Street 1916

The Second World War hit Harveys hard. Not only were the (by now more extensive) premises at Denmark Street bombed in 1940 destroying all but the cellars, but their London offices were hit as well - twice. In the 1950s they moved to new premises in the outskirts of Bristol at Whitchurch. The last of the Harveys retired in 1956. Up till 1960, all Harveys Sherries were still matured and blended in Bristol, but it was decided to start investing in vineyards to secure supplies. In the meantime the old Denmark Street cellars were converted into a successful restaurant (by Sir Terence Conran) with a wine museum attached. The cellars have been completely refurbished and are now an upmarket Sherry bar and restaurant, still with a little museum, supported but no longer owned by Harveys. The firm's collection of glass bottles was largely auctioned off but some are still to be seen here and much was transported to exhibition space in Spain.

Part of the restored Harveys Cellars wine bar

Bristol Cream had reached the number 1 sales spot by the early 1950's, it had launched with great success in America, and Harveys were doing well. Then in 1956 they began to receive letters, written with the aid of a dictionary,which were short and to-the-point. Thirty-three letters were received in all, each with a proposal that someone they had never heard of enter into an exclusive wine supply contract with them. (Harveys needed 96,000 butts per year!) Naturally Harveys refused. But the letters kept coming, and eventually Harveys sent two executives - chairman George Edward McWatters and his right-hand-man, a Mr Cox - to Jerez to silence the writer. They returned having signed a 99 year supply contract with Jose Maria Ruiz Mateos! This contract effectively launched the Rumasa empire.

The wave of mergers and acquisitions which was the 1960s did not leave Harveys unscathed. Showerings, who had made a fortune with Babycham bought the firm at the end of 1965. Aware of a need to be based in Jerez, they went on to buy MacKenzie, whose bodegas Harveys then occupied, and 50% of Barbadillo. The Rumasa contract was terminated giving Rumasa three years' grace.

Showerings were in turn taken over by Allied Breweries in 1968. In 1973, Harveys founded two jointly owned businesses; one, Vinarvey, with Garvey and the other, Gibalbin, with Barbadillo, giving Harveys access to large areas of vineyard. 1978 saw the merger of Allied Breweries with Lyons forming Allied Lyons. In 1979 Harveys bought Misa from Rumasa, and after the expropriation of Rumasa in 1983, they bought Terry and Palomino & Vergara. During this period Harveys lost the way a bit with some odd brand launches (eg Tico) and suffered a lack of investment from their parent companies, but during the 1990s they did relaunch Bristol Cream in the Bristol Blue bottle, which remains today. 

Allied Lyons then merged with Pedro Domecq in 1994, and Allied Domecq was taken over by Pernod Ricard in 2005. They went on to dismember Domecq, selling bits to different companies, and Harveys went to Fortune Brands' drinks division Beam Global, along with Terry and Domecq's Fundador brandy. Beam went on to merge with Japanese distiller Suntory, and in 2015 Harveys, along with Fundador was sold to the Philippine distiller Emperador.

Since 1970, Harveys have operated entirely in Jerez from various bodegas:  El Brigadier which contains 6,000 butts destined for Bristol Cream, La Mezquita, La Molina 1730, and La Luz (Fundador Brandy) the latter 3 all ex Domecq.

The current range consists of:

Extra Dry Fino                                                        Harveys Palo Cortado VORS (solera 1906)

Pale Cream                                                             Amontillado VORS (solera 1914)
Amontillado Medium                                               Rich Old Oloroso VORS (solera 1909)
Bristol Cream                                                          PX VORS (solera 1919)
Reserve

The VORS wines were launched as recently as 2008 and in 2016 a new Premium range was launched.

Visits can be arranged by appointment:
Contact
C/ San Ildefonso, 3
11403 Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz
Tel: (+34) 956 151 500
Web: www.grupoemperadorspain.com

Bodega La Mezquita

Extra Dry Fino 15%, Harveys

Appearance
Bright, pale strawy gold, legs.
Nose
Forthcoming, light and fresh, tight, subtle hints of flor, straw, almond and Palomino fruit, dry.
Palate
Very dry, slightly saline flor flavour, traces bitter almond and olive, low acid but tangy and very long.
Comments
This is really dry but well flavoured and characterful with that aperitif effect of making you hungry. The grapes were grown in the Macharnudo area and the wine produced at the Mezquita bodega in Jerez.
Price
£7.49 from Morrisons