Palo Cortado de la Cruz de 1767 20%, Bodegas Arfe

Appearance

Bright amber with orange and gold highlights, legs.

Nose

Attractive, open nose, very refined with toasted hazelnut and almond up front with background traces of warm spice:vanilla and cinnamon, freshly sawn wood  and the gentle sweetness of raisin.

Palate

Even more refined on the palate and slightly more integrated than the nose, it is on the light side but bursting with flavour. The warm spice and wood notes persist giving it a slightly exotic character and offer a hint of bitterness and a gentle acidity which are balanced out by that trace of glyceric sweetness. It has very good length leaving a sophisticated flavour on the palate.
Comments

Only released onto the market at the end of last year and limited to 6,000 bottles per annum this comes from a bodega which uniquely specialises in Palo Cortado (although they do make small quantities of Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso, but specifically for Club Arfe). This wine has an average age of about 15 years (which could be legally stated on the label, but isn't) and comes from some 216 butts arranged as a solera of 72 butts with two criaderas. It is contract bottled en rama by Esporsil. Luis Arroyo selects his mosto at the sobretablas (newly fortified stage) from the cooperative at Chipiona and feels that since the old bodega used to have a reputation for producing good Fino due to its elevated position, it can therefore produce good Palo Cortado - which he has done from scratch. 20 years as an oenologist at Garvey has stood him in good stead, and his wine is excellent. The digital wine guide wineup.es has just given it over 95 points.

Price
42 euros at Licores Corredera, Jerez

Bodegas: Arfe SL

Like any good Jerezano, Luís Arroyo Felices dreamed of his own bodega to occupy himself during retirement. After a 35 year career as an oenologist for Bobadilla, Osborne and the last 20 of them with Garvey, his opportunity arose in the year 2000 when the firm went into liquidation and he had to retire earlier than expected. He had bought a very old bodega in the Calle Molino del Viento in the heart of the old bodega district in the highest part of the Barrio San Miguel. The very old bodega had been restored in 1767 by its then owners, the Orbaneja family, and a stone plaque on the first pillar recounts this. It had once belonged to Cabeza y Zarco. The bodega name is an acronym of Luís’ surnames.

The plaque on the pillar with the Cruz (photo:bodega)

The small 300 square metre bodega consists of a row of semi-circular arches down the length of the centre which support a pitched roof. The central andana (row of butts) is fitted under the arches while the other two are against the walls. Some butts are stacked under arches at the end of the building.

Bodega interior (foto:bodega)

He decided not to buy old soleras, of which there was no shortage at the time, and instead bought sobretablas from the 2000 vintage, already fortified to 17%, from a cooperative in Chipiona as he does not own vineyards. He bought enough to fill the 216 butts he had bought, all of which were over 40 years old and seasoned with Fino. He prefers to buy musts from coastal areas like Sanlucar and Chipiona to feed the soleras. The plan had originally been to make VOS and VORS wines for which there would have been a long time to wait, but in the end his wine was already so good at 15 years old that he decided to put it onto the market in October 2015.

During this time much of the wine, which he had intended to be Oloroso had begun showing distinct signs of the finesse associated with Palo Cortado,  and he was able to concentrate on that, earning the reputation of being the only bodega in the Marco de Jerez to produce only Palo Cortado. He does, in fact also produce small amounts of Fino Amontillado and Oloroso, all under the name Club Arfe. The star wine is his Sacristia Especial De La Cruz de 1767 Palo Cortado, launched in October 2015, but available only in limited quantities. The total output is some 6,000 unfiltered bottles annually.

Visits? Possibly but by appointment

Address: Calle Molino del Viento, 12, 11401 Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz

Telephone: 956 348 191

Website: facebook.com/bodegas arfe

A Palo Cortado Without the Mystery

Luís Arroyo knows what he is holding in his hand. It is a natural wine, frank, rounded and balanced; a wine that speaks of the greatness of Jerez, for meditation and pleasure. And this is a star Palo Cortado from a little over 200 butts at Bodegas Arfe, an acronym for the owner's surnames: Arroyo Felices. It was by chance that the bodega has become the only one in the Marco de Jerez dedicated exclusively to this most fashionable style of Sherry, the wine of the world’s connoisseurs.

“De La Cruz de 1767” is the brand name of this oenological treasure which is aged for over 15 years in a small bodega complex at 12, Calle Molino del Viento, an old bodega stronghold where once the famous firm of Rivero CZ (established in 1650)was located. This street in the Barrio San Miguel just by the little square, achieved fame in the past for the production of great Finos thanks to its location in the highest part of old Jerez and its orientation toward what were then known as the Marshes of San Telmo.

Luis Arroyo with his nectar in the bodega (foto:diariodejerez)

Bearing testament to the bodega’s antiquity are the wall, floor and double-sloped roof as well as it’s layout in the form of two naves separated by semi-circular arches supported on old stone pillars. Here can be found an old Jerez coat of arms with a cross on a background of waves, which has been chosen as the logo, and a stone plaque which states the bodega was rebuilt in 1767 under the direction of Orbaneja, another Jerez bodega family of that era.

The bodega was bought by Luís Arroyo in the year 2000, with the idea that when he retired he would have a place where he could remain active by producing VOS and VORS Sherry. He had been an oenologist at Garvey for the last 20 years of his 35 year career, but his retirement plans were brought forward by the firm entering voluntary receivership.

Luis with a bottle of De La Cruz 1767 (foto:diariodejerez)

With an old building with old fashioned wine, Luís is delighted that his bodega has become his principal activity sooner than expected. He saw the possibilities as soon as he had closed the purchase of the property which was ideal for the accommodation of some 200 butts. He decided to start from scratch, and instead of buying wonderful old soleras he bought musts from the cooperative in Chiclana which he would age oxidatively as Olorosos. As time went by he noticed a particular finesse in the wine which had the elegance and complexity of Palo Cortado so he decided to concentrate on that.

The debate about this style of wine centres on whether it is made or just happens, as the purists would have us believe. “Quite possibly it just happened in the past”, says Arroyo, “but nowadays there is much more knowledge and skill which allow it to be made. Although the wines make themselves, having a bodega with suitable conditions and the right wood, helps you make a Palo Cortado.” He believes that this duality is the only mystery in Palo Cortado, “a wine which though not all bodegas have, all of them sell.” The controversial practice of blending Amontillado and Oloroso will soon be ruled out by the decision of the Consejo to exercise stricter control of stocks according to type.

Palo Cortado has the nose of an Amontillado and the body of an Oloroso, it combines elements of crianza biológica with the weight of Oloroso. All the Arfe wines are made in the strictly legal way. The first saca is now on the market and is bottled virtually en rama, with a very light filtration to eliminate any sediment. The 216 butts of this wine should provide an annual output of about 6,000 bottles. The Consejo only allows one twentieth of the wine to be bottled annually if it is to be a VOS, so Luís is thinking of not bothering with that as he has a superb product with innovative presentation: a tall black bottle with a black label and orange lettering and a Palo Cortado cask marking. The back label gives a brief history of the bodega and bears the coat of arms. The wine is available ex bodega and also at the great new wine merchant Licores Corredera in Calle Corredera, Jerez.