Vino Blanco Socaire 2017 12.5%, Primitivo Collantes

Appearance

Bright gold with lemony gold reflections.

Nose

Full, clean, fresh and attractively aromatic with notes of apple naturally, both fresh and stewed, but also pear, paraguayo peach, mandarine peel and traces of white flowers and honeysuckle. There is also a trace of salinity which adds a nice savoury touch.

Palate

Slightly fuller than expected and beautifully rounded even though there is a beautifully balanced acidity. There is a delightfully seductive summery fruit and flower character yet underneath there is a dry chalky albariza texture and a faint salinity, and the balance between all that is perfect. A serious wine with lots of charm.

Comments

Socaire is becoming one of the classic table wines of the region. It comes from 100% Palomino grapes grown in the firm´s Matalian vineyard near Chiclana and fairly close to the Atlantic. The soil is the lentejuelas type of albariza. After selection the grapes are pressed and the juice is fermented in butts previously seasoned with Fino where it ages for up to 2 years´depending on the characteristics of the vintage. The vessels are kept full to avoid the appearance of flor and highlight the character of the vineyard. The back label states that the wine was aged for 24 months but this can´t be right as it would still be ageing. It should be more like 19-20 months. Maybe they forgot to change the label. Anyway, it is an excellent wine, and the 2015 vintage scored 91 Parker points.

Price

12.95 euros, Licores Corredera

Vino Blanco Matalián 2018 12%, Primitivo Collantes

Appearance

Bright pale strawy gold with silvery gold highlights.

Nose

Fresh, light and mildly tropical, think mango peach and pear with a background current of ripe apple and citrus along with a very faint salinity and a gentle tang. There is a gentle floral character to it as well giving a light, fresh aromatic appeal.

Palate

Soft, light, rounded and gentle at first, then the nicely judged acidity appears to provide balance, zip and accentuate the fruit, especially the pear. It finishes very slightly drier than expected but with good length with the classic chalky albariza texture and a trace of salinity.

Comments

This excellent wine is a Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz and comes from a single vineyard, the 19.53 hectare Viña Matalián in Chiclana which lies in the Sherry production zone. A little south of Cádiz, the vineyards are close to the Atlantic with lots of albariza and great exposure to the Poniente. This wine undergoes no ageing and has no flor influence as is intended to reflect these wonderful atmospheric and soil conditions through the medium of the Palomino grape and it does so splendidly. Total production is somewhere around 7,000 bottles.

Price

8.70 De Albariza

Forlong Vino Blanco 80/20 12.9%, Bodegas Forlong

Appearance

Interesting colour, ever so very faintly pink, almost as if a single drop of red had been added - which it hasn't. Legs.

Nose

Very forthcoming and bursting with glacé fruits and an appearance of sweetness. Ripe apples, pears, a floral note and a trace of chalkiness and grapeskin along with the slightest hint of raisin. This looks really interesting.

Palate

There is a touch of sweetness, presumably from the PX skins, but that sweetness is the result of fairly low acidity as much as residual sugar, though there must be  just a little. All those orchard fruits give it an easy charm, gentle texture, lots of flavour and good length.

Comments

As always, another very interesting wine from Alejandro and Rocío's little organic albariza vineyard and bodega just outside El Puerto de Santa María. The wine is 100% Palomino and the reason for the name is that 80% of the Palomino comes from their own vineyard, being carefully fermented in stainless steel tanks the normal way. The other 20%, also Palomino, comes from the viña Plantalina in the pago Balbaina Alta. These grapes are cold macerated and cold fermented along with Pedro Ximénez skins like in a red wine fermentation, to extract deeper aroma and flavour. The skins are extracted after 25 days and the resulting wine is aged and settled in tank on its lees for around five months and bottled with virtually no filtration. It is a Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz and proves that Palomino can and does have flavour. If only their wines were more widely available! Printed on the (good quality) cork is a quote from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" which is about nature and belonging to it.

Price

10.50 Licores Corredera