Oloroso Homenaje 1981 20%, Tabanco San Pablo

Appearance

Very deep intense blacky mahogany fading through amber to a faint trace of green at the rim.

Nose

Classic old Oloroso, fairly concentrated and quite crisp and tight with distinct notes of walnut and old oak along with hints of old antique furniture  and exotic woods and even faint balsamic nuances and a suspicion of incense.

Palate

Full bodied, well structured and fairly tight with real personality. Tannins, which are not aggressive, are balanced by glycerine and there are faint suggestions of spices like licorice and cinnamon. This is a big, serious wine and has great length.

Comments

This wine comes from a 15 butt solera which came about as the result of an agreement in 1981 between the then owner of the Tabanco San Pablo, Anastasio Muñoz "El Nene" and Valdespino to set up a small solera. The butts were filled with a sobretabla fortified to 18% which originated in the Corregidor Viejo vineyard and they have only been topped up since to replace the merma (evaporation loss), hence the hefty style of the wine. The tabanco was originally a bodega until the 1930s, so it is fitting that it has its own wine.

Price

Not bottled but well worth 3.50 a glass.

14.10.14 Tabanco San Pablo Celebrates 80 Years.

This great tabanco in the San Miguel area of Jerez has been open continuously since 1934. There others which have been there longer, but which have suffered periods of closure. This family business, run by Jesús Muñoz, has stoically survived periods of unfashionability, when the tabancos looked like being lost and there were only two left: El Pasaje and San Pablo. Luckily there has been a revival, and there are now many.

(article:Jesus Sanchez, foto + Jerez)

San Pablo has great atmosphere, and if the walls could speak they could tell all sorts of anecdotes about the characters such as actors, bullfighters who have visited over the years. In celebration, San Pablo has organised a tasting of the famous Jerezano dish Berza (a stew of cabbage, beans, chorizo etc) and a venenciador will dish out copitas of Sherry as befits one of the "temples" of Sherry.

Tabancora

The tabanco San Pablo first opened in 1934. It is not the oldest, but is the oldest surviving of the tabancos which used to number about a hundred in the centre of Jerez, but were not so long ago reduced to two (the other being El Pasaje). San Pablo is run by Jesus Munoz, who is involved in the Tabancora project to repopulate the centre with tabancos.

San Pablo can be found in the Calle San Pablo, 12 and is full of atmosphere. All sorts of bullfighters, artists and actors have passed through its doors over the decades. Jesus is president of Tabancora, an association which counts on support from the City Council and the Consejo Regulador, and says that since its inception, a few new tabancos have opened, more people are drinking Sherry, and the young people are becoming more aware of it.

San Pablo has, of course, evolved a bit over the years. Once it was a glass of wine accompanied perhaps by an olive or an almond, but now there is a full list of tapas, (including the 3 times awarded snails) so the bar attracts families. And the clientele varies according to the time of day; in the mornings, it is old men for a glass of Sherry and in the evenings it is the young set.

Currently Tabancora has five member establishments, which are:

San Pablo, Plateros, El Pasaje, La Bodega and Surena, and the council offers a Ruta de Tabancos, which can be found at this link:

http://www.turismojerez.com/fileadmin/images/banners_portada/2012/ARCHIVO_UNIDO_-_TABANCOS.pdf