Manzanilla Deliciosa en rama 2018 15%, Valdespino

Appearance

Amber tinged strawy gold with golden reflections.

Nose

Most attractive with a trace of oxidation adding to the complexity of the yeastiness of the flor and all those classic briny maritime aromas. There are notes of straw, sourdough, bitter almond, an almost creamy/buttery hint, surely from autolysis, and a fresh wild saline note giving zip to an already complex wine.

Palate

Quite full and bone dry with lots of flavours from both the top and bottom of the butt balancing perfectly. There are traces of apple and that gentle oxidation with a fresh zingy acidity. It could only be Manzanilla, and one which is close to pasada; intensely flavoured and savoury yet light, crisp and vivacious. Deliciosa!
Comments

This excellent wine is made from grapes from the pago Miraflores and comes from selected butts in the solera Misericordia in the XVI century bodega of that name belonging to La Guita in the Barrio Alto of Sanlúcar. It passed through 6 criaderas and a solera before being bottled in April 2018 at over 6 years old with no stabilisation or filtration. Only one saca is made each year in spring when the flor is at its most vibrant, and this is a particularly good one.

Price
9.00 euros per half bottle, Licores Corredera

Pedro Ximénez Niños VORS 15%, Valdespino

Appearance
Dense, completely opaque and completely black except for a tiny narrow brown to amber edge. It is viscous and stains the glass for a while.
Nose

Intense, concentrated, serious and super complex, you can immediately tell this is very old. It is not the usual up front fruity raisins which predominate but distinct, almost bitter oak aromas from the long ageing in wood, along with toasted notes like coffee, a trace of volatile acidity, licorice and hints of spice. The dried fruit notes are there of course, intense but less dominant, and it doesn't smell as sweet as most.

Palate

The unctuous, luscious dried fruit - but older and more reduced - presents first and is soon followed by those delicious, ever so slightly bitter toasted notes almost like burned coffee on toast mixed with toffee. Then it all comes together in perfect balance with the richness on one side balanced by the bitterness and decent acidity on the other. It is incredibly nuanced, super long and, well, wonderful.
Comments

This is one of the truly great PX wines. A VORS must have an average age of at least 30 years, but in fact this one is over 60. The solera dates from the end of the XIX century and consists of only 8 butts, so naturally it is not released very often. Selected wine of well over 10 years of age from the firm's PX El Candado solera is used to refresh the youngest criadera of this solera, and the final wine contains some 440 g/l sugars but is well balanced by 5.7 g/l acidity (expressed as tartaric acid) and the subtle notes of oak imparted by age. It is quite magnificent and scored a well deserved 98 Parker points.

Price
95 euros per half bottle, Er Guerrita

 

Brandy 1850 Solera Reserva 38%, Valdespino

Appearance

Bright chestnut to mahogany with coppery highlights fading to amber.
Nose
Clean and expressive with hints of aguardiente amongst the aromas of holandas, as one would expect. It seems quite dry without any added sweetness and there are gentle wood notes with hints of toasted nuts and Oloroso.
Palate
The palate is a bit more generous with a gentle and probably natural sweetness, traces of caramel, nuts and Sherry with an attractive spicy hint balanced by a touch of dried fruit. Long.
Comments
Since I can't find much information about this brandy, I'm assuming it comes from a solera which dates back to 1850. It is certainly possible. It is obviously a fairly young brandy, and is at the entry level, at least by Valdespino's high standards, and a very decent brandy it is too. It used to be sold with an average age of 10 years solera age but probably has an average of around 3 to 5 years now.
Price
14,90 euros, De Albariza

Brandy Alfonso El Sabio Solera Gran Reserva 40%, Valdespino

Appearance
Deep mahogany fading through chestnut to amber with a hint of green at the rim.
Nose

Fragrant, complex and integrated with lots of exotic wood notes like a cabinetmaker's workshop full of cedar and cypress and a trace of resin. Then there are hints of old Oloroso totally integrated with the wood and a certain fig, date and faint orange sweetness, probably the result of concentration in the solera for so long, but it all comes together beautifully.

Palate

Big and imposing at the start with everything coming at once before it settles down and the elegance of those woods starts to come through and the sheer weight begins to restrain itself. There are loads of nuances like toast, nutmeg, vanilla, toasted almond and walnut, date and raisin with a slightly mineral backbone. Some tannin is present giving a dry feel, but the finish is perfectly balanced and very, very long. This could only come from Jerez.
Comments

This classic (and superb) brandy has an average age of over 25 years and is aged in ex Oloroso butts. Interestingly it used to be sold younger at only 15 years old with the dates of the King's reign perforated on the label. The name refers to the King of Castilla Alfonso X "El Sabio" (the wise) who defeated the Moors at the battle of Jerez in 1264. One of his knights was Don Alfonso Valdespino who, like the other knights, was rewarded with land, and Valdespino has been in Jerez virtually ever since.

Price

34.90 Licores Corredera

La Bota de Fino 68 15%, Equipo Navazos

Appearance

Bright gold with a hint of amber and golden highlights, legs.

Nose

Full and complex with intense yeast notes; bread dough and bitter almond from the flor and fuller, deeper more autolytic notes of straw, nut oil and butter from the cabezuela. Then there are very slight oxidative notes like bruised apple, which add to the large palate of aromas.

Palate

Full and bursting with flavour. It has considerable depth, and the delightful bitterness from the flor substitutes for acidity, giving it perfect balance. There is a wonderful melange of flavours: yeast, both alive and dead, a trace of oxidation and hints of minerality which work together make a wine which is very dry, very clean, very long,very jerezano and very good.

Comments

Another excellent Fino blended from the solera, 1st and 2nd criaderas of the Valdespino Inocente solera, like the last seven bottlings of La Bota de Fino. This saca is dated June 2016 and came to a total of 6,500 bottles. The grapes as always are from the Macharnudo Alto and the wine was fermented in butt as is the tradition at Valdespino. La Bota 68 has an average age of between 10 and 11 years. Being bottled en rama, it contains all the loveliness some of which is unfortunately filtered out of Inocente, and has nearly a year in bottle. Don't over-chill the wine; it is at its best at cellar temperature, especially as this is a particularly good bottling.

Price
25 euros, Los Patios de Beatas, Malaga

Manzanilla Señorita 15%, Valdespino

Appearance

Pale light strawy gold with light legs.

Nose

Fresh with gentle flor, a trace of dried flowers, and fairly saline minerally seaside notes. There are slight traces of rope, Palomino white wine, which gives away its youth, and a background savoury note.

Palate

Tangy with a nice balance of salinty and savouriness, salty and very slightly bitter with a certain depth and seriousness about it which develops and comes I imagine from the yeast and an almost imperceptible oxidative note. Decent length.

Comments

This is the younger of the Valdespino Manzanillas with about three years average age while Deliciosa and its en rama sister have five years. It is labelled as Muy Fina meaning it is young and filtered and it tastes accordingly yet it has some depth and a more interesting character than some as it probably comes from Bodegas La Guita.

Price

Around 6.50 euros

La Bota de Fino 27 15%, Equipo Navazos (Re-taste)

Appearance
Deep yellowy amber with a very slight greenish tinge, dark for a Fino, and noticeable legs.
Nose
Lots of damp flor and some slightly oily oxidative notes, brine, bread dough, traces of oak and a seaside note, smells tangy with considerable depth.
Palate
Full, assertive and slightly softer than expected, the tang is more flor bitterness than acidity, but it is as clean as a whistle, still very much Fino despite the slightly nutty oxidative notes. It just grows on the palate, it is very generous with great length, almost at the cusp of being Fino-Amontillado.
Comments
(Saca March 2011) Last tasted 2 years ago (see post 6.10.13) when it had about 11 years in solera and two and a half further years in bottle. Now after four and a half years in bottle  it was always going to be interesting to see how it had evolved after another two years. And it tastes remarkably similar to how it did then, with perhaps very slightly more oily oxidative notes towards Fino Amontillado, but then Inocente, which is what it is, has those notes direct from the solera which are largely lost in filtration. This is effectively Inocente en rama (albeit from selected butts) with four and a half years' bottle age, and it is still magnificent. I just wish I had more to try in another two years' time. Sherry does live and improve in bottle, and here is proof, but you have to accept that it will change - though not much in this case.
Price
Very hard to find now, but probably much the same as before.

9.10.15 Today Anniversary of Jerez Liberation

751 years to the day have passed since the Battle of Jerez and its re-capture from the Moors by King Alfonso X “El Sabio” (the wise) and his knights from Castilla. They built the Church of San Marcos to celebrate. The Moors had been in possession of the city since 711 when Tariq Ibn Ziyad and 7,000 men took much of Spain from the Vandals. The word Andalucía derives from the Arabic “Al Andalus” meaning the kingdom of the Vandals. The Moorish defeat in the battle left them with the Caliphate of Granada as their only remaining possession, which was lost to El Cid’s forces backed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.

Alfonso kitted out for battle (foto:drinksbusiness)

Alfonso was grateful to his knights granting forty of the bravest six “aranzadas” (@3 hectares) of land on which they planted vines. One of them was Fernán Yañez Palomino who would give his name to the Sherry grape, another was Alonso Valdespino. During the Moorish occupation wine had not been encouraged as it is forbidden in the Koran, but vineyards survived for the Arab love of pasas (raisins), and certainly some Emirs looked the other way. At this time distillation was introduced but more for the purposes of alchemy in search of cures and perfumes. We all owe a large debt to Alfonso for liberating Jerez and encouraging its vineyards. He certainly was wise.

Pedro Ximenez El Candado 18%, Valdespino

Appearance

Very deep blacky brown/burnt umber to yellow at the rim long slow legs.

Nose

Unctuous raisins, dates, figs, slight background hints of wood and coffee as well as very slightly burned toffee, but overall  pure raisin with a great freshness - the smell of pasas arriving at the bodega. Quite young but quite classy.

Palate

Intense toffee and raisin with all those date and fig flavours and a terrific texture of raisin pulp, really mouthfilling with a very long slightly coffee-flavoured toffee finish, beginning to develop some real complexity, and again quite classy for its age.

Comments

There are not many high-security Sherries about, but this is one! "Candado" means padlock, and apparently one of the Valdespinos once kept this solera locked as he wanted it for himself. It must be a Valdespino theme as their Moscatel Toneles solera (of one huge butt) also sports one. However the Candado solera and brand formerly belonged to Manuel de Argueso in Sanlucar, founded in 1822 (and from whom Valdespino used to source their Manzanilla before finally buying them out), and Valdespino are merely carrying on the tradition.The solera has three criaderas and the finished wine is about ten years old, with about 420 g/l sugar.

Price

Available in 75cl and 37.5cl bottles at £18.50 and £9.95 respectively from Drinkmonger Edinburgh. UK importers Liberty Wines.

Palo Cortado Cardenal VORS 22%, Valdespino

Appearance
Deep burnt umber hued amber through to a trace of green at the rim, legs.
Nose
Stunning. Intense, concentrated almond, hazelnut and wood, a little implied sweetness and a trace of salinity all beautifully integrated. It gives a strong sense of being in a bodega surrounded by barrels of Sherry, and there are woody, almost cigar box spice notes, balsamic hints and it evolves slowly and surely in the glass. Despite the age and concentration it is supremely elegant and refined.
Palate
A huge, powerful wine with a fair bit of wood tannin astringency just balanced by sufficient glycerol. Lots of nuts including walnut and a fantastic texture - you feel it as well as taste it and there are slight chocolate notes along with hints of wood spice. If anything, slightly more Amontillado than Oloroso. The length is almost interminable.
Comments
Scoring 99 Parker points, this exquisite wine is around 50 years old. It started life in the Macharnudo Alto vineyards, and the must was fermented in butt. It then went through the Inocente solera, followed by the Palo Cortado CP solera, followed by the tiny Cardenal Solera, so it has been well aged!
Price
Expensive! A half bottle is 85 Euros in Spain, but it will be hard to find in the UK as agents Liberty Wines appear not to ship it.

Moscatel Promesa 17%, Valdespino

Appearance

Deep amber, quite viscous in the glass, and yes, legs.

Nose

Gorgeous nose. Made from super ripe fat juicy Moscatel raisins with all sorts of things going on. Dusty traces of oak (even for its youth), honey, a fair bit of citrus - somewhere between orange and marmalade, also very grapey and raisiny, like all Moscatel,  and slight hints of tea, toffee and turron.

Palate

Big, soft, grapey, juicy and very broad. There is an attractive and refreshing acidity which goes some way to balancing the residual sugar, and a fantastic rich grapeskin texture. This wine needs to be rolled round the mouth while drawing in air to really get the feel. It is full, yet so light. Marvellous.

Comments

Made (like most Moscateles) from Moscatel de Alejandria grapes grown in Chipiona, famous for Moscatel, which are sunned for a week to 10 days - not as long as PX -  to retain acidity. The must begins to ferment and is soon fortified to 16% to retain the natural grape sugars (somewhere around 250 g/l - not much more than half that of PX). The wine is then aged in solera for around 8 years till required for bottling. Some of this delicious Moscatel (90 Parker) is sold as Promesa and the rest ages much longer to become the famous Moscatel Toneles (100 Parker) QV.

Price

In Spain around 14.50 Euros. Liberty Wines are the UK agents, but don't appear to be listing Promesa.

La Bota de Fino No 35 15% Equipo Navazos

Appearance
Pale amber with gold reflections, quite plentiful slow legs.
Nose
Intense, dry bitter flor, traces wood, dry scrubland, that smell as you enter a bodega of damp wine barrels, fairly weighty, traces of olive brine and sourdough along with a little oxidation and nascent Amontillado notes of salted roasted almond. Approaching Fino-Amontillado, but you're not allowed to use that term now. Still lots of Fino characteristics and a savoury hint from autolysis. Fantastically complex.
Palate
Full, savoury autolytic hints, bitter, nutty, intensely flavoured, with that slight oxidative note giving it terrific length, very dry with a little acidity and just a hint of glycerol rounding it off. It really fills the palate with flavour and tantalises with the balance between the glycerol and bitterness. Superb.
Comments
Made from Macharnudo Alto grapes and fermented in barrel, this wine was drawn from the casks for bottling in June 2012, and is a blend of Valdespino wines from the Inocente solera, 1st and 2nd criaderas. It has an average age of about 10 years and is bottled en rama - with minimal filtration - or enough to remove any flor. It really demonstrates how much colour and flavour is lost in filtration, but the down side is the reduced shelf life. It has to be said, though, that I have tasted many en rama wines long after their "sell by date", and without exception they were still delicious, even though they had evolved in bottle. In fact Equipo Navazos recommend trying it over the next few years - as long as it is properly stored.
Price 
Drinkmonger £25.95 per 75cl bottle. UK importers Rhone to Rioja

Amontillado Contrabandista 18%, Valdespino

Appearance

Quite deep reddy amber with slow legs revealing some sweetness.

Nose

Fairly full with depth and some age, there is a hint of something maritime harking back to the Fino days, but really it is more about nuts and raisins. Hints of old barrels, PX, hazelnuts and toasted almonds mingle with a slightly smoky note and hints of turron yema tostada. attractive.

Palate

The perfect blend of old wine and sweetness, on the dry side of medium, well rounded, generous with touches of almond and walut. Nicely textured and lingering on the palate. Quite a serious wine - a "proper" medium dry!

Comments

From grapes grown in the Macharnudo, this wine spends 8 years as a fino before going to a solera established in 1892 for another 8 years of oxidative ageing. Then, a little PX is added (3.5%) to round it off to a medium-dry style. Sold at 15-16 years old, this is certainly among the very best of its style.

Price

Expect to pay around £17 for a 75cl bottle. UK agents: Liberty Wines

La Bota de Fino No. 27 15%, Equipo Navazos

Appearance
Autmnal ambery gold through pale yellow to slightest posible hint of green at very pale rim, legs.
Nose
Huge and complex; lots of flor, sandy beach, touch salinity, sour dough, olive brine, almond oil, traces cedar, dried scrub, even caramel and fino Sherry. Very dry and quite full, considerable age under flor, some autolysis yet only a little oxidation. Magnificent.
Palate
Full and assertive, beautifully balanced and showing some wood extractives, even a slight trace of tannin. There remains a strong flor influence, but there is also a whiff of oxidation from the thinner veil of flor. Autolytic flavours from dead yeast cells at the bottom of the butt are gaining prominence with slightly nutty, toasy, almost meaty notes. A fascinating, quite racy wine, with considerable length.
Comments
This wine comes from Valdespino's Inocente solera (69 butts) and was bottled en rama in March 2011 at just over 11 years of average age. The grapes were grown in Valdespino's Inocente vineyard in the Macharnudo Alto and fermented in wood, as is the norm at Valdespino, one of very few if any still practising this art. This provides some of the woody and oxidative notes - indeed some of the complexity - in the wine. The normal Inocente tastes quite like this direct from the solera, but for reasons of stability and shelf life, it is filtered before bottling, like most of its peers. This is even more exciting than an "Inocente en rama", though, as it is a careful selection of only 5,000 bottles made by Jesus Barquin and Eduardo Ojeda who are Equipo Navazos, the latter being winemaker at Valdespino as well.
Price
UK around £25-30 an absolute bargain! UK agent Rhone to Rioja, or try Berry Bros, Gauntleys.

27.9.13 Three Jerez Bodegas in World Top 100; Mauricio Gonzalez Gordon Dies

Eight Spanish bodegas are among the world’s one hundred best of 2013 in a ranking by Wine and Spirit Magazine’s tenth “Top 100 Tasting Event”. Prizes will be awarded in San Francisco on the 15^th October. Naturally, bodegas from Jerez were included, notably Osborne, Pedro Romero and Valdespino.

The death has been announced of Mauricio Gonzalez Gordon y Diez in Jerez at the age of 89. Born at Hampton Hill, England in 1923, he was president of Gonzalez Byass till he handed over the reins to his son, also Mauricio Gonzalez Gordon.

Mauricio was the son of the legendary Manuel Maria Gonzalez Gordon, who, among other things, wrote the best ever book about Sherry. Milagros Lopez de Carrizosa y Eizaguirre, Mauricio’s wife died just recently. They had two children, Bibiana and Mauricio.

(Imagen Diario Jerez)

Mauricio was a well-educated man, respected in the Sherry trade, and had diverse interests, especially Nature and its conservation. He donated land for the establishment of the Coto Doñana National Park, where he liked to indulge in ornithology.

He was a Hijo Predilecto de Jerez, a member of the Gran Orden de los Caballeros del Vino, and held a gold medal for Oenological Merit, among many other awards.

Manzanilla en rama Deliciosa Saca Primavera 2013,15%, Valdespino

Appearance
Strawy gold, darker than usual Deliciosa, very light legs.
Nose
Intense, lots of flor, brine, bread dough and bitter almonds, very fresh and very complex, something floral, camomile, dried flowers, straw, trace olive, interesting and attractive.
Palate
Decent acidity, fresh and deeply flavoured, all the above with a trace of autolysis for good measure, bone dry and very long, quite delicious - "deliciosa!"
Comments
Lovely wine, it just shows what damage can be done by filtration. This wine is made by Maria Isabel Estevez, Jose Estevez' daughter who is an enologist, although I am sure Eduardo Ojeda must have something to do with it too. It comes from one selected butt only, which supposes somewhere around 1,500 half bottles, and is the first release. It is made from Miraflores grapes and aged between 5 and 6 years (the same as normal Deliciosa) in a solera system consisting of 6 criaderas plus the solera itself. Given that it is available worldwide, allocations must be tiny. Let us hope they do more seasonal sacas, or bigger ones to increase availability.
Price
£8.30 per half bottle from The Fine Wine Company Edinburgh. UK importers Liberty Wines.

Fino Tio Toto 15%, M Gil Luque

Appearance
Pale strawy gold, slight legs.
Nose
Quite full, broad and yeasty, some waxy bitterness, very slightly stalky, a decent nose if not very complex.
Palate
Fairly big,very slightly clumsy, hints of fruit, acidity and even a trace of tannin, yet that bitterness and a hint of yeastiness are there too. Young and made to a price, but pretty sound.
Comments
M Gil Luque, a small but good Jerez bodega was taken over by Herederos de R Perez Marin, makers of La Guita Manzanilla, and the latter were subsequently taken over by Grupo Estevez, who now produce this wine. The commercial brand Tio Toto is associated with Valdespino, which also belongs to Grupo Etevez, but it seems as if it has been divested to the no longer extant M Gil Luque, which is now more of an inexpensive but decent supermarket brand. On the label it states that the wine is produced and bottled by JESA (Jose Estevez SA), and gives the same postcode as the Real Tesoro/Valdespino complex. Anyway Tio Toto consists of a Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso and PX. There are still some really good M Gil Luque wines floating about, though.
Price
I bought this from my chums at Lupe Pinto Deli in Edinburgh for £ 10. 50. Moreno Wines may be the importers of this, but Liberty wines also import Valdespino.

Moscatel Viejisimo Toneles 15%, Valdespino

Appearance

Very dark blacky chestnut/mahogany with burnished copper/gold  reflections, viscous, with trace of green at rim,looks ancient.

Nose

Intense concentrated moscatel aroma and a touch of oak yet a hint of crisp freshness really carries it through. It has beautiful citrus notes with traces of spice and coffee all deeply integrated. It is in a different league to most others by its sheer intensity and seductiveness. The oldest Moscatel in Jerez.

Palate

Full, concentrated, intensely sweet, bursting with that complex mix of raisined moscatel, oxidation and wood that only time can achieve. Intensely flavoured, textured, viscous, tangy and lingers for ages on the palate, practically forever. It is so complex, balanced and delicious you barely notice the sweetness. Quite exquisite.

Comments

This must be the oldest moscatel around. It is at least 80 years old. Moscatel has never been a particularly  important wine in Jerez, but this one is! It merits 97 Penin points and 100 Parker. In my view it is an honour to have been able to taste it, especially given the tiny quantities available. I tasted it from the solera - of just one tonel, a 1000 litre butt - which is sealed with a padlock! The Toneles criaderas are refreshed from the Promesa solera and the wine has a sugar content of 420 g/l balanced by a refreshing 10g/l total acidity. The grapes are from Chipiona and the solera, which totals 31 toneles, was established in the early XIX century. In the Valdespino days the solera was stored at the Bodega Grande in Calle Ponce and the wine was very rarely sold. Since Grupo Estevez bought the firm and the wine received such high praise from the critics, a total of 350 bottles were released annually. As demand grew, this was changed to half bottles.

Price

Really it is priceless, but Vilaviniteca in Spain have it at the best price - 110 euros for a half bottle. It can also be bought from Slurp in the UK - at £280 for a 75cl bottle

Back from Jerez: Part 3

The third important bodega visit was to Valdespino, probably the oldest of the Sherry houses, and in family hands until the fairly recent buy-out by Grupo Estevez. The family was losing interest in the firm however, and the bodegas were much in need of repair, so the buy-out could be seen as more of a rescue of the great soleras than just a corporate take-over. The Valdespino enologist Eduardo Ojeda also moved to Estevez.

In Jerez, when a  wine company is taken over the soleras normally stay put; all that changes is ownership. It is a very difficult and expensive thing to do to move entire soleras, but that is what Estevez undertook, and all the Valdespino soleras were moved to the Group's modern - 1990s built, but in traditional style -bodega complex on the outskirts of Jerez. The complex is roughly a square of four buildings: offices; laboratories, bottling and hospitality centre; Bodegas Valdespino and Bodegas Marques del Real Tesoro - which also house the soleras of Tio Mateo.

The Marques de Real Tesoro bodega

Now Eduardo Ojeda must be by far the most expert and the most enthusiastic ambassador for Sherry it ispossible to imagine - only more so! His passion is palpable, and infectious. Not only does he work for Estevez, but he also works for - and is a founder member of - Equipo Navazos along with Jesus Barquin. He has access to the Valdespino wines and also the Manzanilla Pasada soleras of La Guita in Sanlucar, also part of Estevez, and these form part of the ever growing range offered by Navazos.

Part of the Grupo Estevez laboratory

We began with a visit to the state of the art laboratories. Here, apart from testing wines, samples of all sorts of products are tasted, tested and developed, many for future sale in the Mercadona supermarkets with which Estevez work closely. We took a trip through the Real Tesoro bodega and ended up at Valdespino.

This huge bodega holds more precious treasure than the Tower of London! First we looked at the 2012 must which had recently completed its fermentation in butt - the norm at Valdespino. It was highly aromatic, rich and nuanced, with a surprising resemblance to a really good southern white Burgundy. Some of this wine will become Navazos Niepoort. Next we looked at the 2011, now fortified and already with flor. It too was delicious, and, as we progressed through the 10 criaderas the wines slowly came to resemble Sherry - Fino Inocente. It was fascinating to see how the wine develops. An absolute privilege.

Valdespino soleras at night

We went on to look at Amontillados, Pedro Ximenez - well lots of things - and then on to another highlight, the fabulous Moscatel Toneles. This must be the oldest moscatel around, nobody really knows, but speculation is anywhere between 100 and 200 years. The solera consists of one butt, as do the 5 or so criaderas. That solera butt has its bung sealed with a padlock! The wine retails at around 250 euros a bottle, and is worth every penny! It is phenomenal. See Tastings section.

I will be eternally grateful to Eduardo for teaching and showing me so much, and of course, I will be drinking -and recommending them - Valdespino and Navazos wines whenever I can. He very kindly dropped me in the city centre and I made my way home via the Plaza Plateros. This ancient plaza, full of tall trees which ring out with birdsong, was once home to the silversmiths. The attraction for me however, was the Tabanco Plateros. Here one can enjoy the famous and delicious Fino Sin Pecado (Fino without sin) made by the Cooperativa La Angustias (see Tastings) direct from the barrel and served in a chilled glass with some tapas and watch the world go by.

Plaza Plateros, the tabanco background centre

News from Jerez 8.7.12

Grupo Estevez has just completed the purchase of 400 hectares of vineyard, which used to belong to Pedro Domecq, from Beam Global. Estevez, which owns important brands such as Tio Mateo, La Guita, Real Tesoro and Valdespino has thus doubled its vineyard holding, making it the biggest vineyard owner of all Sherry companies with over 10% of plantations. Because of the recent uprooting and abandonment of vineyard bringing the total down to about 6,500 hectares, Estevez has been intensifying its search for more vineyard to guarantee a bit over half its grape requirements to fulfil contracts.

The firm, which supplies the Mercadona supermarket chain with over 50 brands (not all Sherry) has increased sales to supermarkets such as Tesco, and others whose suppliers had been hit by the Sherry Crisis. Estevez had toyed with the idea of buying vineyard from Zoilo Ruiz Mateos, a subsidiary of Nueva Rumasa-owned Garvey who are in receivership, before opting for the Beam Global deal, and is satisfied with that, as they are not intending to be 100% self sufficient.

The loss of nearly a third of Jerez vineyards and the adjustment between supply and demand coupled with growing demand for table wines presaging a tension in grape and must prices decided Estevez to make the purchase to guarantee future competitiveness. They are hoping vineyards can be made profitable after a decade of grave problems for growers and bodegas alike. They have already made 3-year price agreements with their contracted growers in the hope of preventing further loss of vineyard and employment.