Amontillado Viejo Seco 20%, Manuel Aragón

Appearance

Bronze tinted amber with copper highlights and a trace of green at the rim, legs.

Nose

Loads of toasted hazelnuts and almonds, traces of oak and a hints of humidity and cinnamon with a hint of sweetness. This smells old yet supremely elegant; very alive and complex, delightful.

Palate

Full, crisp and deeply flavoured, this is not a young wine, it has considerable age, well over 25 years at a guess. There is a certain volatile acidity giving it an attractive tang and then the nuts come through, with a glyceric sweetness and counterbalancing bitterness and a certain texture. There are notes of spice and traces of tannin but everything is beautifully integrated.

Comments

This delicious wine is a limited availablity very old Amontillado from the leading Chiclana bodega in the production zone, Manuel Aragón, better known - locally at least - as Bodegas Sanatorio, founded in 1795. Chiclana might only be considered a Sherry grape producer, but this bodega supplied the Equipo Navazos Palo Cortado No 62 which scored 98 Parker points, so they certainly have serious wines. This wine comes from the foundational solera and is released annually in very small quantities, bottled by hand direct from the butt.

Price

47.50 per 50cl bottle, Licores Corredera

Bodegas: Miguel Guerra SL

Established as a business in Chiclana in the 1930s by Miguel Guerra Virtués, but winegrowers since 1850, this is still a family bodega. Miguel was an active and enterprising  man whose family had long owned some fine vineyards and run a firewood business with a warehouse in the Calle de la Plaza where a few butts of wine from the vineyard were always kept. The size of the vineyard and the amount of wine in his solera were gradually increasing in this warehouse where he also stored pine vine stakes nicknamed “palillos” (little sticks). Thus the name of his Fino came about.

Before long he bought another bodega in the Calle Jesús Nazareno where he concentrated on the wine side of the business, going on to acquire part of the famous Fino Sanitario solera which he added to his own Fino Palillo solera.  Sanitario belonged to the descendants of Juan de Diós Guerrero, great-grandfather of Miguel Guerra Guerrero.

In 1940 he bought another bodega in the Calle Mendaro. This bodega was built in 1880 and became the firm’s main bodega under the name Bodegas Miguel Guerra SL. Miguel passed on his skills and the business to his son, Miguel Guerra Guerrero who did the same for his son, Juan M Guerra Vélez, who is the sixth generation of the family to be making wine in Chiclana. Now thousands of butts of wine fill the bodegas and there is a large range of wines on offer:

Fino Palillo, Finito

Oloroso Gran reserva

Moscatel Naranja, Moscatel Oro, Moscatel de Pasa, Cream Tarugo

They also make White table wine and vinegar

Address: Calle Mendaro, 16, 11130 Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz

Telephone: (+34) 956 400 501

Website: www.bodegasmiguelguerra.es

Visits? Yes, by arrangement

8.12.13 Chiclana Wines; Day of the Must Near Jerez

Preparations are underway to make a better job of promoting the wines of Chiclana than was achieved last year at the annual Feria de San Antonio in June. During the 4 day festival, local products are widely available at the stands in the streets of the fairground of Las Albinas, where there is also lots of flamenco and horses.

There is a local council subsidy for the stands to promote Chiclana wine, which has to be applied for and granted, and last year only 35% of them received it, and products from other areas are creeping in. This year, a new promotional campaign is being prepared by the association of bodegueros supported by the municipal development department. They aim to promote the local wines to the locals, as much as visitors, under the banner of “En Chiclana, Vinos de Chiclana”.

Chiclana wines are made in eight bodegas in the town, and are like Sherry – many are – and they make styles such as Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso and Moscatel. Well worth looking out for.

Yesterday was the X Day of the Must in the country neighbourhood of Las Tablas near Jerez. People come from all over the province of Cadiz to the school square, which is surrounded by a sea of parked cars and the smell of multiple barbeques. Here they indulge in a glass of the new wine, served from a butt in the centre of the square, and something to eat. It is a great family day out.

Meanwhile, inside the school, members of the Consejo Regulador hold a tasting of the 44 new wines, eventually selecting 3 winners which will be given trophies and diplomas. The new wines are not from big bodegas, but have been made by locals at their own houses. The local cabbage and garlic is also up for tasting, but according to the mayor, there are finite quantities available, and every year more people come. Stands offer other delicacies too, such as chacina (seasoned  pork) and chicharrones (fried pork rind strips), with long hungry queues.