Making the Sherry of a Bygone Age

La Barajuela is not a fashionable Fino, at least not in the fashion of the modern Finos we know today. It is a primitive Fino in the best sense of the word, an old fashioned wine, a tribute to the albariza soils of the Jerez Superior vineyards where it all began, to the purity of the first Jerez Finos of the XIX century and its static ageing as a vintage wine capable of expressing the essence of the soils and climate which are perfect for the cultivation of the vine.

Obsession with the land, the origins and particularly for the XIX century, are what drive Willy Pérez, who is responsible for starting what promises to be a whole new breed of Sherries like those of the past, whose glory days were before the advent of the solera system where it was the soil and the grape which marked out their distinguishing character in the search for excellence, the quintessence which made each butt of Sherry unique and incomparable.

Who said the Palomino grape is a bland grape? Willy Pérez is a member of that generation of young and not so young winemakers which is attracting so much attention through renovation of the past that it is stirring up the wine scene of the Marco de Jerez. With total respect for the long established traditions of the area, Pérez and other members of his generation like Ramiro Ibáñez, Primitivo Collantes or Alejandro Narváez and Rocío Áspera (Forlong) are making a show of their self- assuredness and fresh approach, attachment to the vineyard and winemaking skills.

Willy Perez (foto:Pascual diario de jerez)

On his own or together with the Sanluqueño winemaker Ramiro Ibáñez, Pérez has dedicated himself to bringing out the best of the principal historic Jerez pagos of Carrascal, Macharnudo, Balbaína and Añina with various single vineyard Finos of great concentration and little biological ageing. More character from the soil and less from the flor is the style of the next Fino to be bottled from Viña la Esperanza, the closest to Sanlúcar in the pago Balbaína, while still ageing are wines from Viña el Caribe in the pago Añina and the pago Macharnudo.

But Barajuela is much more than a Fino, in this case from the pago Carrascal. Under the same name he has another project developing wines and brandies in the viña El Corregidor, an old vineyard in the pago Carrascal which once belonged to Sandeman. It could be said that his motto is innovation through regression while his objective is to demonstrate that highly expressive wines can be made from Palomino.

Named after the stratified albariza soil’s similarity of appearance to a pack of cards, Barajuela is a very ambitious project where, in parallel with the wine production, they are busy renovating the El Corregidor casa de viña to convert it into a château-style bodega right next to the vineyard to emphasise the importance of the vineyard itself.

After last spring’s launch of the first (2013) vintage Fino, which will be followed by consecutive vintages, they will soon launch an Oloroso every bit as distinct as the Fino, with 3½ years of ageing. Both the Fino and the Oloroso are fermented in butt and are aged statically. The grapes were selected bunch by bunch both for quality and suitability for the style of wine after an unhurried harvest lasting two months with up to five passes.

The first pass is for grapes for the brandy, the second for white table wine, the third for Fino, the fourth for Oloroso and the fifth for a Raya like those of the old days. This is how grapes were classified until the end of the XIX century. The final job is to give the grapes a little sun drying to raise the alcohol content naturally without recourse to fortification, again, as it used to be done.

Willy with his father Luis Perez at the family bodega

The Palomino Fino, although it is a less productive clone than that currently used throughout the area, accounts for half the 60 hectares planted at El Corregidor. The Pérez family, already known and respected for their Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz red table wines, bought the vineyard in 2013 to develop their Sherry project. They are now setting out to demonstrate the possibilities of a clone which gave way to more productive ones at a time when Sherry was sold in huge volumes until the crisis of 1870 when it was discovered that cheap wines from outside the region were being passed off as old Sherries.

The warm reception by both the national and international markets of the vintage Fino Barajuela has given real recognition to the work of Willy Pérez - who confesses that his passion for Sherry awoke rather late – thanks to reading books by the pioneers of Sherry’s golden age like Pedro Domecq Nuñez de Villavicencio, first Marqués de Domecq, or travellers like James Busby, father of viticulture in Australia and New Zealand in the XIX century who was impresses by the wines and the wealth of Jerez in those days.

Having worked in Australia with Syrah vines in a climate similar to that of Jerez, Willy returned and initially concentrated his efforts on his father’s red wine business. But he had been infected by the enthusiasm of his predecessors in Jerez and began research to recall those fabulous wines they had spoken of in their writings, and in which the land and the vineyard were of prime importance. “As young oenologists at Cádiz University we saw Sherry as somewhat stagnant, but came to see the grandeur of the area and I was struck by the sheer quality people achieved in the XIX century”.

The purchase in 2013 of El Corregidor by his brother in law José Manuel Bajo and his sister Marta offered the ideal test bed for developing the Sherry project. The old Sandeman vineyard, which had been prepared for uprooting after two years without production, met all their main requirements: old vines of between 40-45 years with low yields (4,500 kilos per hectare as against the 15,000 of the most productive vineyards) only slightly above the yields of the XIX century, and suitable for obtaining alcohol levels of 15degrees or more.

Half the vineyard was grafted to Palomino Fino and the other half to Tintilla de Rota and Pedro Ximénez, although the family oenologist would like to plant some other pre-Phylloxera varieties such as Perruno, Cañocazo, Mantúo etc. even though they are not authorised under the DO. Old, low yielding vines which offer higher alcohol levels as the Pérez family wants also offer higher concentrations of aromas, sapidity, salinity, fruitiness… “We complain that the Palomino is dull, but with such high yields as 15,000 k/ha any grape would lose its aromatic qualities”, says the winemaker, detailing that in the laborious harvest the best bunches are selected up to a weight of 690 kilos for each type of wine. It is entirely possible that from Barajuela other types of wine will evolve such as Rayas and Anontillados, and they are not ruling out experimentation with wood ageing, soleras and bottle ageing.

The adherence to the vineyard influences the whole process of recreating the Sherries of the past and they are confident they will not be seen as rebels. They have no intention of telling others what to do and don’t want to be marked out as punks. They simply believe that there is room for a return to focus on the vineyard, to differences in wine being led by the soil, which they see as complementary to the DO system.

Fino Barajuela 2013 was very well received in the market, more as a white wine with a little crianza biologica than as a DO Sherry. Willy says that he does not want too much flor as it can kill other characteristics of the wine. Before the end of this year the 2014 will be released and it is “more concentrated and sapid” than the 2013. There will be barely over 1,000 bottles of it which will be allocated before release.

This excellent article by A Espejo appeared in today's Diario de Jerez

In Search of Lost Sherry

This is my humble translation of a very interesting article written by Paz Ivison in El Mundo Vino 28.8.14

Young winemakers in the Jerez area are on a hunting-gathering mission for Sherry. It might be considered a contradiction – young people looking into the past, but no, quite the contrary. The best vanguard is tradition, as was once famously said by the famous French writer, essayist, poet and philosopher, Paul Valery. His brilliant mind had nothing to do with oenology or wine, but his reflections are perfect on this occasion as on many others. Among these young winemakers whom I met in my home town, Jerez, I must highlight the sublime if difficult work which two of them, Ramiro Ibañez and Willy Perez, are doing. Both have worked in California, Australia… and gained considerable experience, ideas and knowledge travelling in the New World, and are applying their knowledge and fascination to one of the most historic and traditional of all the wine making regions in Spain, Jerez.

Happily, Sherry is beginning to awaken interest among Spanish people, long forgotten by the producers – let it be said in passing – and is beginning to experience what we could call a slightly better period, and this is down to its own singular unique and complex essence and the work of certain journalists, sommeliers and great aficionados, rather than the producing and exporting bodegas who looked at the domestic market as an afterthought. Export was all.

Exporting wine is the solution nowadays for nearly every bodega in the country, after all the years of crisis and huge competition. But we need to look back 50 years, when the panorama was quite different. There were few quality bodegas in Spain and Sherry, with not the slightest competition in terms of style was never really promoted at home, making its understanding and consumption among Spaniards of any age more difficult, let alone for the young folk.

These young winemakers are searching for the lost times and the lost Sherry. It is never too late. Films such as The Mystery of Palo Cortado, currently being shot in Jerez, great tastings, Gonzalez Byass Sherrymasters,  the Consejo’s Sherry Educators course, congresses, fairs and the naming of Jerez as European City of Wine have without doubt helped to recuperate some lost time. The vineyard area has been reduced to a third of what it once was – in line with falling sales – but there is no overproduction now, and quality is much better.

Ramiro Ibanez (foto ggelalmirez.com)

The oenologist Ramiro Ibañez Espinar, from Sanlucar, came back to the Sherry area after a few years of experience abroad, and took up a solo career as a freelance oenologist and viticulturist as well as producing his own experimental wines. It is to him we owe the seriously interesting wine which he made for Bodegas Ximenez Spinola, Original Exceptional Harvest. A vintage Pedro Ximenez, ripened on the vine, late harvested, macerated and fermented on the skins and aged for four months in American oak on its lees which were carefully stirred.

Its release onto the market was quite a surprise, though very little was available in Spain itself. I was able to try it thanks to the inexhaustible generosity of my good friend Armando Guerra of the Sacristia of the Taberna El Guerrita in Sanlucar, an example of a cult taberna and totally committed to the region and its wines. I strongly recommend you to visit it. (*See Paula’s tasting notes on this wine).

Despite the quality, modernity and novelty of this wine, the philosophy of the young proprietor of this bodega was still traditional: export. He thought nobody in Spain would understand it.  So we don’t have points of reference, and without them we’re not going to shake up the world, as Archimedes would have said if he had been here. Ramiro Ibañez no longer makes this wine, and the following vintage which I tried, again thanks to Armando Guerra, was a pale imitation of the glorious 2011.

In search of lost grape varieties

Ramiro Ibañez and Willy Perez are a certain type of winemakers. They share interests, research and knowledge. They are committed to the recuperation of the Jerez pagos (groups of individual vineyards), the first vineyards to be considered as such in Spain, but which for many years have done little more than serve as material for institutional texts.

Willy Perez (foto cosasdecomer)

Willy, thanks to his family’s recent purchase, has had access to one of the older vineyards, El Corregidor in the pago Carrascal and opposite the pago Macharnudo. Here there are 30 hectares of old Palomino (clone 84) planted before the arrival of the California clone. Willy was allowed 6 hectares in which to experiment and see if he could realise his dream, a vintage Fino, 2013 in this case, without fortification. He threw away many grapes and harvested two or three weeks later than usual. The grapes achieved 16.3% alc/vol without fortification. Some of the must was fermented in stainless steel tanks and part in butts of American oak, but for 2014 he has fermented it all in butts.

At the beginning of last November the wine was run into empty 500 litre butts which had been seasoned with Fino but had no remaining yeast sediment, and these are being kept aside in his father, Luis Perez’ underground bodega, which is mostly dedicated to red wines. So there it is, the vintage Fino, under a veil of flor, like a virgin bride approaching the altar under the expectant gaze of the loving young oenologist. Willy personally looks after this wine’s 20 butts which he has filled fuller than normal to avoid excess flor as it devours alcohol and could dangerously reduce the alcohol level over the 2 year minimum ageing period.

Late last November I had the opportunity to try the wine from the butts, and it was very long with an extraordinary minerality and well balanced acidity, dry with a marked bitter almond note. Then, the wine has 16.3%, but I have just tasted it again at 15.6% still with flor and with a few months still to age. All this without a drop of added alcohol, a really emotional experience, hanging by a natural thread, but we still need to wait.

2 year old vintage Palo Cortado

But Willy’s friend Ramiro doesn’t need to wait much longer. Soon he will bottle his Encruzijado 2012, a 2 year-old Palo Cortado – yes you read that right. This is a completely new wine, made from 50% grapes from old vine varieties which he moved heaven and earth to find, but managed to obtain from growers here and there in the Sherry area. These old varieties are: Mantuo Pilas, Mantuo Castellano, Beba, Perruno and Cañocazo, all with their rustic sounding names, and 50% selected Palomino with the bunches taken from the centre of the vine to retain a little more malic acidity.

Canocazo grapes on albariza soil (foto elmundovino)

His objective is to be able to offer the curious or interested consumer the possibility of trying and enjoying a wine aged biologically (under flor) but which has the right characteristics to be fortified and age oxidatively. But just before fortification to 18%, just at that moment when the capataz set aside one of “those” butts and said “This Fino is “Gordo” (fat), it is no use for Fino, it needs to be fortified”, and picked up the chalk and marked the butt with a line and a cut (palo cortado). The secret here is those old grape varieties which had a lot of malic acid and the artisanal fermentation in butts with natural local yeasts.

Ramiro trod his grapes with his own feet, he made only one butt of his 2012 which is now 20 months old, 10 under flor in the months of spring and autumn and 10 without flor in summer and winter. Encruzijado 2012 will come to market as Vino Generoso de Licor and without a DO. Nevertheless it is quite an experience - and one with a big future because the wine shows a surprising maturity on the palate with structure and lactic, buttery notes. (*See also Paula’s notes on Equipo Navazos No.52)

So as to our young hunter-gatherers, are they going backwards or forwards? We’ll keep you informed.