8.7.15 Consejo Anniversary Celebrations; Tradicion CZ

On Friday the Consejo Regulador will begin its 80th anniversary celebrations with a tasting of fine Sherries at the Alcázar in Jerez. The wines, selected from samples submitted by the bodegas, have been bottled with a special label designed for the occasion. It consists of the logo of the 80^th anniversary and shows the chalk markings on the butt which identify the style of wine it contains.

The Consejo also plans to present the selection of wines in Cáceres which is the Spanish Capital of Gastronomy 2015, as well as Madrid and Barcelona two of the principal domestic markets for Sherry.

The programme of events marking the 80^th anniversary will continue till the end of November and among the more important of them will be an exhibition which will examine the achievements of the Consejo in its 8 decades of history. It will be inaugurated on the 4^th of September at the Claustros de Santo Domingo, which will also be the scene of the 80^th anniversary gala. These two events will coincide with the Fiestas de la Vendimia.

Bodegas Tradición has announced that it is changing its trading name to Tradición CZ. The initials CZ stand for Cabeza de Aranda y Zarco, the name of the antecedents of the Rivero family who founded the oldest bodega in 1650 and which was sold in 1991.

Helena Rivero, president of Tradición CZ explains “As a result of the sell-off of the bodega, we decided in 1998 to create Bodegas Tradición. We had two objectives: the continuation of family business in the Sherry trade and the recuperation of traditional methods in the making of the wines and brandies of Jerez. Now we are proud to have added this sign of family identity.”

Walnut Brown 19.5%, Williams & Humbert

Appearance
Very deep blacky brown fading through burnt umber to amber at the rim, legs.
Nose
Big and soft, bursting with plump juicy raisins and a pronounced Moscatel note. Smells really sweet with hints of alcohol, leather, caramel and burnt sugar.
Palate
Full, mellow, richly textured and luscious with more PX notes than the nose, pasa, caramel, hints of molasses, miel de caña (reduced cane syrup). Very sweet but softer and with slightly less grip than a traditional Cream due to more sweet wine in the blend, vey good length.

Comments
This classic Sherry is a style from days gone by when label descriptors often referred to the colour. It is made from Oloroso blended with Moscatel and PX at the sobretablas stage where the wines are young and then ages as a blend through its own solera for at least 4 years - though it appears to be older. It contains 142 g/l sugars and is there fore classed by the Consejo as a Cream. (Brown Sherry is no longer an official category). Included in the blend is Vino de Color which gives the wine that deep colour and makes it look old. Color is a blend of fermenting must with concentrated must reduced over a direct fire, has a strength of about 8%/vol. and is aged in soleras. It is intensely dark and is used either to darken a wine or to ensure colour consistency in commercial blends. I heard that W&H were going to stop producing this wine, but there was an outcry, especially in Scotland where it remains very popular, and they have continued to produce it.
Price
About £14.00 fairly widely available in the UK, distributors are Ehrmanns

Amontillado en Rama Cruz Vieja 17.5%, Bodegas Faustino Gonzalez

Appearance

Bright light amber with orangey-gold highlights, legs.

Nose

Forthcoming and interesting. Lots of nuts: hazelnut and almond then a distinct dry scrub flor note and traces of oak and toasted bread. There is enough glycerol to balance that giving an attractive tension between the bitter and the sweet. Lots of character here, a bit of a walk on the wild side.

Palate

Up-front bitterness from flor and oak with a trace of tannin provide a nice crispness balanced by gentle glycerol. Quite intense yet light and racy with a hint of acidity, this keeps you on your toes - looking for more!. It would be a brilliant food wine: think Iberico pork, grouse, pheasant...

Comments

This excellent and characterful wine originates in the family firm's own Montealegre vineyard and was fermented in butt. It then spent 5 years under flor in the Fino solera of only 62 butts before being fortified and transferred to the 22 butt Amontillado solera established in 1926, where it spent at least a further 7 years ageing. It was bottled in May 2014. It will be available in the UK from sherryboutique.com from September 2015 approximately.

Price
About £ 37 - and well worth it!

Could Jerez be a World Heritage Site?

On the 4^th of July Champagne and Burgundy received their inscription as UNESCO World Heritage sites. I heartily congratulate them not only for the wonderful wines, but also for the years of hard work they have put in to achieve this.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) was established in 1945 to promote peace through the protection of human patrimony. In 1972 the World Heritage Convention was introduced to protect nature and human interaction with it, allowing vineyards to be included.

If any vineyards deserve World Heritage status it is surely those in the Marco de Jerez. The nearby Coto de Doñana is already a World Heritage site for its biodiversity, but the Sherry vineyards, with their ancient history and culture and a totally unique product produced in wonderful bodegas, surely deserve recognition as human patrimony. If Champagne and Burgundy deserve it, so does Jerez.

Maybe nobody has thought of this or prioritised it, maybe it is the wind farms or maybe it is the dilapidated state of many vineyard houses, but for some reason Sherry is not a World Heritage site. With hard work it could be however, and that would attract many more visitors – and customers.

5.7.15 First 100% Jerez Sherry

Grupo Estévez has decided to make its wines 100% Jerez. If you thought Sherry already is 100% Jerez, well it isn’t quite. The alcohol used for fortification comes from La Mancha and is distilled from the Airén grape rather than the Palomino of Jerez. At about 95%/vol the alcohol is very pure and has no flavour, but it doesn’t come from Jerez. This is a spin-off from Jerez brandy, which needs far greater volumes of grapes than Jerez can produce. At the end of the XIX century distilleries were established in La Mancha for this purpose and logically they also produce the fortification spirit.

The highest level of Denominación de Origen (DO) is the DO “Calificada”, held only by Rioja and Priorato, and Sherry should definitely hold it as well, but there is a general lack of interest. Grupo Estévez is interested, however, and has opted to make all their wines 100% Jerez which is a condition of the DOC. They will start with the 2015 harvest to distil Palomino for fortification and use it in Fino Tio Mateo to begin with and gradually work through the range.

Jose Ramon Estevez growing Sherry (foto:Miguel Angel Gonzalez/diariojerez)

Estévez wants the cooperatives to set aside some of their production for distillation and sell the wine as sobretablas (already fortified rather than just fermented). They would pay the market price for the alcohol and compensate any losses by paying more for the grapes: 80-85 pesetas (@50 céntimos in Euros) the kilo rather than the 65 ptas. paid last year representing an increase of 25-30%. (In Jerez they still use the old peseta for grape purchases).

The cooperatives could thus add value to their product which would help them through difficult times. Sales are still declining and they sometimes have to wait up to two years to be paid, so according to Estévez they need to change their business model to avoid the loss of even more vineyard. Estévez maintain that the idea of 100% Jerez wines is a “strategic decision” which is in contrast to the norm of producing excesses to reduce grape prices to the cheapest in Spain.

José Ramon Estévez would like to see the construction of a distillery in Jerez if the plan goes well. It would also produce 100% Jerez brandy. The company has already sent an important quantity of last year’s Palomino must from Jerez for distillation in La Mancha with this project in mind.

4.7.15 New UK Source of Interesting Sherry

When I studied languages at school I was taught the difference between “active” and “passive” moods, and this came to mind when discussing Sherry availability in the UK yesterday with Helen Highley of criadera.com. Many Sherry bodegas have “representation” in the UK which amounts to almost nothing. The importer has no sales force or distribution beyond their own location, no promotional activity, and at least one has no website. The wine is imported to fill a gap on their list. This situation is no good for Sherry aficionados, always looking out for something interesting, and no good for the bodega. This represents the passive mood.

Luckily the active mood is here and there is at last change in the air. Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of tasting some exciting Sherries with Helen and Roberto Rodrigo of Goya 23, Edinburgh’s best Spanish deli. Helen had brought a range of wines from two bodegas which she is importing in a small way (at first!) with the idea of building up a range of interesting Sherries which she can retail online to connoisseurs, or sell through carefully selected specialist wine merchants. This is an entirely separate venture from Criadera which will in no way affect its impartiality.

The bodegas in question are Urium and Faustino González, both in Jerez, and it was fascinating to see how the wines contrasted. Both had their distinct house style, but how distinct they were, with Urium showing real polish and finesse compared to the wilder racier style of Faustino González. Both bodegas make delicious wines of unimpeachable quality, they are just different, and that’s what made the tasting – indeed Sherry itself - so interesting.

From Urium were:

Fino en Rama (50cl, around 8 years old, saca May 2015)

Smooth with traces olive brine and ever-developing flor

Amontillado (50cl, around 15 years old)

Very elegant, quite fragrant and balanced, proper Amontillado

Palo Cortado (50cl, around 15 years old)

Very attractive with a trace of cinnamon on the nose, elegant on palate

Oloroso (50cl, around 15 years old)

Fairly full with savoury hint and trace of oak, some charm

PX (50cl, around 15 years old)

Velvety with coffee, chocolate, fig and raisin, charming but serious

And from Faustino González:

Fino en Rama (half bottle, around 10 years old, saca April 2015)

Bursting with flor zip

Amontillado en Rama (75cl, 18-20 years old)

Still notes of flor (!) racy bitterness balanced by implied sweetness, unusual and exciting

Palo Cortado en Rama(75cl, 18-20 years old)

Even a trace of flor here too, but hazelnuts on the nose and a slightly savoury, tangy palate

Oloroso en Rama (75cl, 18-20 years old)

Savoury notes, traces marmalade and cinnamon, generous and very fine

The online service will be called sherryboutique.com but will not go live for three or four months when Helen hopes to have all the necessary arrangements in place. If all goes well she hopes to expand the range, so watch out for this, it is a great idea and deserves support.

1.7.15 Sherry Cask Fever

The Spanish Patents and Brands Office (OEPM) has blocked an attempt by a bodega in Huelva to “appropriate” the use of the term “Sherry casks” along with derivative terms such as “Amontillado cask”, “Oloroso cask” etcetera for which the bodega had sought registration, thus legitimising what the Consejo Regulador in Jerez considers as fraud.

José y Miguel Martín, a bodega in Bollullos del Condado in Huelva, wanted a legal framework by which the distillers who buy their seasoned casks could use these terms on their labels, terms which are protected under the Denominación de Origen (DO) Jerez and which are experiencing a growing prestige in the markets, and which distillers naturally want to use.

A cooperage in Jerez (foto:Vanesa Lobo/Diario Jerez)

The bodega has decided to appeal the OEPM decision and has also registered at the Jerez Consejo, but this step does not give them the right to use protected terms unless from now on they buy Jerez grapes for seasoning and submit to a voluntary process to guarantee traceability.

This Sherry cask fever is growing along with increasing whisky sales and the Consejo has taken steps to increase vigilance and control of a rapidly expanding business, one which has aroused the interest not only of Jerez producers, but also those in other DO’s in Andalucía such as Condado de Huelva and Montilla-Moriles.

The Jerez Consejo is already a long way down the line with the process. Having obtained the backing of the Agriculture Ministry, they have held discussions with those who season casks and who voluntarily want to sign up for the new register for this activity which would authorise the use of terms such as “Sherry cask” on the labels of spirits aged in them.

The Consejo has some allies in the form of leading whisky distillers such as the Macalllan, who requested the establishment of a certification which guarantees the use of the term only when the whisky is aged in casks seasoned with Sherry. According to César Saldaña, director of the Consejo, the intention is to run with the voluntary system which does not oblige anyone to submit to the process, but which can restrict certification. The Sherry Consejo supports a brand with a valuable reputation which inevitably attracts fraud, and the use of Sherry casks for the ageing of whisky must therefore be regulated.