Quãdis Joven 2015 14.5%, Barbadillo

Appearance

Dense black red fading through black cherry to pink at the rim.

Nose

Full, ripe, jammy fruit; cherries and plums mainly with faint balsamic traces and hints of spice. It is deep and fairly intense, quite serious for a young wine with distinct notes of ripeness, none of which takes away from the youthful zest.

Palate

Loaded with ripe fruit; cherries, plums, brambles yet quite full bodied with a light texture and faint mineral and balsamic notes. As a young wine there is very little tannin, but just enough to give it feel and structure on the palate. A charmer with a more serious side.

Comments

The name Quãdis comes from an ancient name for Cádiz and the wine is the result of 20 years' work to make red wine good enough to represent it. The Merlot, Syrah, Tempranillo and Tintilla grapes used to make this wine are grown in the albariza soils of the firm's 250 hectare Gibalbín vineyard and the vines are about 12 years old. Harvesting was done at night and by machines fitted with de-stemmers and the grapes were harvested according to ripeness over 30 days. A three day cold soak at 5C followed before fermentation in separate stainless steel tanks with specially selected yeasts according to grape variety. The wine was then stabilised and bottled after settling in tank without any oak ageing. This is a Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz sold as a joven (young wine), which is lovely slightly chilled, and they also make a crianza (oak aged) version. Quãdis was only introduced quite recently.

Price

6.40 euros, Licores Corredera

Corta y Raspa Las 40 2016 12% Rafael Rodríguez

Appearance 

Bright clean light gold with golden reflections.

Nose

Full ripe and generous, Burgundy-ish at first with a fleeting aroma of toast, but there is no oak here, it is not necessary. Then the mineral and apple notes come through along with hedgerow grasses and faint floral and citric notes. What a good start.

Palate

Big, broad and fairly soft, the acidity is comparatively low, yet the wine is well balanced. It has a gentle texture and lots of flavour of ripe orchard fruit with faint traces of herbs all held together with a mineral backbone. It is really quite sophisticated  and super drinkable.

Comments

Rafael Rodríguez Jiménez is a 3rd generation mayeto (grower) and member of the group of growers which is Mayetería Sanluqueña, formed to produce quality wines from their albariza vineyards and make a better living than just selling grapes. They are backed by the oenologist Ramiro Ibáñez. The first release of Mayetería Sanluqueña wines consists of four 2016 wines from three growers, and Rafael Rodríguez produced two of them, from different vineyards in the Pago Añina. This one is made from 100% Palomino and comes from the tosca cerrada form of albariza in his vineyard Viña Las 40, and is bottled by EMC3 in El Puerto. Only around 700 bottles. It is a pity all the Mayetería labels are identical except for the information, but hopefully that will change. They have probably had considerable financial outlay, but made a very sound investment judging by the quality. This is great value for money.

Price
9.95 euros, De Albariza

30.8.17 State of the Harvest

The harvest is now beginning to come to an end with most of the inland vineyards finished. As of yesterday over 59 million kilos or close to 85% had been pressed with an average sugar reading of 11.78° Beaumé. Picking had been accelerated as rain had been forecast and that makes picking much more difficult as the soil becomes very muddy. Heavy rain also brings the risk of cryptogamic problems, but came too late to do any damage to the extremely healthy grapes, so it was more of an irritant than a problem. The grapes can absorb some of the rainwater which will reduce the sugar level, but that was high already and it simply compensates for any loss of volume from the high temperatures. Only Chiclana and Puerto Real, which are usually last to pick anyway, have not begun but will do so shortly. The total crop looks like being around 70 million kilos, fairly normal, but a big increase on last year, but that was a smaller than average crop. The Marco de Jerez is lucky, as many other wine regions both in Spain and abroad are reporting the smallest harvest for decades, as frost, hail and drought have really taken their toll, and harvests have generally been much earlier than normal. Yet some still deny climate change.

Fiestas de Vendimia 2017

The annual Harvest Festival gets under way on 1st September with a multitude of activities. Many are free as long as you book, but there are far too many to list here, so for more information go to: 

http://www.jerez.es/fileadmin/Documentos/Fiestas/Vendimia17/PROGRAMA_FV2017_AL_24.08.17.pdf

Bodegas: Cramp Suter & Co

George William Suter Stevens was born in Malta in 1809. He went to Jerez in 1831 where he worked as a merchant specialising in Sherry, forming the firm of Cramp Suter & Co. in the early 1850s. Despite his initially unfavourable impressions of the town, he remained there for the rest of his life at Plaza del Mercado, 10 and was married to Candelaria Miramon Asencio. He was not only British Vice-Consul from 1869 till he died in 1887 but also Consul for the Ottoman Empire. His partner was Francis Cramp (1820-1875) who had been a partner in Port and Sherry shippers Offley Cramp & Forrester since 1846, and brother in law of Joseph James Forrester who made a famous map of the Douro. Cramp spent his time between Jerez, Oporto and London, while Suter ran the business in Jerez.

George William Suter Stevens

Suter bought wine, often from González Byass, for resale in Britain and Ireland, where he had various agents. He was more of a shipper and almacenista  but still produced various brands. Henry Vizetelly visited in 1876 and commented on the fine Fino soleras, kept in a very dark bodega and wine dating from 1812 along with some other very old wines which had been to Manilla and back, East India Sherry. The old wines were evidently highly aromatic but rather potent. Perhaps Suter’s main claim to fame was a map he drew of the Jerez viticultural districts, the first of its kind, with Miguel Palacios in 1857. It could be that he got the idea from JJ Forrester.

By 1877 Suter had bodegas at Calle Rincón de Malillo, 7 as well as two houses, one at number 4 of the same street and the aforementioned at Plaza del Mercado, 10, where he lived. The Cramp Suter Sherries must have been good as for a while Bodegas Cayetano del Pino sold them under licence. After Suter’s death the bodegas were bought by Bartolomé Benítez Lago, who sold them in 1931 to Fernando Carrasco Sagastizabal.

Pictures and much info: Jose Luis Jimenez

Among the Cramp Suter brands were:

Jerez Viejísimo Añada 1840, Oloroso Viejo, Una Raya, Tónico Reconstituyente, Málaga Blanco Dulce

Fino en rama (Jerez) Spring 2015 15.5%, Lustau

Appearance

Bright amber tinged strawy gold with golden glints.

Nose

Wonderfully fresh and nicely developed; quite intense with lots of almondy acetaldehyde and bitter flor but with subtler notes behind like faint traces of oxidation, toasted bread and oily, almost buttery notes along with a gently saline hint of dry scrub. Hints of cabezuela add even more complexity.

Palate

Equally intense; bone dry and fresh with full-on flavour and that bitter flor and the complexity of 2 years' bottle age distracting one from the lowish acidity. This is delicious and full of that almost sun-baked Jerez style as opposed to the racier brinier Sanlucar and Puerto styles, and has an attractive chalky mineral texture and incredible length.

Comments

Now that this wine has spent two years in bottle I thought it would be fun to try it - and it certainly was! It is in beautiful condition and could happily spend much longer in bottle. Each spring, only enough wine is selected to fill two butts, so there were only perhaps a couple of thousand bottles of this roughly 5 year old wine. It just shows how much is lost in filtration and how worth while it is to keep these wines aside for a year or two - or even more.

Price

12 euros per 50cl bottle, Licores Corredera

Brandy Marqués del Mérito Solera Gran Reserva 40%, Diez Mérito

Appearance

Deep walnut brown with bright ruby/copper highlights and a trace of green at the rim, legs.

Nose

Intense, even concentrated, with lots of wood and Oloroso, this smells old and serious. There are also notes of caramel, vanilla, brown sugar,  and traces of coffee and pasas. 

Palate

Rich, generous and full bodied, this is a real after dinner brandy. For all the wood on the nose there is by no means excessive tannin and it is intensely flavoured, its generosity lingering for ages.

Comments

This must be one of the last bottles of the old design which has now been replaced by the Mérito 15 Solera Gran Reserva, which as far as I know is the same brandy. It is all a bit complicated as Diez Hermanos merged with Marqués del Mérito, then they were both taken over by Rumasa. They were then taken over by Marcos Eguizabal along with Zoilo Ruiz Mateos and thus used to make Gran Duque de Alba which went to Bodegas Internacionales which is now Williams & Humbert. The Espinosa family which now owns Diez Mérito have tried to simplify things and now offer a range of brandies which are all called Mérito, followed by their age and type. This solera was established in 1819 and the brandy is around 15 years old, distilled from both Palomino and Airén.

Price
25.00 euros, Licores Corredera