Tesalia 2015 14.5%, Bodega Tesalia

Appearance
Opaque blacky red, still retaining a hint of purple at a fairly tight rim with ruby glints.
Nose
Big, full and still a little closed but lots of ripe black berry fruit like blueberry and bramble, though a  slightly smoky, peppery hint denotes the presence of Syrah. A ripe grape skin texture is apparent and there are attractive toasty, spicy notes of French oak. This is a serious wine which is yet to show its full hand. It is deep and concentrated, almost brooding  and most impressive.
Palate
Full bodied, quite intense and well structured with noticeable but well controlled ripe tannins. It is very generous with a real feel of the hot south. It has all you'd expect of a fine wine with lots of spice, fruit, texture, grip and complexity, all well balanced and harmonised, but still needs time to give of its best, and its best will be very good indeed in three to five years. This is an extremely good wine.
Comments
This is Richard Golding’s first commercial release of what he hopes will be the “Grand Cru” of Andalucía. It comes from 11 hectares of vines in a beautiful estate in the foothills of the Sierra de Grazalema near Arcos de la Frontera. The wine is made from 65% Petit Verdot, 25% Syrah, 5% Tintilla and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, all from separate plots, night harvested by hand and vinified separately. The grapes are cold macerated for 4 days before fermentation which lasts a little over 3 weeks. After blending the wine is aged for a year in French oak barrels. Naturally the percentages of grapes in the blend vary slightly from year to year. Total annual production of this Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz is around 6,000 bottles. The ribbon on the neck of the very heavy bottle, which is sealed with a quality 2 inch cork, shows the GPS coordinates of the bodega.

Price

29,60, Licores Corredera

La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 80 16.5%, Equipo Navazos

Appearance
Bright old gold verging on light amber with golden glints.
Nose

This wine is at a fascinating stage of development. Fragrant and super complex, at 15 years of age it could be an Amontillado but the flor has been protected as long as humanly possible. There are aromas of straw, briny seaweed, flor, almond and acetaldehyde along with traces of oak and gentle oxidative notes. While definitely still a Manzanilla Pasada it is close to the limit and not so far from Amontillado. The pinnacle of biological ageing.

Palate

Full, intense, concentrated and clean with perfect tangy acidity and a salty note along with traces of butter, toast, nuts like almond and hazelnut and a faint salted caramel hint. It is teetering on the brink, but still Manzanilla (not that it changes overnight). There is a slightly dry chalky feel and it leaves a long clean finish and a sense of deep satisfaction.

Comments

This outstanding and very interesting wine was bottled in December 2017 in a saca of 1,000 bottles (500 litres) from a single butt in the La Guita solera at the Miericordia bodega. This same butt supplied the wine for La Bota nos. 20, 40, 50 and 60. It is a bota punta, so called because it at one end of the solera. I have a feeling this butt is really a tonel (which is a bit bigger) or nearly all of its wine would have been bottled. It was filled almost to tocadedos however, to protect what little flor remains at around 15 years of age. The bitter flor notes are therefore slightly muted and there are distinct notes of oxidation as well as a higher alcohol level. Two and a half years have elapsed since the last saca from this butt, after which, as is not uncommon for a bota punta, it was replenished with wine from the same solera rather than the 1st criadera. The result is absolutely delicious, grab it!

Price
50 euros per 50cl, Guerrita

The Production Bodegas

Unlike any other wine region, the Marco de Jerez DO is divided into two distinct zones: the ageing zone and the production zone. The ageing zone or “Sherry Triangle” consists of the three towns of Jerez, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar and only wines aged here can carry the DO seal. The rest of the delimited area is the production zone, which naturally comprises all the vineyards, but the bodegas which age wine here are not allowed to sell wine under the DO seal. Instead much wine and must is sold to the shipping bodegas in the ageing zone which are allowed to sell it on as DO Sherry, simply because it has been aged, or further aged, there. They can’t sell Sherry-style wines under the IGP (Indicación Geográfica Protegida) Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz either, so the only DO open to them is that of Production Zone. It is more about where wine is aged rather than where it is produced.

The production bodegas produce wine which is often every bit as good as that of the shippers, but without the DO label they cannot sell it for the price it merits. Many do bottle wine for sale without the DO seal, and while they do get a “Bodega de Producción Control de Existencias” seal, and are allowed to use the name of the place they come from as well as terms like “Fino” and “Amontillado”, they can’t use the word “Sherry”. Another problem is that the costs of bottling, labelling and distribution add to the price and few customers would want to pay that without the guarantee of the word “Sherry”. This obviously hinders sales, but suits the big shipping bodegas very well as it limits competition. They are a much more powerful lobby at the Consejo and are in no hurry to see any change in the status quo, however unfair it might seem to the production bodegas, who would like to see the production zone merged with the ageing zone and thereby be able to avail themselves of the same rights. There are some moves afoot, however. In May 2018 the Consejo set up a commission to look into all the contentious issues in the area, one of which is whether to abolish the difference between Production and Ageing Bodegas. If that ever happens, it will take a while...

Some of the production bodegas produce outstanding wines which they are able to sell by their sheer merit. Chipiona is famous for Moscatel and César Florido has a fascinating bodega here which not only makes outstanding Moscatel, much of which is supplied to shipping bodegas who sell it under their own name, but also a range of very good “Sherries” called Cruz del Mar and the superb Peña del Águila range. Chiclana has two outstanding bodegas. Primitivo Collantes has been earning an excellent reputation in recent years with Fino Arroyuelo en rama, Amontillado Fino Fossi (both have scored 90 Parker points) and two white table wines, Socaire and Viña Matalian. Then there is Bodegas Sanatorio, better-known as Manuel Aragón, with its well-known Moscatel Gloria and Fino Granero. Here Equipo Navazos selected La Bota de Palo Cortado 62 which scored 98 Parker points and La Bota de Oloroso 63 which scored 99. So there can be no doubt that the production zone can make good wine, and given the chance, do much to enhance the range of wines on offer.

The following are the ten production zone bodegas registered with the Consejo Regulador and all of these bodegas have good quality bottled wines to sell, though they are hard to find in shops, despite their good prices, but they are well worth looking out for. Some also offer good local table wines.

Chipiona

Bodegas César Florido

Bodegas José Mellado Martín

Bodega Coop Católico Agrícola

Chiclana

Bodegas Barberá

Bodegas Miguel Guerra

Bodegas Primitivo Collantes

Bodegas Sanatorio (Manuel Aragón)

Bodega Coop. Viticultores Chiclaneros

Bodegas Vélez

Trebujena

Bodega Coop. Virgen de Palomares

2.6.18 International Wine Challenge 2018 2nd Tranche Sherry Results

Known as the “Wine Oscars”, the IWC is, along with the Decanter World Wine Awards, the biggest wine competition. It is held in two tranches (in November and April) with the Champion Trophy and Winemaker of the Year being chosen from the shortlists and announced at the awards dinner in London on 10^th July.  

Listed below are the Sherry results to date:   

               

Fortified Winemaker of the Year

Shortlist: Sergio Martínez (Lustau), Antonio Flores González Byass), Manuel José Valcárcel (Harveys)

Champion of Champions

Shortlist: Cuatro Palmas, González Byass

Sherry Trophy: Tres Palmas, González Byass

Pedro Ximénez Trophy: Harveys PX VORS

Amontillado Trophy: Amontillado VORS, Harveys

Cream Trophy: Matusalem VORS, González Byass

Fino Trophy: Tres Palmas, González Byass

Manzanilla Trophy: Booth’s Manzanilla (Williams & Humbert)

Oloroso Trophy: Oloroso del Puerto Almacenista González Obregón, Lustau

Palo Cortado Trophy: Palo Cortado, Harveys

Unfortunately there are just too many other awards to list here but there were 44 Gold medals, 41 Silvers, 19 Bronze, 9 Commendations and 3 Great Value, showing not only that Sherry is a serious international contender in terms of quality but also that it is at last being taken very seriously again.

1.6.18 Decanter World Wine Awards

DWW, now in its 15^th edition, is the largest wine competition in the world and this year it involved 275 international experts from 33 countries of whom 59 were Masters of Wine and 25 were Master Sommeliers. A total of 16,903 wines were entered and it took 2 weeks to taste them all using 49,000 glasses supplied by Riedl. All wines are tasted blind and tasters only know the wine’s region, style and price bracket. The best of the Gold winners win Platinum Medals, and they are re-tasted in search of the best in category for which they win a Best in Show Trophy. Only 0.03% of the wines achieved this. There were 50 Best in Show Trophies awarded and of the 9 won by Spain, Sherry took 3 (or 6%).

Best in Show Trophies:

Lustau Almacenista Palo Cortado Cayetano del Pino (97 points)

Lustau Oloroso VORS (98)

Hidalgo La Gitana Amontillado Napoleón VORS (97)

Platinum:

Osborne Solera AOS (97)

Osborne PX Venerable VORS (97)

González Byass Cuatro Palmas (97)

Lustau Oloroso VORS (98)

Gold (95-100 points)

Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla Pastrana (95)

Valdespino Don Gonzalo VOS (96)

Osborne Sibarita VORS (95)

Lustau Amontillado VORS (96)

Lustau PX VORS (96)

Lustau Almacenista Pata de Gallina, García Jarana (95)

González Byass Apóstoles VORS (95)

González Byass Amo. Del Duque VORS (95)

González Byass Matúsalem VORS (95)

González Byass  Noé VORS (95)

Silver, Bronze and Commended:

There were too many to list here, and the lower ranks have many own label brands not widely available, however 34 Sherries won Silver (89-94 points) and 30 won Bronze (86-89 points) with 7 Commended (all with 84-85 points). So in total Sherry won 81 medals and 7 Commendations.

31.5.18 Bodegas Portales Pérez Launch Manzanilla Pasada

At last the eagerly awaited Manzanilla Pasada en rama Los Caireles is on sale. It is made by carefully selecting wine from a few butts with over 10 years under flor. The Manzanilla solera in Calle Carmen Viejo is quite small with just 300 butts, but some of the best wine was kept aside and aged statically, and so only 700 bottles have been released and they will be much sought after. This small, charming family-owned bodega in Sanlucar, which goes back five generations, punches well above its weight and all their products are of high quality.

Vermut Atamán 17%, Bodegas Barbadillo

Appearance
Deep brown mahogany fading to amber with copper glints.
Nose
Forthcoming and complex with pronounced sweet notes of caramel, orange peel, brown sugar and Oloroso and background traces of raisin, mint, menthol, eucalyptus, wormwood and quinine. It has elements of both Jerez Quina or even Ponche but there's more to it with all those botanicals. It seems fairly straightforward at first but quickly develops all sorts of nuances as it opens out
Palate
Quite sweet and fairly fruity initially with orange notes until the bitterness kicks in pushing the sweetness into the background and delivering quite a drying, bitter punch with loads of quinine and wormwood in contrast to the sweet luscious texture. A fantastic sweet ying and bitter yang balance makes it very stylish - and moreish - with great length, and it is lovely chilled on its own or mixed in all sorts of drinks. As Eddie Cochran would have said, "it's something else".
Comments

An Ataman is a Cossack leader or fighting horseman of the Caucasus where Russia meets Turkey, and perhaps this fierceness has something in common with the name of the brand. Certainly those at the bodega nowadays can find no reason for Manuel Barbadillo to choose this name for the brand he launched in 1943. After over four decades languishing in butts and demijohns at the firm's Angioletti and El Toro bodegas, it has now been re-launched, on the 75th anniversary or the original launch, as Barbadillo's unique contribution to the Vermouth revival. First the bodega launched tiny quantities of the original in half bottles (at 50 euros each) but has now launched a new version. Since the original recipe has disappeared, a lot of work has gone in to recreate the vermouth, which is sold using the original logo. It is made from a base of Manzanilla and Oloroso infused with a secret mix of herbs and botanicals which include wormwood, cassia (a kind of cinnamon), bitter orange peel, rosemary and elderberries, macerated in butts. Only small batches of 1,500 bottles are being released. It is a little more bitter than most vermouths and could almost be called a bitters, so it has infinite mixing and cocktail potential.

Price
14,95 per 50cl, De Albariza