Palo Cortado Reliquia 22%, Barbadillo

Appearance
Black-tinged amber fading through yellow with reddy coppery tints to a pale green note at the rim, legs. Looks very old.
Nose
Intensely beautiful with an air of sweetness consisting of hints of toasted almonds and hazelnuts, garrapiñadas (almonds cooked in caramel), crema catalana (creme brulée), traces of linseed oil and honey. There is also a drier side with notes of oak and walnut shell, even some flor-related salinity, but everything is incredibly well balanced with a complexity that leaves you happy just to smell it for hours on end. What a fabulous nose!

Palate
Now it is drier, more concentrated - intense - with slightly more obvious bitterness from the wood, after all this is very old wine, hints of nuts and nut oil, more walnutty, much more about structure than aroma, there are still saline notes from the wines's Manzanilla past (believe it or not), but there are also lingering aromas from the nose which help balance things and which provide almost unbelievable length. This is wonderful!
Comments
Robert Parker's man in Spain, Luis Gutierrez awarded this wine 100 points and rightly so: it is as close to perfection as you will get. The wine's age makes a mockery of the VORS system so much older is it than 30 years, so it does not bear that label.

In the mid XIX century Barbadillo acquired some already very old wines from Manuel Argüeso, for which he paid way over the odds at 14,000 pesos per butt at a time when a butt of Manzanilla cost about 1,200 pesos. This gives us an idea of the age and quality of the wines. To these he added more old wines bought from the "sacristies" of other prestigious bodegas of the day and formed a Palo Cortado solera consisting of 120 butts in eight scales in his bodega La Cilla.

The firm markets three Palos Cortados, all from the same solera: Obispo Gascón, from the 5th clase or criadera, The VORS from the third, and Reliquia from the solera itself .The real reliquias, however, are the wines in a couple of butts kept aside and marked "NO" meaning for exclusive family use. They are only occasionally refreshed to cover losses and only with wines of a similar age, meaning that they are roughly 150 years old, and thus amongst the very oldest wines in Jerez.

Price
220.00 euros about 4 or 5 years ago in Spain, but now almost unobtainable and will probably set you back over £600 (Farr Vintners). Bottled (very occasionally) in hand-blown decanters and packed in an individual wooden box.

16.3.15 Terry Pratchett & Sherry; Problems for Joaquin Rivero

Another interesting snippet from Jose Luis Jimenez is the news that Terry Pratchett was a bit of a fan of Sherry. The highly successful fantasy and science fiction author of over 70 books, who died last week after a long battle with Alzheimer, mentioned Sherry many times in his books. His humour and fine sense of irony helped to link his characters with Sherry, and hopefully promote it to a wider audience. He sold over 85 million copies, and will probably sell even more now.

(foto: wikipedia)

Joaquín Rivero, billionaire owner of Bodegas Tradición, is facing a possible jail sentence and fine by a Paris court. The worst case scenario is at least 3 years in jail and a €200m fine, however a further appeal hearing is expected to take place in 12 – 18 months, and his lawyer says that various matters were not properly taken into account. The case relates to alleged misappropriation of funds during the take-over of a French property company, Gecina, by his company, Metrovacesa.

Joaquin Rivero (foto: lavozdigital)

Old Sherry Labels

My friend Jose Luis Jimenez sent me these lovely pictures which show how art and Flamenco artists served as models for late XIX and early XX century Sherry labels. It is interesting how closely Romate's Dulce de Gloria label resembles the photo of Pepa Ruiz, a gypsy dancer. Romate still use such labels for Manzanilla Viva La Pepa and Fino Perdido. Fino Buleria was a brand from Palomino y Vergara, but the name (if not the soleras) now belongs to Dios Baco.

Palo Cortado VORS 19.5% Tradicion

Appearance
Amber tinged old gold, legs.
Nose
Delicate and restrained at first but opens up gradually with lots of hazelnuts and hints of bitter almonds and very slightly salty, bitter, yet at the same time there is a suspicion of sweetness: turron, sugared almonds, and polished furniture, it is a very Amontillado nose, very complex, ever evolving and ever growing in intensity. Delightful.
Palate
Generous in flavour and texture yet fairly light and extremely elegant but still growing in intensity, a certain crispness even bitterness and saltiness from long lost flor give way to sweetish walnutty and savoury oxidative Oloroso notes which vie with hints of grippy oak to add complexity. So much is happening in the glass, nothing excessive, all in perfect balance with terrific length. This is an elegant beauty and a character at the same time.
Comments
At a mere 32 years of age, this is the youngest wine  Tradicion produce (apart from the PX, the Cream and the Fino). This was bottle no. 41 of the 2,500 released unfiltered in 2014.
Price
£55-60 per 75cl bottle. UK agents Raeburn Fine wines.

Bodegas: José Bustamante SL

José Bustamante y Sánchez was born in Málaga and moved to Jerez where he set up a small bodega in 1921 at C/San Francisco Javier, 3. He was essentially an almacenista but big enough to be selling his own brands of both Sherry and Brandy. 

Bustamante brands included:

Fino Betis; Amontillado Paso Doble; Fragata East India Medium Oloroso;  Reverencia Cream;  Special Solera Old Brown Sherry;  Calesa Manzanilla Pasada;  Polca Moscatel Viejísimo, as well as a complete range of spirits.

The bodega along with its soleras was bought by Sánchez Romate and sold in 2001 to Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla in neighbouring C/Jardinillo. These soleras - apart from the PX and obviously the Manzanilla which was bought in - now produce the very fine Fernando de Castilla Antique range.

2.3.15 Aecovi in Receivership

The leading cooperative in Jerez established at the end of the 1980s with great hopes now finds itself in receivership owing over €1m, some say more like €2m. Aecovi consists of a group of cooperatives: Coop Las Angustias which is owed €200,000, Covisan €130.000 along with the Coops of Chiclana and Chipiona which are owed unspecified amounts.

Aecovi has been facing cash flow difficulties since early this year and is meeting with its creditors, mainly banks and public institutions, but so far without the desired result. It is trying not to involve the member coops in its problems, though more support from them would have been helpful. The administrators are trying to find a way to re-float Aecovi and avoid liquidation.

The cooperative has a large range of products: three ranges of Sherry: Alejandro, Santiago and Mira la Mar, Sherry vinegar, sauces and condiments. They have a modest modern office block, a laboratory, bottling plant and 17 “young and dynamic” staff. They already sell wine in Russia, Japan, Australia, the US and the UK, and were really going places, but the crisis caught up with them. Let us hope this enterprising group can be saved.

La Bota de Palo Cortado "Bota No" No. 41 22%, Equipo Navazos

Appearance
Bright, fairly deep mahogany with slight reddish tints fading through yellow to a touch of green at the rim, slow legs.
Nose
Incredibly fragrant, complex and concentrated yet lively with sweet notes of cinnamon, caramelised orange peel, dried apricot, garrapiñadas, turron de yema tostada, toast, wafer biscuits, then saline hints, polished furniture, oak, cedar, leather, linseed oil, oil paint, very old yet very clean and fresh as a daisy. There are just too many nuances here to identify but they are all so exquisitely harmonised - honed into a quite beautiful and beguiling aroma which bursts out of the glass.

Palate
Powerful, tangy and dry, the structure is more obvious now and there's some tannin and acidity with traces of salinity and savoury walnut bitterness and wood. This is full-on and deeply tasty making one salivate. Yet quietly in the background there's that sweet side ready to help when the going gets tough, balancing things out to a perfectly balanced finish with interminable length. Superb.
Comments
This wine comes from a very small saca (hence half bottles) made in February 2013 of wine selected from the best butts of the centenarian GF 30 solera from Bodegas Gaspar Florido in Sanlucar. I gather that this solera once belonged to Benito Rodriguez La-Cave, whose family merged with Delgado Zuleta giving them the great Quo Vadis solera. The old firm of Gaspar Florido was bought by Bodegas Pedro Romero in 2007 and the GF 25 and GF 30 soleras were moved to Romero's "sacristy" which, by chance is not far from their original location.

The wines from these soleras were bottled by Florido as "Jerez Viejisimo" as in Gaspar's mind there is a blurring of style between Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado when they are extremely old. Equipo Navazos however, are convinced that this is definitely a Palo Cortado, and it scored 98 well- deserved Parker points from Luis Gutierrez.
Price
About 79.00 per half bottle. Maybe 6 left in the UK from importer Rhone to Rioja who have just been taken over by Alliance Wines.