Translated from a fascinating article in El
Mundo Vino by Jose Angel Dianes (May 2007)
Sometimes
we wine lovers have the good fortune that some of
the many butts which, containing very fine or sometimes old wine and lying
there in obscurity separate from the traditional andaluz bodega come out from
the shadows and transcend their imposed silence and let themselves be known to
connoisseurs. Such initiatives usually allow timely bottlings which a chosen
few can enjoy, but after which these wines run the risk of falling back into
obscurity.
So what should be done? Ideally, this is
the opportunity to create a solera which would allow the regular bottling of
this wine, thus retaining its quality and hopefully assuring its future. Thanks
to the initiative of Jesus Barquin and Eduardo Ojeda, we have been able to
enjoy just such occasions recently with some real treasures from the Sanlucar
bodega of Sanchez Ayala, founded in 1789.
Wines like Navazos, NPI or Las Cañas and
others which are yet to see the light of day. The bodegas of Sanlucar, which
have for so long have played the role of almacenistas for the Jerez brands,
have accumulated large quantities of wine which hasn’t had a market, but thanks
to the patient and responsible work of the capataces has been kept alive for
ageing. Because of the negligible releases of these wines, in most cases they
end up becoming part of some blend.
This is what had happened to the already
known Navazos or NPI, but also to other Sanchez Ayala wines like Don Paco or
Arizon. Let’s examine each one according to what we can establish of their
origins and historical antecedents. Once we have a clearer vision, we will
reveal the plans, which from inside the bodega and guided by the forerunners of
La Bota de.. can be considered as the basis
for a solera line which will ensure future consumption of these enological jewels.
Navazos
The starter’s pistol was fired by the
Amontillado Navazos. It is a singular wine, which distances itself from what is
usually considered the archetypical Amontillado. The principal organoleptic
reason for that is the lack of dominance of the oxidative profile – we could be
talking about a very old Manzanilla Pasada. Yet, if we do the sums, the wine in
all probability averages over 30 years old. But how can a wine of this age not
have been more affected by oxidation? To answer that, we must submerge
ourselves in the past of the butts which form the Navazos solera.
Let’s go back. When our 2 friends,
accompanied by the great connoisseur Alvaro Giron, came across the 60 butts
from which Navazos was selected, in the bodega Sanchez Ayala in the lower
quarter of Sanlucar, they met an old wine but one with a marked crianza
biologica character on the nose and a concentrated dryness in the mouth. From
what could be established with help from the last 2 capataces of the bodega,
these butts came from a larger number of butts of a natural Amontillado, a wine
which had stopped supporting flor and which had begun to oxidise, and which had
been bought by the previous owners of Sanchez Ayala, before the bodega was
acquired by Jose Luis Barrero.
During the time of Jose Luis’ predecessors
the solera’s scales were almost certainly run, but since its acquisition by JLB
in 1986, they were not, except for small rackings to reduce the number of butts
where content had evaporated over time. These losses, of course, augmented the
alcohol content to 20%. There never took place a second fortification, and the
flor died off naturally as the yeast nutrients decreased.
This is a key factor. There were no sacas,
and therefore no air to replenish the flor or to oxidise the wine as in an
active Amontillado solera. Furthermore, each butt followed its own path as
there was no horizontal blending either. And the wine has remained in the
perfect atmosphere for Manzanilla – low temperature and high humidity, rather
than being moved to a warmer, drier bodega for oxidative crianza. These
conditions have slowed down the oxidation. What we have is a Manzanilla
Pasada Amontillada which could normally
be produced in say 10 years, which, after a productive period, stopped for 21
years, and is now over 30 years of average age.
Don
Paco, NPI & Arizon
Somewhat older than Navazos is the Amontillado
Don Paco. From references to its origins and its organoleptic profile, it is an
Amontillado with an average age of around 40 years. It is a very old wine, more
concentrated by age than Navazos, and in a more oxidised state than its
“predecessor”. The solera has no scales, just 13 butts, plus another two,
called “las botas del abuelo y de la abuela” which are in an intermediate
state, in a sort of organoleptic no-man’s-land with their own character which
is between the best butts of Navazos and the most fino of those of Don Paco.
Again we have butts which have been here forever, probably as a result of
acquisitions and the ownership passing through the generations of the previous
owners.
The NPI is a very salty wine – more than
saline, a concentrated monster created by age. It was already in the bodega 40
years ago marked as NPI, possibly by one of the Sanchez Portales, past owners
of the bodega. There is no record of sacas between 1968 and 2007, and nobody is
certain when a saca was last done. No-one knows the wine’s history, and its
story probably died with some past capataz.
The Palo Cortado Arizon is a wine which
still hasn’t come out, a parallel product to these other soleras. The solera
consists of two butts from the “little Altar” of the Don Paco solera which have
evolved slightly differently to the others. Organoleptically they are not
Amontillado but Palo Cortado, and have been marked as such after the experience
of Navazos and all the classification that that entailed. Although its origin
is the Don Paco solera, and probably topped up occasionally from Navazos, it’s
future is not yet clear, since its particular profile needs to be maintained
and developed.
Las
Canas y Gabriela
Gabriela, along with Pipiola is the Sanchez
Ayala Manzanilla, well known locally and often sold in bulk. It is the firm’s
main solera as much for its quantity (a total of 750 butts/toneles) as for its
reputation. The butts are really old and many undoubtedly go back 200 years to
the firm’s founding. It is a very authentic Manzanilla, with lots of flor
character and good acidity, Its freshness and quality are already evident in
sobretablas and it has a lot of extract, guaranteeing that it will provide the
necessary nourishment for the flor for the long life of the wine. The solera
has 12 scales-11 criaderas, the 6th of which is triple and is only
run alternately:
11 Criadera – 48 butts, refreshed from
sobretablas from finca Las Canas, a white wine full of character and extract
10 Criadera – 50 butts
9 Criadera – 48 butts
8 Criadera – 91 butts
7 Criadera – 51 toneles (bigger than butts)
wine beginning to age by now
6 Criadera – 51,53,55 butts (159) run
alternately allowing the wine to rest, arriving at the 5th criadera
more mature
5 Criadera – 66 butts
4 Criadera – 55 butts
3.criadera – 46 toneles
2 Criadera – 40 butts
1 Criadera – 44 butts
Solera – Total of 46 butts and toneles, the
butts in one row above the toneles.
In some of these we can see that despite
the ideal microclimatic conditions of the bodega, the flor disappears partially
at certain times of year, having virtually run out of nutrition from the wine.
It will now easily be 6 years old.
The dynamics of this solera are
complicated. A small saca is done every 20-30 days, but all the scales are not
run each time. Instead the scales are run up to the 3rd criadera
which is left unrefreshed. Once the 3rd has gone through 2 sacas, it
is refreshed from the 4th and the scales above are run.
8 of the toneles in the solera were
selected for bottling as Las Canas in the 4th “La Bota de”. Las
Canas is a finca whose vineyards are situated in the Jerez area of Balbaina,
and whose grapes provide the wine for the house’s Manzanilla. The bodega has
owned the brand for a long time, despite not bottling it as such regularly.
Like Gabriela, this is a very traditional
and authentic Manzanilla with an absolute biological character. This has been
achieved, as it always has, by situating the butts in the places in the Barrio
Bajo bodega which have the most perfect microclimate for this kind of wine. A
place which benefits from a freshwater aquifer close to the albero, as well as
Atlantic humidity brought by the west winds. Furthermore the high number of
scales in the Manzanilla solera means the scales are run more, providing oxygen
to the flor. It is the purest selection of the Gabriela solera.
Tracing
the life cycle
For the last 20 years or so, the mermas and
sacas of NPI have been replaced with Don Paco, and its own by Navazos. But
Navazos has never been refreshed, and so the number of butts has diminished.
We should note here an interesting detail,
pointed out by the capataz, Luis Gallego. It is very probable that these butts
from Gabriela which are definitively amontillado-ing could easily have gone to
stop the Navazos butts, but which in all probability happened sporadically.
So the obvious question was how to refresh
the Navazos butts; how to secure the future of these old soleras. The answer
was naturally an old Manzanilla. The reactivation of the connection between a
Manzanilla solera and Navazos is effectively planned with Las Canas/Gabriela.
But in general the idea with this solera structure is not to establish a
continuous cycle of running the scales, but to make some blends where necessary
and to leave each stopped butt to follow its course. This is the most practical
way to deal with the sporadic bottling of this kind of wine, producing a wine
with a different personality each time. This is, of course, the opposite of
what the traditional solera system is supposed to do, but things here are
different, and not always as written in text books, which usually express the
general practice, but lack the details which make it really authentic.
So here we are at the birth of a solera,
putting things in order for the rebirth of a world class wine. It is the happy recuperation of an important
fragment of the cultural patrimony of a town and its people who must – and do –
give a great part of their lives to their wine.
