Cream Isabela 17.5%, Valdespino

Appearance

Deep blacky walnut mahogany to amber at the rim

Nose

Serious. Slightly savoury and while there are the expected notes of fruity pasas and caramel there is more of an aroma of old Oloroso with hints of oak, tobacco, toasted almonds, walnuts, figs, well used old barrels and traces of umami, and even chocolate. Most attractive.

Palate

Rich, structured and complex with a perfect balance of PX sweetness and serious Oloroso, seamlessly intertwined and in favour of the latter. There is an attractive lushness with a slight toffee note and wonderful texture, and even a trace of tannin. The wine has a tightly honed yet supremely elegant character and is not excessively sweet, it is all about flavour.

Comments

Isabela is a comparative newcomer to the Valdespino range. It was commissioned by José Estévez, founder of Grupo Estévez, as a tribute to his beloved wife, Isabel Puerto, not long after the acquisition of Valdespino in 1999, though it did fill a gap in the range. Being Valdespino it is of fine quality and comes from a centenarian solera which has always blended Oloroso with Pedro Ximénez. The ratio is around 75% Oloroso and 25% PX giving 130g/l sugars, and the wine really shows that being blended from the start in an old solera makes all the difference in terms of complexity and homogeneity. It has an average age of over 15 years. Cream Sherry might be regarded as the root of all Sherry's problems, but when it is as good as this, and it is really good, well one thinks of forgiveness. Proper Sherry, just a bit sweeter.

Price
7.95 euros, Licores Corredera

Bodegas: Ágreda

Diego de Ágreda, Viscount of Casa Tejada, was born in 1719 and made a great deal of money as a merchant in Mexico. His son Diego de Ágreda y Martínez de Tejada y Cabezón (b 1755) was ennobled in 1811 as I Conde de Casa Ágreda and the title, and great wealth, passed down the family.

José Antonio Ágreda Ximénez Chantre was born in Cádiz in 1790, the son of Diego’s brother Simón, and in 1813 he married Francisca Dominé Mena. He also made money in Mexico before returning to set up in business in Sevilla from about 1829, moving to Jerez around 1864. Among his many business interests was a bodega in Plaza Atarazanas (now San Andrés) and at that time he was exporting between 1,500 and 2,000 butts of mature wine. The Ágreda family were keen promoters and investors in various good projects like the Gauadalquivir Navigation Company; bringing a water supply from the El Tempul spring to the city in 1869 and in the urban railway which was finally inaugurated in 1872. José Antonio was also a founding shareholder in the Bank of Jerez and dabbled in politics.

From about 1870 his son Diego de Ágreda y Dominé continued successfully with the family businesses, especially Sherry. He married Petra Pérez de Grandallana, and of their two children, María Josefa married Manuel Críspulo and José Antonio married Luisa, two of the nine children of Manuel María González Ángel, founder of González Byass and his wife María Victorina Soto Lavaggi.

The Ágreda house was on the corner of Plaza Atarazanas (now San Andrés) and Calle Collantes (now C/Compañía de María, renamed after the nuns who bought the house in 1889) and was a magnificent XVIII century building in Arabic style with a classic Moorish patio, fine gardens and adjacent coach house. It was bought in 1859 from the Gordon family who had lived there since 1820. Opposite was a large eight aisle bodega which housed between 8,000 and 9,000 butts, some of which contained very old wine from the 1770s. It was famous for its beautiful gardens but they owned yet another bodega in the Calle Antona de Dios.

The firm owned the Las Cañas vineyard in the pago Balbaina (now Sánchez Ayala) and their Fino came from there, along with very fine Amontillado. Henry Vizetelly describes tasting unfortified Fino "of great delicacy" at Las Cañas. The casa de viña, which had its own little oratory, was a two storey affair and the owners used the upper apartments as a summer residence while the ground floor was the bodega, used for pressing and fermenting, although latterly fermentation was conducted in Jerez. Ágreda was one of many firms which went out of business after the arrival of Phylloxera and had disappeared by the turn of the century.

Brandy Punto Azul Prestige Solera Gran Reserva 40%, Pedro Romero

Appearance

Deep, walnut/mahogany to amber with a trace of green at the rim, legs.

Nose

Powerful notes of wood, old barrels, leather and Oloroso with traces of vanilla, allspice, dried fruit - pasa - dried orange peel, toffee, toasted almond, just the complex array one would expect from such an old brandy. And it doesn't hold back.

Palate

A gentle sweetness greets the palate, fading slightly as the full force comes through. It is big concentrated and dry yet has remarkably little aggressiveness in the tannin. Oloroso, dried fruit and wood are the principal flavours, between which nestle subtle sweeter notes of fruit and caramel. It is a very serious brandy, and a little drop of water would be forgiven just to make it easier.

Comments

I was very lucky to get hold of this, as it is not only the original, bottled by Pedro Romero, but also about 26 euros cheaper than the current price for the brand which is now owned by Francisco Yuste. Even at 96 euros it is cheap for what it is.This legendary Sanlúcar brandy comes from soleras consisting of some 200 butts or more established at the end of the XIX century and located in their own bodega. The firm was one of the first to sell brandy in bottle in 1891. There were three small sacas of Prestige each year. The name Punto Azul or Blue Spot derives from the quality markings used on American oak staves imported from Costa Rica, in which the blue spot was the finest. There are two Punto Azul brandies: Prestige, with over 50 years solera age and Heritage, with over 80. Both were 100% holandas, 65% of which was distilled from Palomino wine. The butts were seasoned with Oloroso. Each bottle carries a card stamped with the bottle's number tied with gold string to the neck. In the days of the bodega's Club Punto Azul Heritage this number equated to a person's membership number. Among their benefits, members had access to some of the bodega's finest products - but in limited quantities.

Price

69.75 Roali, Mijas

25 Years Without Camarón

Today is the 25th anniversary of the passing of the Flamenco legend José Monje Cruz, better known as El Camarón de la Isla, and large numbers of people in his native San Fernando Cádiz have turned out to pay their respects while his sisters Isabel and Remedios placed a floral tribute at his mausoleum. His funeral in 1992 attracted massive numbers of people and among those who carried his coffin draped with a gypsy flag were two other Flamenco Legends; the guitarists Paco de Lucía, sadly also gone, and Tomatito. Descansa en paz Camarón.

Here is a link to a video of Camarón and Paco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzG7K4-lY0&index=4&list=RDYSAq2oJB53E

Camaron and his wife Dolores Montoya "La Chispa"

Xylella Fastidiosa

This phytopathogenic bacterium (known as Pierce’s Disease in the US) is deadly to vines as well as olives, almonds, citrus and other fruit trees and has been causing destruction in southern Italy, where its presence was first detected in 2013. It was found in the Balearic Islands in 2016 and now for the first time in mainland Spain in Alicante. The bacterium is spread by insects which feed on the plants’ sap, and once the plant is infected a sort of gel forms which blocks the sap flow. It has been causing extensive damage in California since the 1930s or earlier especially in vines, usually spread by an insect known as the “glassy winged sharpshooter”. There is no cure and all that can be done for the moment is to uproot and destroy plants in a radius of 100 metres of the infected one and monitor a radius of 10 kilometres to try to contain the contagion. While insecticide will also hopefully prevent further infection, there are prohibitions on movement of plants from infected areas and on the planting of possible hosts. If this is the new Phylloxera, we are hopefully better prepared this time. Andalucía has been on the alert since 2014, so let us hope Sherry will not be affected.

An infected vine leaf

1.7.17 Lost Jerez Bodega Reborn

For a town which has become so sadly accustomed to the loss of famous bodegas, it will come as wonderful news that one such is being revitalised. Jerez businessman Antonio Sánchez Gago has been working on the project for years already and has bought the name of the once famous bodega Fernández-Gao as well as the names of its most emblematic brands with the aim of returning some high quality wines and brandy from old family soleras to the market. The firm’s beginnings date back to 1750. His brother Juan Carlos, who has a degree in chemistry from the University of Cádiz, will be the oenologist. The new firm is called Fernández-Gao Vinos y Brandies SL.

They have been restoring old bodegas in the centre of Jerez which were in a state of abandon or had been converted to other uses. Currently they have two, one in Calle Pajarete (formerly Real Tesoro) and another in Calle Arcos which was the one where the original Fernández-Gao started out. They already have wines on the market; Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado all averaging 20 years old and a Medium-Sweet at around 12 years old, and the presentation is excellent. They are to be heartily congratulated.

30.6.17 Williams & Humbert Launch New Online Shop

The new shop stocks all the company’s surprisingly wide range of products from Jabugo ham, cheese and olive oils and vinegar to Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Sherry, Vermouth, liqueurs, rum, brandy, vodka, gin and a variety of gourmet gift packs. Delivery is only available in Spain however. Still, the site is well worth looking at as each product is listed in considerable detail. www.tiendawilliamshumbert.com

Here is a nice little video about it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8xMfRN8SlA&feature=youtu.be