Palo Cortado 12 YO Great Duke 18%, Juan Piñero

Appearance

Bright deep amber - chestnut with old gold reflections.

Nose

Elegant and attractive with lots of almond and hazelnut with a hint of salted caramel and the faintest background bitterness. It resembles a fairly young Amontillado and there are gentle notes of vanilla and American oak, and a faint suggestion of orange peel, really quite fragrant.

Palate

Again elegant, and reasonably light, perhaps more in the Amontillado style, but there is a little more weight on the palate. It has a decent acidity and lightness of touch which could only come from Sanlúcar. It is at a lovely stage of development where one can make out clearly the origins of the wine and there is a distinct and attractive Manzanilla note to it.

Comments

This is one of a new range consisting of Oloroso, Amontillado and Palo Cortado all sold at 12 years old. It replaces the equivalent old range and the bodega assures me it is exactly the same, just a new label, though I seem to remember a little more body. The choice of name is down to what they feel would sell better in export markets. Nonetheless, it is a delicious wine. The mosto is supplied from the pago Hornillos by Vina Callejuela, and the PC solera has three criaderas with one saca each year.

Price
15,75 Licores Corredera

Manzanilla La Gitana on Draught!

Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana have patented a system for serving Manzanilla La Gitana on draught, like beer. It consists of a 16 litre bag-in-box beneath the counter which feeds chilled Manzanilla to a bar-mounted dispense-tap in the shape of a large bottle of La Gitana. The firm invested 100,000€ in the system, and it almost floundered with the Consejo Regulador’s ban on BIB, but the Junta decided to allow it in the catering trade.

The firm is careful to protect its image by only offering the system to better quality bars, and over 270 are now using it. It has been very successful; some say they were selling the equivalent of 40 cases a year before, but are now selling 400. Most of the systems are to be found in bars in Andalucía, while some 10 bars in the USA have them as does the Sherry Club in Ginza, Japan. Hidalgo’s excellent single vineyard Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana is also available, luckily not quite so cold, on draught in one Sanlúcar establishment; Restaurante Puerta de la Victoria, a few steps from the bodega itself.

4/4/18 Consejo Opens Debate on Supporting New Wines of the Area

The last few years have seen a wave of new wines being produced in the Marco de Jerez which is attracting much attention by revitalising traditions, recuperating old native grape varieties, reviving old artisan winemaking practices and focusing on the terroir. It has attracted the interest of both producers and institutions and these characterful wines, which so beautifully express their origins and traditions, will be the subject of debate in a new commission set up by the Consejo Regulador to look into their possible incorporation into the regulations. The idea is to study the viability of including what is already happening in the area, both with the big bodegas and the dynamic young winemakers, to find a way to legalise their production to open the door to commercialising the wines with a DO seal, which many undoubtedly merit.

This parallel reality encompasses traditional winemaking methods such as unfortified Sherries made from extra ripe grapes, perhaps sunned and with little or no crianza, wines made from almost lost local grape varieties which have been resuscitated like Mantua and Perruno as well as other older clones of Palomino.  It also encompasses other types of wine like mosto and sobretablas used to make Sherry, and those made by cooperatives and bodegas located in the production zone, which can only be sold with the name of the type of wine and its town of origin but without the DO seal.

The plan is to study, avoiding where possible any conflict, the new winemaking realities which are taking off in the area in terms of what Sherry used to be before the DO regulations restricted the possibilities with fortification and ageing requirements. While the commission was formally constituted on Monday, there is no set calendar for meetings so far, but at a preliminary meeting the various topics for debate were put on the table with a view to trying to achieve consensus through debate before submitting them to a full Consejo meeting for approbation. Attending the meeting were officials from the Consejo, Fedejerez, Asevi-Asaja and the cooperatives, that is to say all interested parties – except the Manzanilleros of Sanlúcar, who are not happy with the inclusion of the contentious issue of Fino from Sanlúcar, which Fedejerez wants to veto.

On the agenda are certain other conflictive issues which have been festering such as the extension of the ageing zone to include the production zone, but the focus has been switched to look at other formulas to commercialise the wines of those communities which are not in the ageing zone and thus unable to use the DO seal. Another issue is the definition of grape quality parameters to more accurately assess prices. The Consejo director, César Saldaña, says the agenda is not closed, and any issue which is reasonable and would need a modification of the regulations can be added. He also expressed the desire of the Consejo that the Manzanilleros reconsider their position so that the commission can count on the participation of everybody.

Bodegas: José Alonso y Pajares

José Alonso y Pajares founded a bodega in El Puerto de Santa María in 1870 in the Calle Postigo on the corner with Calle Santa Fé. He operated successfully as an almacenista and exporter and while the bodega was small it was busy, sending its wines and spirits all over the world. In fact he won various medals and diplomas for quality at exhibitions in Europe and America, and supplied more than one royal household.

A late XIX century label blank

Wine was sold in bulk under the style J Alonso and in bottle under the style José Alonso Pajares and was as natural as possible, something he made a feature of. Labels for the bottles were produced by the best designers and printers in Paris, Málaga and Jerez. The range of Sherries was considerable, with all the standard styles as well as Manzanilla Fina and Moscatel Superior and Vermouth. Various other lines were produced in their own small distillery: Anís, Ojén (a style of anís made famous in Ojén (Málaga). They even had the nerve to promote their “Cognac Fine Champagne” at the great exhibition in Paris, while they also sold red and white table wine from La Mancha.

José was married to María de los Dolores Ruiz de Cortázar y Calderón but since they had no children she inherited the bodega after his death using the name Viuda de Pajares until her brother José A Ruiz de Cortázar Calderón took over, reverting to the name José Alonso Pajares and adding “Sucesor José A Ruiz de Cortázar” by 1902. He also moved to premises in Calle Albareda, and interestingly was married to one of the daughters of the bodegueros Adolfo and Manuela Tosar. At this time there were no fewer than 25 bodegas, 8 distilleries and 18 cooperages operating in El Puerto; how times change! After  José's  death in 1937 the business was wound up.

Barbazul Blanco 2016 12%, Huerta de Albalá

Appearance

Full strawy yellowy gold with bright golden highlights.

Nose

Very slightly floral with a trace of orange blossom and lots of ripe Chardonnay fruit; apricot and ripe peach. There is a certain richness which comes from the greater ripeness than that of Burgundy for example yet the Chardonnay character is unmistakable.

Palate

There is definitely some body here which is nicely balanced with a decent acidity and a gentle texture, and the wine has plenty of tangy ripe yellow fruit. A hint of mineral gives away the albariza. After a full, quite intense start the wine has a fresh, clean, slightly mineral finish.

Comments

This is Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz Chardonnay grown in a Sherry vineyard! While the firm is based at Arcos where it makes the red wines, it also owns a 160 hectare albariza vineyard in the pago Balbaína (bought from Osborne) where Chardonnay now accounts for 17% of their total vines. It sits at between 100 and 200 metres above sea level. The wine was first released in 2012. The must is pressed from hand picked grapes and fermented in stainless steel tanks at very low temperature (@ 12 C) for around three weeks. Then it rests on lees before stabilisation and bottling. The wine is complex for the money despite no oak ageing - something Taberner know a lot about.

Price
6.60 euros, Licores Corredera

 

Pedro Ximénez Niños VORS 15%, Valdespino

Appearance
Dense, completely opaque and completely black except for a tiny narrow brown to amber edge. It is viscous and stains the glass for a while.
Nose

Intense, concentrated, serious and super complex, you can immediately tell this is very old. It is not the usual up front fruity raisins which predominate but distinct, almost bitter oak aromas from the long ageing in wood, along with toasted notes like coffee, a trace of volatile acidity, licorice and hints of spice. The dried fruit notes are there of course, intense but less dominant, and it doesn't smell as sweet as most.

Palate

The unctuous, luscious dried fruit - but older and more reduced - presents first and is soon followed by those delicious, ever so slightly bitter toasted notes almost like burned coffee on toast mixed with toffee. Then it all comes together in perfect balance with the richness on one side balanced by the bitterness and decent acidity on the other. It is incredibly nuanced, super long and, well, wonderful.
Comments

This is one of the truly great PX wines. A VORS must have an average age of at least 30 years, but in fact this one is over 60. The solera dates from the end of the XIX century and consists of only 8 butts, so naturally it is not released very often. Selected wine of well over 10 years of age from the firm's PX El Candado solera is used to refresh the youngest criadera of this solera, and the final wine contains some 440 g/l sugars but is well balanced by 5.7 g/l acidity (expressed as tartaric acid) and the subtle notes of oak imparted by age. It is quite magnificent and scored a well deserved 98 Parker points.

Price
95 euros per half bottle, Er Guerrita

 

Fino Alexandro 15% Bodegas Yuste

Appearance
Slightly brassy, strawy mid gold with golden highlights.
Nose

Some depth here with fairly intense notes of straw, minerals, a little flor bitterness, faint oxidation from bottle age and some hints of fallen leaves and wax. It smells very natural and very Fino.

Palate

Full and characterful, clean and tasty and better than I remember it - not there was anything wrong with it before. Some bottle age has made it slightly more serious and it is nicely balanced with a gentle bitter flor edge and a grassy strawy roundness with a long clean finish.

Comments

Alexandro was a good quality range of Sherries bottled by the "cooperative of cooperatives" in Jerez, Aecovi, which amalgamated four smaller ones in 1989. Unfortunately the crisis hit it hard and it went into receivership in March 2015. So I was surprised to come across this Fino bottled by Francisco Yuste in July 2016. The original was just over 3 years old and it now has a screwcap rather than the old stopper cork. The approximately 20 months in bottle have rounded it off nicely and added a little complexity, so it was a very good buy.

Price
7 euros Pura Cepa