Manzanilla Madura en rama Afanas 15%, Callejuela

Appearance
Clean strawy gold with golden highlights.
Nose

Quite complex and very saline and mineral, it definitely has that zippy steely seaside air of a classic Manzanilla along with notes of esparto grass and straw rather than the greener herbal notes of its youth. There is plenty of flor too and its bitterness is fading to a slightly more buttery character.

Palate

Fresh, crisp and slightly bitter, very dry and very tasty. Minerally and briny flor up front with those more dried grass and buttery notes following through. It has a very honest and natural character proper to wines both grown and aged in Sanlúcar along with the very earliest stages of developing into a pasada with faint traces of cabezuela. Good length too.

Comments

This delicious Manzanilla is a special Christmas bottling by the Blanco brothers to help raise funds for the very worthwhile charity Afanas which supports people with  mental disabilities and their families in the Sanlúcar, Chipiona, Rota and Trebujena areas providing five respite day centres. The wine is not the usual Manzanilla Madura which is lightly filtered but an en rama version which is over five years old and sealed with a quality twin top cork. The label was designed by three of those cared for by the charity and labelled by one of them, Lidia who also signed the neck label.

Price

8.50 De Albariza

Fino Ceballos 15%, Primitivo Collantes

Appearance
Fairly pale strawy gold with golden reflections.
Nose

Very fresh and clean and quite generous with hints of almonds and acetaldehyde, straw, esparto, traces of ripe appley fruit and a gentle yeasty flor edge.There are faint traces of wild herbs, olive brine and butter which make it all the more interesting.

Palate

Quite fruity at first then a hint of bitterness from the flor kicks in followed by that slight herbal note. It has a lovely dry chalky texture and a certain minerality leaving one in no doubt that it came from albariza soil.The finish is dry,well rounded, long, clean and satisfying.

Comments

This attractive Fino is produced from Collantes´ own 55 hectares of vineyards on albariza soils in Chiclana which is located in the production zone, though it is very likely that Chiclana will be redesignated as crianza zone in 2019 if the proposed changes to the regulations take place. The bodega has been in business for over a century and is very go-ahead producing excellent "Sherries" and fine table wines like Socaire and Matalian. This is their entry level Fino, 100% Palomino and aged  in solera for over three years, and very reasonably priced.

Price
4.50 Licores Corredera

21.12.18 Fernando de Castilla to Launch Pair of Very Old Wines

January 2019 will see the launch of two stunning and very old Sherries in a range called Singular. They are a Pedro Ximénez and an Oloroso from very small sacas of 600 numbered half bottles and will come in individual wooden boxes. Back in 2015 the bodega acquired three butts of incredibly old Oloroso which had been in the private bodega of a prominent Jerez family for nearly a century and which was used occasionally for family events, but they decided to sell the wine as they were remodelling the house. The nine butts of Pedro Ximénez with an average age of over 60 years were acquired in 2012 from a now disappeared bodega in Jerez and had been maturing statically for many years in the best corner of the bodega. I had the opportunity to taste these wines with Jan Petterson at Vinoble and can confirm that they are of stunning quality. Prices have not yet been announced.

(foto:cosasdecome)

20.12.18 Bag in Box Controversy Finally Over; Sherry Culture Centre

The Superior Court of Justice of Andalucía has ruled against the appeal lodged by the Junta and the Artisan Bodegas of Sanlúcar against a previous ruling banning Bag in Box last October. The new ruling, which is definitive and brings this long-running saga to an end states that the appellants´ case was insubstantial and sought to alter the previous verdict which is forbidden in Spanish law. The new ruling confirmed the validity of the previous ruling and the actions and agreements of Fedejerez the Consejo Regulador, which refused to issue DO labels for after repeated plenary agreements against it´s use. 

You probably won´t be seeing these again (foto:pascual,diariodejerez)

Jerez is to have a Centre for the Culture of Sherry which will be located on the upper floor of the beautiful Claustros de Santo Domingo. This week a survey will be carried out to estimate the works required which include improving access and fire safety. The Ribadeneira chapel will be refurbished and become the principal access to the Claustros. The project is funded with EU money.

The mayor and her right hand man discuss the project

Brandy Imperial 40% Solera, Sandeman

Appearance
Deep amber/light mahogany with coppery gold highlights.

Nose

Attractive and quite elegant and aromatic with slight but distinctive notes of coffee and cacao along with hints of the usual Oloroso and traces of vanilla and woodiness from the American oak. There are also hints of date, caramel and brown sugar so in all the aromas are fairly sweet.

Palate

Quite intense and fairly sweet with date, prune, raisin and brown sugar flavours predominating over the coffee and cacao but the spirit cuts through them all giving a degree of balance. Then all these components seem to marry into one complete flavour in a long tasty - if very slightly sweet - finish.

Comments

Imperial sounds a little posh for a mere Brandy Solera, but it is remarkably good. Sandeman products were for a while produced by Garvey which was merged in the Rumasa era with Zoilo Ruiz Mateos who had the production contract for Sandeman, which has not made its own Jerez products (though it still makes its own Port) for some time being a sous-marque of Sogrape in Portugal. Anyway Garvey probably used the original soleras which have presumably been moved to Fundador which is now producing the brandy under licence. It was solera aged for about one year  and contains a fairly standard 12 g/l sugar, and unusually has 40% alcohol when most Solera brandies contain 38%, but it works well - every spirit has its optimum strength. Good though it is, it is a bit expensive, but then it is not widely available.

Price

22.80, Licores Corredera

Ube de Ubérrima Miraflores 2017 11%, Bodega Cota 45

Appearance
Pale bright strawy gold with golden highlights.
Nose

Very attractive, fresh and very natural, it really shows the slightly saline sea air at Sanlúcar and the very slightly lean appley aroma of the Palomino along with faint background notes of fresh herbs, but it has a little richness, generosity, about it too. Surprisingly it conjures up a blend with some of the breadth of a  Chardonnay and the taut fruit of a Riesling but with that coastal salinity, the stamp of Sanlúcar, and develops beautifully in the glass. It should do so very well in bottle too over the next couple of years.

Palate

There is lots of character here. It really expresses Sanlúcar with those salt, apple and faint herbal notes, and perfectly judged acidity helps to highlight them. This is a sophisticated, honest and interesting wine which could have been Manzanilla but makes a wonderful alternative. It is dry, clean, tangy, fresh, long with a slightly chalky texture, delicious and dangerously moreish, and is one of those wines you must buy more of to see how it develops.

Comments

This 2017 is the latest release of this excellent wine from the Bodega Cota 45 of Ramiro Ibáñez, and it is a gem. It is made from 100% Palomino grapes grown in five parcels, three in Miraflores Alta with predominantly tosca cerrada soils, and two in the Baja with mainly lustrillos and lentejuelas. The must was fermented in ex Manzanilla butts and aged in them briefly filled to the brim to exclude flor as he wants the wine to express the soil and the vintage. The word "uberrima" derives from Latin and means "abundant" or "fertile" referring, to the albariza and he makes another wine in an identical manner only it is from the Sanlúcar pago Carrascal, while a third from the pago Maina will be released soon. Cota 45 is the altitude above sea level where the best albarizas are to be found.

Price 
12 euros, Licores Corredera

Old Vines

It is generally accepted that older vines produce grapes of higher quality but progressively lower yields, so their economic viability eventually comes into question. Currently there is no proper definition of old vines, and producers can label bottles at their own discretion, but they are generally anywhere over 25-30 years old. For commercial wines, as opposed to top level wines where price matters less, 25 years is the general economic limit before grubbing up and replanting. While vines can produce grapes for a century or two, or even more, the costs of their maintenance and falling yields means they become too expensive, however good the quality.

Beautiful gnarled old vines

 It can take up to a decade for root systems to develop fully and grow deep into the soil but this allows the vine to better withstand water stress and build up stronger resistance to diseases while giving more consistent quality and complexity. Some believe that old vines give greater expression of terroir having adapted themselves to it over many years, but naturally this quality depends on many factors such as soil maintenance and the avoidance of over cropping and irrigation. Ungrafted vines give good results, but there are very few of them left. One way to take advantage of old vines´established root systems and effectively rejuvenate the vine is to cut off the scion above the graft and wait for a new bud to grow. For economic reasons most old vines are at serious risk so if these gems are to be preserved something needs to be done, and things are beginning to happen.

Fernando Mora MW with promotional T shirt

Fernando Mora, Master of Wine, has launched a campaign to save old vines in Spain under the slogan Vino de Viña Vieja. The campaign has two stages: identification and dating of old vines followed by promotion of the wine produced from them. He feels that old vines start at 35 years of age and that other categories could be introduced of 50 or 60 years and over 100 years. Much information could be found at the various Consejos Reguladores who will generally have information on dates of planting which they themselves authorised. Once these vines have been identified and registered their owners could use the VVV logo. Old vine classifications in the New World, though not particularly oficial, inspired him to do something similar in Spain. In Australia´s Barossa vines are considered old at 35+, in California 50+, in Chile 30+ and in South Africa 35+.

In the Marco de Jerez there still exist a few vineyards with old vines, usually in the hands of small growers who, because of the low grape price, cannot afford to replant. Often they are still pruned to vara y pulgar, the traditional method. Some notable examples of old vine wines are: Fino Barajuela from Luis Pérez, Vibrations from Muchada Leclapart, Mirabrás from Barbadillo, Blanco from M Ant. de la Riva (Willy Pérez and Ramiro Ibáñez) and Alegria Ancestral from Alba Viticultores.