Finishing off the month in style here with one of the manzanilla en ramas selected by Antonio Barbadillo Mateos – this one is the first edition from 2014.

It is dark in colour for a manzanilla  – a real old gold at least a shade darker than the Navazos effort. On the nose you would say refined rather than fragrant. To me it has a pronounced aroma of dried grass (especially when you come back to it) and maybe just a hint of old fruit (apples that have been stored away). Then in the mouth it is very slightly oily in feel and saline and intense in flavour. If you like your manzanillas mature this is definitely for you.

Nearly a week since it was opened and still hard to fault this. If anything it seems to have gained in fruity flavours – making it seem slightly more full bodied – and the salinity seems even more integrated. 

A lovely light but fruity manzanilla from Bodegas Baron. 

It is a pale pale yellow in colour – very much the epitome of sunshine in a glass. It has a very interesting nose too – between fruit and fresh sweet herbs maybe (I had just had a more classic manzanillla and the difference was marked). It is very fine in the mouth and had just enough salinity – in fact less than I expected. The fruit, herbs were not quite as prominent on the tongue but It is excellent and was a really refreshing way to start a meal. 

Credit where it is due, this effort from Equipo Navazos is top drawer and a great pick me up after a tough day: manzanilla Monday indeed. 

It is a pale straw colour and very fragrant (the first time I had it in fact I sniffed it out it from my host’s glass across the room) with aromas of beach grass and the drying sand of the dunes, with a bit of fruity alcohol – a calvados or something – underneath

On the palate it is silky smooth and oily, and it is fresh but full of salty, mineral and dried herb flavours. Delicious stuff.