Pictured here with a nice bottle of 2008 Arbois Pupillin on the bar at – where else – Angelita Madrid. (The blurring is not intentional.) The reason I ordered this was that on another visit to Angelita in the summer I incorrectly identified (a different saca of) the Sacristia AB as a Jura and I was curious to try them side by side to see how bad my error had been.

As it turns out it was a pretty bad error – there is not a lot in it colourwise but the hay bale aroma and savoury salinity of the manzanilla is unmistakeable and set it apart from its trans-pyrenean cousin. On the other hand, the difference in terms of fruit qualities was not as marked as I expected – there was less acidity but still plenty of juice in the manzanilla.

In fact I thought the manzanilla was a really excellent wine overall – potent and tasty but elegant, with a lovely silky texture. One of my favourites of this series and I will have to seek out a bottle for closer study.