The latest manzanilla from Equipo Navazos (see their ficha here) and once again from the solera of Hijos de Rainera Pérez Marín.
At least to my mind it seems a shade darker than the last release, but with the same aromatic nose of esparto grass and salty sea air. Then silky in the mouth – light when compared to the manzanilla of course – very elegant salinity and tasty herb flavours.
Crying out for some fish and chips! (Or is that me?)
The latest saca from this excellent and improving series of wines, fresh in at Territorio Era. These winter sacas (they produce two a year in May and November respectively) tend to have more volume, punch and toasted, oxidated notes and this is no exception.
A pure beautiful crystaline brass of gold colour, it has a big punchy nose of salty sea air and esparto grass (natch) with a mix of older yeast, citrus and over-roasted almonds. On the palate it has real zing – a lot of saline action from start to finish – with again nice layers of flavours of nuts/burnt nuts and citrus/bitter citrus. Dry but flavourful and it lasts and lasts, with that sharp, crisp saline edge all the while.
Really excellent. I generally like the May sacas even more so look forward to that one!
Was very fortunate to take part in an absolutely top class event organized by Vila Viniteca here in Madrid this weekend – The 10th Premio de Cata por Parejas (Tasting in Pairs competition).
I was blown away by the scale of it – 120 pairs of contestants in the contest itself but on top of that 50 top drawer bodegas showing off their wines to around 2,500 people in total, and all in the stunning surroundings of Madrid’s original Casino (not currently a casino, confusingly). If you don’t believe me you can see some TV highlights from three of Spain’s national broadcasters and Madrid’ local news (all in Spanish and untainted by my presence) here, here, here and here.
I was also surprised by the quality of the wines – first up was a lovely old Salon, with the tightest, creamiest bubbles you can imagine, followed by a wine given no fewer than the perfect 100 points by you know who – the 1986 Castillo y Gay. (I got the regions, DOs, grapes and approximate ages of both, but never imagined they would be that generous so duffed the makers.) In fact all the way down the line the wines were excellent, and my favourites were in fact a Barbera by Voerzio (I said Sangiovese) and a Malvasia from Tenerife (Sauternes). (Again, accurate details will be available on the Vila Viniteca Blog.)
And it was enjoyable for a lot of other reasons. First, my “pair” was Ana, formerly of the Chula de Chamberi and we spent most of the 90 minutes laughing, teasing and generally enjoying ourselves. Second, there were an awful lot of good friends and big names around the room and the place generally – it was a pleasure to compete against and chat to Jesus Barquin, no less. Third, the wines downstairs were as good as those upstairs – the new Riberas from Dominio del Aguila and the classic Riojas by Finca Allende stood out for me, and Jerez was fantastically represented by Lustau and all their almacenistas, but there was top drawer liquid everywhere to be honest.
But most importantly I have discovered I really enjoy tasting wines blind. Not because I am any good at identifying them (although I was pleased with the effort on the day) but because it strikes me that you focus on and enjoy the wine that little bit more. On the day itself they were top wines, but in the last few weeks people like David at Angelita, David at Era and David at Santceloni (different people) have been trying me out and wines I previously thought I didn’t like were surprisingly enjoyable. In fact I reckon that from now on I am going to tell sommeliers I am training for next year.
So a great day, and bravo both to Vila Viniteca for an outstanding event, and to the winners – Luis Gutierrez and Ignacio Villalgordo – winning this thing for the second time no less. A brilliant performance from them and the other podium dwellers and I clearly need to drink a lot more Salon in future.
March 27 around already and another year has flown by. An appropriate moment perhaps to take stock and reflect. The old blog has had a few hits: 49,800 in total now (meaning 33,200 since this time last year) from 17,100 daily visitors in 105 different countries around the world (not including Iceland or Uruguay). It really is rather humbling, and all I can say is many thanks to everyone for your clicks, retweets, comments, likes and messages. There has been a fair bit to look at too: 326 posts this year, not including this one, or the page updates with lists of restaurants and the like, and just shy of 5,200 tweets, plus all the facebooking etc. Makes me wonder where I find the time.
I am not much cop at deciphering the stats so can’t really tell you with great precision which have been the most visited pages and posts of the year, but I am happy to say that by far the most used page on the blog is the Where To Drink It section, with its list of restaurants of every kind where you can drink the wines of Jerez and Sanlucar, and after that most of the interest appears to be directed at the (proper) Authorities and at the learned writings on topics such as Terroir.
After that, I am also very pleased to say that the wines that arouse most interest are some that are very near to my heart: the Fino la Barajuela 2013, UBE, Encrucijado, the Pitijopos, the Mayeteria Sanluqueña and the Wines of Alba Viticultores. I am convinced that these wines don’t get nearly the attention or respect that they deserve and make no apologies for my numerous posts on them. I only wish that they were more widely available – I have received more than one grumble about my blogging on wines that are made in less than 1,000 bottle batches and I can understand that frustration.
There have once again been a fair few highlights (since March 27 last year):
Regrets, as they say, we have had a few, but only a few. The lowlight of the year was the end of an era in one of my erstwhile favourite watering holes some six months ago (although I am told that good news is around the corner), and there were a few tastings, and wines, that to be quite honest were a bit of a let down. More generally, older and, maybe wiser, maybe just grumpier, I find myself getting more irritated these days with wines, and blarney of all kinds (and the acceptance of them by some sommeliers, who ought to know better), that I might have found charming a couple of years ago, and the “everything is awesome” tone of the blog is getting harder to maintain.
Finally, though, I couldn’t write about this last year without talking about Territorio Era. It is without doubt my favourite bar or restaurant in Madrid at the moment and it should be yours too. All available space that is not dedicated to Diego’s fantastic cooking is given over to storing hundreds of wines of every kind, of which over a hundred are available by the glass. I have lost count of the fantastic lunches and dinners, swift and cheeky glasses of wine and general emergency stops that have taken place in there.
So onwards to year three. There is still a long way to go for the wines of Jerez and Sanlucar so time to push on. Many thanks once again to everybody for all your support up to here and I look forward to the next twelve months.
A really top class event coming up on April 4 here in Madrid – the second edition of the Salon de los Vinos Generosos organized by Calduch Comunicación.
Last year’s event – or what I can remember of it – was excellent: some really top class wines and a chance to meet a lot of names from the bodegas. Happily, it seems as if the majority of the bodegas involved have signed up for the rematch, including:
Alvear – Barbadillo – Bodegas Arfe – Bodegas Fundador – Bodegas La Cigarrera – Bodegas Robles – Bodegas Tradición – Delgado Zuleta – Díez Mérito – Elías González – González Byass – Grupo Estévez – Hidalgo – Lustau – Manzanilla Gabriela – Osborne – Pérez Barquero – Rey Fernando de Castilla – Sacristía AB – Sánchez Romate – Williams & Humbert – Ximénez-Spínola
Throw in some top class ham, cheese and conserves and you have a pretty good day out. Hope to see everyone there!
More from my mate Guillermo – palulu, aka liquorice, the root of the glycyrrhiza glabra.
Traditionally you chop it into kindling and chew on the result, and what you get is a top class descriptor of the flavours to be found in inland, river influence manzanillas and, imho, even more so in finos from Montilla Moriles.
Behold, a bunch of esparto grass. A gift from the great Guillermo Ocampo, it is a thing of joy and a learning tool of enormous value. Makes me want to hit the fino in a big way.
My second dip at this fascinating wine – this time in Wine Attack, a funky new natural wine winebar. It is a viura from La Rioja which has been in a bota with flor since 2015. I am occasionally criticized for only tasting hyper-specialized wines with very limited releases but this is an exception: it is an experiment at this stage and isn’t on sale anywhere.
The first saca was January 2016 – and I happened upon a bottle last June in Reserva y Cata. This second saca was from January this year and while still very young it seemed to have a bit more oxidation than further flor effects. A very straightforward profile and a very pleasant drop.
Not big by any means – and no comparison to the true flor wines from the South – but a nice nose of butterscotch tending to wood glue, and more of that slightly toffee flavour on the palate. Compact in the extreme – a short straight blob of flavour – and not very expressive, but quite a long and pleasant, only very slightly saline aftertaste.
Interesting stuff – looking forward to next year’s saca already.
Enjoyed this very much at lunch today at Surtopia and was surprised to find that I had not posted about it before. It is by Callejuela, one of the most active bodegas in Sanlucar and fast becoming a new big name.
It is a fatty, citrussy, raw almond mouthful of unfortified palomino. Very mellow vibe to it, very low acidity and none of the palulu (liquorice root) bitterness of the manzanilla en rama. Neither is there a big mineral edge – just a big, mellow, refreshing mouthful with a dry finish. Very easy to drink.
I can’t believe over a month has gone by since the magnificent cata by Primitivo Collantes in Enoteca Barolo. As I said back then he is one of the unsung heroes of the so called sherry revolution and I got the feeling at the time that a lot of people were taken by surprise at just how good the wines – and his presentation of them – were.
One of the most impressive aspects of the night was the emphasis on terroir and viticulture. A first class description of Finca Matalian, its elevation and exposure to the elements (between two “mares” – a joke that is frankly untranslatable and even in Spanish doesn’t work unless you have the accent of the guys in Cadiz) that was followed by explanations of the pruning, the benefits of hand harvesting, the impact on the vine and the effects of a vine under stress, the prohibition on irrigation and importance of the absorbency of the soil. We also had some geology and some talk of abundant diatomeas and then emphasis on the relevance of the location so close (8km) to the sea but high (96m-114m up) – the advantage of the breeze and winds but with the quality albariza. A really top class setting of the scene.
When a winemaker brings two different soil samples you know he cares about terroir. It was fascinating to see these two: from Matalian itself and his other finca, Pozo Galvan. From far away Matalian looked chalky white and Pozo Galvan mottled, but from close to it wasn’t anywhere near as marked. I could try and convince you that they seemed to crumble in different ways but to be honest both were granular: maybe just a slightly finer dust to the Matalian. I did the old TV cop “cocaine” test with the tip of the finger and the diatomeas in the Matalian were immediately apparent. In fact it was clear to me that they were cold water diatomeas* (* these are alternative facts, as far as I could tell they also smelled and tasted the same (and I wouldn’t know a cold water diatomea if I sat on it in the bath)).
Then back to the vine and the yields, and the timing of the harvest in several passes, but thankfully during a lot of this time we were also tasting the wines (which is important, because there is only so much chat you can listen to dry). Specifically, we were supping away at sobretablas from Pozo Galvan and Matalian. A sobretablas is not a mosto – these are fortified and have spent time in a deposit with the occasional little island of flor – but they seem all the more raw for it, and these were spikey and punchy on the nose, with the Matalian slightly more piercing, the Pozo Galvan slightly rounder. On the palate that difference was more evident – the Matalian was that bit sharper and seemed much more direct, straight line, and longer.
After the sobretablas we moved on to two unfortified wines and specifically the Socaire 2014, which in itself is one of those fantastic flavourful palomino wines that stand out, saline but full of herbal, almond, almost-fruit, and then a chance to try a Socaire 2014 Oxidativo, with a touch of further oxidation from an additional 8 months bota ageing. You will have to believe me when I say you could bank those 8 months – I had the two together and the wine is only getting stronger. (Socaire itself means “shelter from the wind” and is a reference to the meteorological conditions on Finca Matalian – again showing how this wine has a clear sense of place.)
After the Socaires, we moved on to two biological wines, the Arroyuelo Fino en Rama and Amontillado Fossi. Now I have had these wines many times but at this tasting they absolutely sang. I had always found the Arroyuelo en Rama exemplary in terms of labelling but I never realized that they were bottled and labelled as the orders came in – with your man to select them. And what a wine it was on the night – a clear inheritor of the beautiful direct line of the sobretablas, but next to the sobretablas (I cunningly kept some from earlier) you could see the progression in verticality, saline edge and vegetable power. A superb example. And the Fossi was at its best too, with direct salinity and honeyed caramel flavour in bags. It is apparently around 18 years old on average already, and Primitivo told us that soon he hoped the average age to bump above 20 years into VOS category. I must say I find that really remarkable for a wine that is as elegant as this one. One of the most underrated wines around.
But however good those wines were there was no doubt about the star of the night: the mother of all moscatels. A frankly beautiful, elegant, light and spritely fifty year old from the “sacristia”. This wine – the grandaddy of the already very good Moscatel Oro Los Cuartillos -was a Fred Astaire of wine, incredibly agile for its content. It had a fantastic menthol quality and lightness and a seriousness of business – like a pianist playing hard with both hands. What a wine it was.
And since then the name of Primitivo Collantes has rung out in Madrid, no doubt. I have never seen the locals so enthused after a tasting – and with good reason. It was top drawer.
undertheflor.com 