Another fascinating side by side (aka excuse to drink two quality wines together). And these are two quality Sanlucar wines. The Maruja manzanilla pasada (april 2017) and the La Guita en rama (october 2015).

For all that they have in common they are also quite different: the Guita (probably the younger wine) is deeper in colour, higher and more chalky/metallic in register and maybe a little warm and briney in the finish, while the Maruja is more savoury, more intense, is slippier and has a little more herbal breadth, with the salinity coming across as spicey rather than hot.

I personally am a big fan of La Guita – it really has a unique chalky character – and am really looking forward to the new batch this winter but frankly I doubt that this bottle of La Maruja will even make it to next week …