Author: sharquillo

Blanca Reyes manzanilla or fino?

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It had to be done – was about to polish off the manzanilla when I realized I had a bottle of the fino lurking.

Amazing difference in aroma – the fino is all yeast, hay bales, and wood shavings, and by comparison the manzanilla smells as sweet as pineapple juice. The colours too are a good two shades apart – although the manzanilla has been open a couple pf weeks.

On the palate the differences are not as pronounced – the manzanilla is a touch softer and less buttery, maybe not quite as dry. 

Really interesting experiment – hard to choose between these two but I think I would go fino – seems a bit more robust. 

La Bota de Palo Cortado 34 

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I love this and get slightly carried away in my descriptions at times. It is one of the wines plucked from the stocks of a famous old almacenista – on this occasion Garcia Jarana – by the guys at Equipo Navazos and then finished by them in their own botas housed in Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla (another favourite maker of mine). 

It is not a super aged, super powerful wine like some of the palo cortados around but for me it is what a palo cortado should be – fine, elegant and balanced. If anything, I would compare it to the Emilio Hidalgo Amontillado Tresillo 1874: the 34 maybe has slightly less body but is also just a shade lighter on the finish. 

It is a red amber rather than brown colour. Slightly sweet on the nose, with orangey stewed apples and a bit of alcohol. A bit of salt and zing first up on the palate, then rich honey toffee in the background and with some bitter, black chocolate, a suggestion of tobacco and a long finish. 

A real masterpiece and my favourite wine ever for less than €40. 

Blanca Reyes manzanilla en rama – again

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Manzanilla Monday in full effect here with this bottle of juicy, full flavoured manzanilla en rama. This has been open a couple of weeks and if I were to criticize it has maybe gone slightly sour in the nose  – but it is still big and aromatic, with juicy, yeasty flavours and a long finish. 

Really good – would probably advise drinking this fresh open, but it is big enough to handle being open a while.

The wordwide brotherhood (and sisterhood) of sherry

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Until kicking this little project off it never occurred to me that there were already sherry blogs but there were, there are, and some of them are absolutely excellent.

First, it is often said that the English “know” jerez in a way that the Spanish do not. I am here to tell you this is not true: the highest quality wine writing I have read is on Spanish blogs of every kind, much of it demonstrating a technical knowledge far beyond anything I have read in English. One of these days I will get myself organized and post my recommendations.

There are, however, some fantastic enthusiasts around the world with an outstanding level of expertise and passion for sherry:

  • Sherry Notes an excellent, far more thoroughly researched blog than mine by a real expert based in Belgium;
  • criadera.com, an absolute gem of a blog from Scotland that just radiates enjoyment and enthusiasm;
  • The Vine Inspiration – an Irish blogger on fine wines, the man loves sherry alright (more power to him!);
  • although not a blog as such, The Whisky Kiwi is an enthusiast located in Scotland and also well worth following on twitter;
  • Sherry Sips – another cracking blog by a real enthusiast based on the West Coast of the US -really excellent range of articles and posts; and
  • Paula’s Sherry Blog, one of the most impressive tasting lists I have seen – and a collection of superbly chosen articles and posts, again from a blogger based in Scotland.

I really recommend you visit these blogs.  More than anything they are a great group who have been extraordinarily welcoming to me and my little contribution – they have made me feel like a member of a worldwide brotherhood and whatever Grouch Marx may have said, I am very proud t be a member of this particular club.

Fino Quinta

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This effort from Osborne is another of my Marbella supermarket purchases and more of a quaffing fino than anything. When nice and cold it is nice and refreshing, but if you try and extract aromas and flavours the fruit comes across as a little bitter and the aromas a little short – not a lot of body and a thin feel to it. 

La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 40

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Have now found a photo of this super wine:

Once again, it is an intriguing effort from Equipo Navazos. Slightly dark in colour with hints of brown and green, it has a very mineral, sea air nose to it – maybe just a little bit of hay bale as it warms in the glass.

Once you take a sip though there is no missing the yeasty power of it. It is super smooth in texture – I thought it was silky and it coats the mouth.  It has an amazing structure – acid and salt to begin but powerful vegetable and umami flavours like unsalted macadamias. It also has a lovely long finish, with the salty minerals dropping off and leaving the umami. Really excellent – probably the best manzanilla pasada I have had.

La Bota de Palo Cortado 51

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This is a very highly rated, very special wine by the guys at Equipo Navazos – one of a series of Palo Cortados (together with the numbers 41 and 48) from the bota “GF 30”, a bota of wine with an estimated age of somewhere between 50 to 80 years, originally made by Gaspar Florido in Sanlucar but rescued by Equipo Navazos from industrial surroundings in the outskirts in 2007 and now housed in the “Sacristy” of Bodegas Pedro Romero in central Sanlucar, very near Gaspar Florido’s original bodega.

I have not had the 41 but have had the 48 twice and now this and I would have to say I have had mixed experiences. The first time I had the 48 I had it during a game of snooker with a good mate and although we loved its nose and flavours, we both found it just too chewy and astringent – real walnut skin juice. The second time I had it, on the other hand, it was my favourite wine at a very high quality cata of top class palo cortados – the sheer range of flavours giving it a slight edge despite a strange nose.

I took this 51 to a pretty special dinner with a group of great friends who happen to be pretty vocal wine enthusiasts. If this were a champagne blog I would write you a dissertation on the absolutely sublime magnum of Henri Abelé Millesime 1990, not to mention a white 2007 Chateau Rayas and an awesome 2008 Les Chenes by Michel Lafarge, amongst others (this is how I know they are great friends). We also gave it every chance to shine – bang on temperature, decanted in advance, good stemware and a receptive audience.

It was a beautiful chestnut colour and had a fine, spicey almost sweet nose. It was also superbly structured – an acidic attack and big full shape to it – and full of toasted (almost burnt), nutty caramel, but, particularly in the company (and maybe in part due to the expectation) just a little one dimensional in flavour and not quite holding its shape for long.

Overall, to be quite honest it suffered a little in comparison to the other wines and did not quite live up to its own hype. Very nice but I really start to wonder if these wines are great for tastings (I can imagine this doing well compared to other palos) but not quite as great on the road – it reminded me of the way the even more highly rated Bota de Amontillado 49 failed to impress at a dinner back in May.

La Ina 

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A couple of good looking medals on the front of the bottle there and this is indeed very drinkable. One of the more widely distributed finos, so I have tried to pay special attention. 

Not a remarkable colour – a clear amber – and a relatively muted nose as well, but quite a rich one, with nutty, salty and fruit aromas – you can definitely detect the mosto in the faint cider notes. 

It is also a little quiet on the palate, salty and even slightly tart at first but once you let it swirl around you start to get nutty bread and then maybe apple sauce, fading away to a dry finish. 

Very nice indeed. 

Alabaster (bar)

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We reach a new low point in terms of blogging skills – I was about to write about the range of sherries on offer by the glass at Alabaster and I realized that I took no pictures whatever of the list of sherries, or even of the establishment. To my further chagrin, the sherries do not appear anywhere on the (excellent) wine list that appears on the web.

From memory, I recall seeing La Jaca (manzanilla), Micaela (manzanilla), Xixarito Manzanilla Pasada, La Ina, Tio Pepe en rama (2015), La Bota de Manzanilla (Equipo Navazos), and La Panesa and the prices from €3 a glass to €7, I think, for La Panesa. I think there may have been a px too. I will try and get a picture because it really is a well chosen sherry list – and an excellent by glasses offering in the bar, with two cavas, two champagnes, no fewer than 7 vermouths and probably 10 white and 10 red wines.

No doubt about it, Alabaster is sherry-fan friendly.