Author: sharquillo

Fino la Barajuela 2014

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I was dining at Lakasa last Friday night (and it was absolutely heaving – great to see) with a group of friends from outside my wine nerd bubble but nevertheless was allowed to choose the wine, and even (somewhat controversially) given free reign. I picked two wines that to me seemed blindingly obvious – the Cuvee Saint Anne by the brilliant Alexandre Chartogne and the Fino la Barajuela.

What I didn’t know was that they had run out of the 2013 and had just received the 2014 (in fact I didn’t know the 2014 had even been released) and suddenly a wine I had been waiting for for 18 months (give or take half a glass in a tasting with the man) was on the table in front of me.

This is the second vintage of Willy Perez’s outrageously good fino, and although the 2013 will always have a special place in my heart you have to say that this is even better. It has the same nose or honey-suckle to honey with golden yellow apple underneath, the same bite and palate of fruit but even more mineral sapidity and throat filling savoury flavours. It is frankly epic and totally delicious.

And as always happens with these Barajuela wines, my friends from outside the sherry bubble loved it. It is a tremendous source of frustration to me that when I read the views about this wine from sherry experts and tastings there are grumblings about whether it is really a “fino” yadda yadda yadda. Surely what is important is that it is an outstanding white wine, and one that paired with almost everything we proceeded to eat.

Now begins a heartbreaking period in which I am allowed to purchase a shockingly small allocation of bottles and then feel obliged to hold back when I see it in stores so that a wider public can try these wines. Please, don’t let my sacrifice be for nothing.

Las Viñas de Callejuela – the 2014 editions

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The genial Blanco brothers from Callejuela were in Madrid for a few days just when I was away in the countryside, but despite missing each other in the capital they were kind enough to leave me a little present at my preferred fuelling post of the time Territorio Era.

You may have read about the vineyard specific wines that these guys first released. Those were the 2015 and were terrific enough, but these little fellas are the 2014s and have even more personality.  Once again, there are three wines from three vineyards/pagos (two of which you can locate on this cracking gigapan posted by Paco Zuleta):

  • Hacienda de Doña Francisca, a vineyard at an altitude of 62m on pago Callejuela (Sanlucar) (which must be one of the higher altitude Sanlucar vineyards);
  • Las Mercedes, a vineyard at 83m on Pago Añina (Jerez), one of the more Atlantic-influenced Jerez pagos;  and
  • La Choza, a vineyard at 74m on the famous inland pago Macharnudo (Jerez).

One of the noticeable things about the 2015 wines was their exuberance – tasting the macharnudo wine against other unfortified wines from the same pago recently it was noticeable how much power the La Choza had – and these wines, having been longer in the bota, seemed to have even more punch.

As a rule I would usually taste them in that same order – from sea to inland, low to high altitude, but in this 2014 edition the Añina is visibly more evolved so instead I go Callejuela, Macharnudo and then Añina, and it is quite a trip. The Callejuela has a nose that is all stables, mulchy, musty hay, a dark color and then is really potent, intense and buzzy. The Macharnudo – probably just about my favourite of the 2015s – is absolute class, with a typically aromatic nose with suggestions of sweetness and juice and then an elegant, compact solidity on the palate. Then the Añina does indeed have a more evolved, oxidated nose and colour. On the palate it is maybe just a notch less punchy than the two others, is smoother, softer (I actually have the word “fluffy” written in my notebook) and very likeable indeed.

These will be released soon and they will be worth not just seeking out but fighting over if necessary. Top bombing fellas and thanks for leaving them for me to try!

La Antojá

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Yet another one of the discoveries from my New Year’s search for new horizons and yet more evidence that madrileños have only themselves to blame if they can’t find a decent glass of wine.

La Antojá is a cosy little vinoteca/winestore and bar in Calle Palafox 1. I strongly approve both of the business model (loads of wines, to drink or takeaway) and the decor (loads of wines to look at) and on both fronts it reminded me of similar establishments I used to frequent during a brief stint in Rome. Has a nice list of wines by the glass including a pretty good selection of 11 sherries – and some good ones too – or for a modest thousand pesetas you can take any bottle of wine from the shelves and crack that if you prefer. (Or crafty looking beers, ciders, and other liquids.)

Food was pretty good too: I had some tasty, meaty, savoury callos with one of my favourite olorosos – the Gobernador itself. It was pretty good value and even the music was top class – when I was in there Thelonious Himself (a perfect accompaniment to callos and oloroso). My one criticism was that there was nowhere to hang my hat, but that, unfortunately, is an all too common problem these days.

All round a quality little joint and the sort of place that should be on everyone’s wine radar. My thanks to Matthew Desoutter who put me on to it with his list of wine haunts – will certainly be infesting this place from now on.

Alba Sobretabla 2014 and Ancestral las Alegrías at Angelita

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Another quick but incredibly interesting lunch at Angelita yesterday, the highlight of which was the chance to have another look at two of the wines of Alba Viticultores: the Sobretabla 2014 and the Ancestral Las Alegrias del Carrascal. (I should maybe point out that they are not on the winelist – David had opened them to taste them with some friends and was convinced that I had heard the bottles opening/smelt them, so uncanny  was my sudden and unexpected appearance.)

The Ancestral Las Alegrias was particularly interesting. It is a 100% palomino fino from a vineyard by the name of Las Alegrias on the Pago Carrascal in Sanlucar. I think this was harvested and fermented in 2015 although I have no idea when it was disgorged – I reckon it didn’t have long on the rack but there was no indication on the bottle and David was working too hard to be interrupted. I was struck by the nose, with its suggestion of sweetness and leafiness: a bit like having your head in a lemon tree or something. Then on the palate you have a first suggestion of sweetness, then a shock and buzz of carbonic acid and then a bitter fruit palate between a lime and a grapefruit, then length that is mouth watering, buzzy and tart on the tongue.

The Sobretabla 2014 by comparison came across as a little muted. Again I don’t know which of the “botas” this was, but in principle I believe it is 100% palomino fermented in stainless steel, then aged for 14 months in a 500 litre butt that had held manzanilla for over 50 years. Maybe it was an unfair comparison with the Ancestral, which of course has the added dash of the bubbles and carbonic, but it seemed a little shy. Even so, it had a nice salinity and structure, a much more muted flavour between citrus and ripe apples with leafy herbs.

And those two were only the highlights, I started with a very decent pet nat with the oeuvre bouche and with the callos a la asturiana I had yet another dorado de rueda (of which more later) before finishing with a cracking rice – not a great pairing to be fair but it was delicious and just what I needed.

 

 

Santceloni

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A very long overdue post about one of Madrid’s very top tables: Santceloni.

The restaurant doesn’t need any introduction from me – it is absolutely world class with a star line up of chef, maitre and sommelier all at the very top of their game – but I realized yesterday when rejigging the “Where to drink it” page of the blog that there was a glaring omission.

I last had dinner there last March and it was a fantastic night. As part of my training for the Vila Viniteca “Cata por Parejas” the brilliant sommelier David Robledo was kind enough to serve me everything blind. Not only that, but seeing me flagging after some early struggles with a South African Sauvignon Blanc and an Alsace Riesling, he was also kind enough to give me one of my very favourite wines, the Emilio Hidalgo Tresillo 1874 (if I had got that wrong it would have been time to withdraw from the cata).

In addition to that, and although the mission was to train for wines from all over the world, David saw me coming and we started the evening with a nice glass of the under-rated Cruz Vieja fino and he clearly has a lot of other wines from the region at his disposal (in particular, since then he has added significantly to the weapons at his disposal in the form of the fantastic Barajuelas).

In fact I am sure I am just barely scratching the surface: I have kept meaning to go back and ask for the wine list (I am too easily led) to double check and will do so as soon as I can. For the time being, you will have to take my word for it!

Kulto

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What passes for a light lunch in the land of undertheflor. If it is any consolation, I walked all the way there and all the way back – nearly half and hour each way from undertheflor inc. And it was well worth it – top bombing.

Kulto has been around for around two years and is yet another of Madrid’s growing legion of new Andalucian restaurants. It’s Andalucian cred is impeccable since it is the sister restaurant of Taberna Trasteo in Zahara de los Atunes, and while the decor is mainly new school tavern there is the off wooden tuna and the like to give you a clue.

As is my wont I took a pew at the bar and it was pretty comfortable – nice view over the kitchen where I could watch the crew beavering away, something I always find nice and relaxing. Also quality, snappy and friendly service – seem like a nice bunch of lads – and a youngish crowd in: not just for winelovers this. The bar was spacious with a few long tables but I meant to have a gander upstairs in the dining room before forgetting.

Nice little menu: always a good sign when you can’t decide what to have. After a couple of weeks of living pretty high on the hog I was determined to get away with just a quick sandwich but I was thwarted – when I saw the vietnamese/saam style tortillita de camarones (see above) I had to have one of them, and the manitas in red curry were also calling me (half portions allowed me to convince myself it wasn’t too bad). In fact the fusion stuff – which can be as grating as it is ubiquitous – was pretty nicely done I must say: the tortillita was original and the spicey thai sauce was a nice addition, while the red curry was perfect with the manitas.

And most pertinently given the mission of this blog it is a spot where you can get your sherry and manzanilla on. Not the longest list: there were about a dozen or so wines including the likes of la Callejuela, Gabriela and Las Botas, although I gather the list was a bit outdated (I gather this because two of the three wines I had were not on it) and I was told they were in the course of giving it an overhaul. Will be a good excuse to go back and see what they pick, although while they are looking at the sherries they might want to think about some Cadiz white and red wines – there was Vara y Pulgar but nothing else on a goodish list.

Cool spot with fun food and plentiful finos and manzanillas. Get in as they say.

The best of 2017 undertheflor

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fe1ee6d3-cff7-4e87-b5d7-fd75e640185cOther blogs may post their “best of” at the end of December or beginning of January but that is not how we do things at this address: January 20 works for me. There is a risk of course that a full three weeks into 2018 people might be less tolerant to my bragging and crowing on about what an awesome year I had last year but frankly I have the post mainly written now so I might as well go ahead.

January: lessons in terroir with the Pitijopos 

The first highlight of the year was the night in January when we took a lesson in the terroir of Sanlúcar with Volume II of the Pitijopos. There is no better demonstration of the relevance of terroir in el marco than these six bottle sets and I firmly believe that it is an issue that is central to the future if el marco is going to be considered a serious wine region. If only all educational experiences were as much fun as this.

February: Wine and fun at the Cuatrogatos Wine Fest

February was all about the he Cuatrogatos Wine Fest an absolutely cracking day and night down in el Puerto de Santa Maria with the genial Federico Ferrer and his band of artisan winemaker friends. Like a salon but in the bowels of a bull ring, with wines that are a lot more interesting than the average, Cadiz-style street food and an awful lot of laughter. This year’s is on February 24 and is a must-attend for anyone seriously into fun and wine (in that order).

March: epic tastings, visitors from the other place and going blind

March was the month of epic tastings. First, we witnessed the full extent of Chiclana Power: with the great, criminally unrecognized Primitivo Collantes in Enoteca Barolo. Then that was followed by the true history of Palo Cortados according to Ramiro Ibañez in, fittingly enough, Taberna Palo Cortado. Two nights when copious notes were taken, notes which in other hands might have been used to write up an interesting post or two. I really learned a lot in those two tastings and if you get the chance to listen to these guys I highly recommend it.

In addition, I also had the pleasure of meeting Erik and Laura Burgess, the couple behind Montillamorileswines.com. We took a leisurely crawl from Territorio Era to La Malaje, via Angelita and la Venencia (we never made it to La Fisna) and tried a fair few interesting wines along the way: Manu from la Malaje finishing us off with some cracking old Montilla Moriles and even a bottle of Cordobese bubbles!

And as if that wasn’t enough, the month ended on a high with a cracking day at the Cata por Parejas by Vila Viniteca. I really need to drink more 2002 Salon, no doubt, but in general it really brought home how much fun blind tasting can be. I can’t make it this year but will probably train anyway!

April: the big three and the big one

April was again all about tastings but this time the three really big beasts among current enologists: a sensational dinner with Eduardo Ojeda of Valdespino/La Guita/Estevez (and Equipo Navazos) in Lavinia; getting to meet Jose Maria Quirós of Bodegas Tradición (and the legendary Agustin Blázquez) in Taberna Palo Cortado and, finally, Antonio Flores of Gonzalez Byass with his array of Palos Cortados de Añada. An honour to meet any one of them and to meet all three in one month was almost too much to take in.

And then the month ended with an all too brief visit from another of my blogging heroes: Ruben of SherryNotes featuring a signature cracking lunch at Territorio Era and what was shaping to be a pretty handy bar crawl until Mrs Undertheflor intervened and called me home!

May the force be with you

No big ticket events in May but there was one of those little moments that make the blog – indeed life – worthwhile. On a trip with friends and our families (imagine a scene involving double digits of small kids) a fella was allowed a few minutes to escape from the Guggenheim Museum for some delicious tidbits and a refreshing glass or two of the good stuff courtesy of the very kind folk in Nerua Bilbao, which may just about have the perfect wine list. Forever in their debt!

June: Alvear, bubbles and Bez

June began with a quite exceptional lunch with Alvear at which we tried their range of spectacular wines – some of the best wines tasted all year – and at the end of the month we had a cracking tasting of the natural wines of Alba Viticultores in Wine Attack, Madrid’s leading natural wine specialists, including key discussions and demonstration of mancunian poetry in motion from the early 1990s and a lot of laughs. (There is another link here.)

July: Mucho, mucho arte

In July probably the highlight of the whole year was an almost unbelievable night in Corral de la Morería. Not just because of the wines that we had – although they were absolutely epic – but the dinner, the incredible show, the atmosphere. It will live long in the memory and I am almost afraid to go back.

September: soleras cincuentanarias

In September the UEC hosted a great tasting of wines from one of the other big guns of the “other place”, the Soleras Cincuentenarias (and one Centenaria) by Perez Barquero. Again the wines were outstanding but for me the most memorable moment was the description of where the “palo cortados” come from: “we select the botas of oloroso that have the right profile”. All very mysterious.

October: Barajuelismo

The highlight of October was the night of the Barajuelas with Willy Perez in Palo Cortado. Truly exceptional wines – the long awaited Oloroso la Barajuela 2013 and a sneak preview of what promises to be an epic Fino la Barajuela 2014 – and a fascinating explanation given by the man himself, including a moving account of his “noches de fuego” that has Oscar winning movie clip written all over it.

November: Florpower and the Weight of History

November was enlivened considerably by an impromptu Florpower Friday lunch, at which we tried the famous series by Equipo Navazos and a few other things and had a blast, but the highlight was probably a cracking dinner with Vila Viniteca and friends to celebrate the 10th anniversary of an earlier anniversary or something. Always great to hear from winemakers, but Telmo Rodriguez’s thoughts on Spanish wine’s “historic places” had me realizing that they had forgotten the most important of them all …

December: Paola Medina in Taberna Palo Cortado

An early moment of joy in December was a lunch in Lakasa with la Barajuela. If you know Lakasa at all you will imagine how well we ate that day, and when you add a bottle (and a half) of Fino La Barajuela and a good friend well, there was singing and all sorts. (Apart from anything else it was a pleasure to see the reaction of a good friend from outside my little world of sherry nerds really enthusing about that special wine.)

But the highlight of the month was a tasting by Paola Medina in the new Taberna Palo Cortado at which we heard about and more importantly tasted more from her awesome colección añadas, alongside some very nice wines from the Don Zoilo range. (And hats off to Taberna Palo Cortado, who in the course of one year hosted tastings by all the top stars of the “new Jerez”: Ramiro, Willy, Primi and Paola.)

Bloody hell what a year that was!

Huevos, Urta and amontillados finos in Surtopia

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Have been living it up a bit in these first couple of weeks of the year but in amongst the new discoveries I couldn’t wait to get back to Madrid’s original temple to all things Sanlucar, Surtopia, whose bar I duly propped up on the first day it reopened.

I have been many times over the years and have posted a fair few times on this blog, but it is always worth visiting again. The wine list is in continual evolution – quite aside from the outstanding list of sherries, manzanillas and white and red wines from the region they now also have a brilliantly priced list of grower champagnes. And the cooking seems just to get better and better too: it is now up there with the very best in Madrid.

On this visit there was no messing around: a bloody sherry, creamed eggs with tuna and a beautiful piece of Urta (the supreme fish of the Cadiz coast), washed down with two superb amontillado finos, El Fossi and El Tresillo.

Wonderful stuff and well worth a(nother) visit!

Raya la Barajuela 2015

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The third of the wines – all from the very top drawer – of a really memorable lunch at Alabaster recently this is something unique and special indeed.

The name “raya” refers to the old categories given to wine – whereas the finest wines were “palmas” destined to become finos, the rayas were heavier wines, over rich, that would be sent down a different path. This one is not a raya by chance: it is from fruit that was harvested from the el Corregidor vineyard in the very last of their many passes. A late harvest palomino, you might say.

The first time I tried it I must admit I struggled to understand it – the nose is sweet and rich, really in the style of a Riesling almost, while the palate is solid, dry and grapefruit bitter. In isolation I found it a strange combination.

The next time I had it was not in isolation: a fantastic tasting of the Barajuela project wines in Taberna Palo Cortado. On that occasion, coming hot on the heels of the epic oloroso, the richness and extremes of this wine seemed to make much more sense.

This time the context was provided by some fantastic pairings: a terrific red scorpionfish and a meaty, flavorful horse mackerel. The two dishes really complemented the wine, or vice versa: the sweetness of the nose with the scorpionfish and the bitterness and salinity with the horse mackerel.

A couple of things were very noticeable: first that the bitterness here was the grapefruit, baked orange bitterness of the fruit, not the burnt almond, woody bitterness I associate with process. The other was the utter contrast in profile with the fino. While the fino’s zing and salinity lets it slip in and out without a ripple, here the flavours are massive from the first sip to the long, long tail. On that finish the salinity is there but so is that over-ripe fruit – a long, long, long finish of fruit rather than just salt and spices.

And the potency – I was dragging this out but was still amazed at the intensity that made the tiniest sip enough.

It is probably my third favourite of the wines from this awesome little plot, but it is still a brilliant wine in its own right and fantastic with a strongly flavoured meat or fish dish like these.

Fino Williams Coleccion Añadas 2009, Febrero 2017

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A bit of a backlog forming here for the editorial team at undertheflor.com – this was the second wine of an absolutely cracking lunch at Alabaster ten days ago, and there have been several lunches since.

Luckily this one is an easy write up – this wine is class. It is part of the Williams Coleccion Añadas, a single vintage, statically aged fino from añina and carrascal, and one of the most distinctive finos around. It has an evolved, dark straw colour and a pronounced hazelnut aroma and juiciness and that make it very approachable indeed.

I have been exceptionally lucky and have been able to try three sacas, from February 2016, February 2017 and April 2017, and the evolution of the three, from fino to arguably a fino amontillado, was fascinating. (Indeed, I gather the 2009 fino is no more – future sacas will be of a 2009 amontillado.) Moreover, the joy of the Coleccion Añadas is that you can try the 2009 fino alongside the oloroso of the same vintage, or even a box of six, and now you can try the 2010, which is a fish of an altogether different kidney.

A lovely wine if you can get hold of it.