Author: sharquillo

Fino Coleccion Añadas 2009, saca de abril 2017

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The standout wine of a terrific and interesting dinner at La Malaje this week with Carmen Fandino of Williams & Humbert was this new saca of an old favourite.

Part of the outstanding Williams Colección Añadas, it has been a lot of fun to follow the progress of this wine in particular. You would say the first saca, in February 2016, was already on the cusp of amontillado and certainly a lot more hazelnut richness than your average fino, while the February 2017 saca was a step closer to the precipice (and maybe even nicer). This one seems to have just stepped over the other side, and Paola Medina apparently agrees: we were told this would be the last bottling of this wine as a fino.

But, as someone once said, what’s in a name? I certainly hope it isn’t the last we will see of the wine itself because it really has a lovely hazelnut sweetness to it – on the nose in particular – which makes it extremely approachable. In general I find that añada wines sometimes have less turbopower than their solera brethren, and this one is certainly a shade less punchy and mineral than a solera fino with eight years under flor would be. But it has a nice balance with that hazelnut and none of the bitterness you can get with the more powerful finos.

One of the great joys of añada wines is this kind of variety. Wines of different añadas start with different characteristics, and then develop differently. As a result they are always worth trying (and buying). Like Forrest Gump’s chocolates you never know what you are going to get.

¡Vive la différence!

Fino Solera Fina de Maria del Valle, Bodegas Gracia  

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Not long ago I was in a favourite restaurant and an enthusiast of the wines of Montilla Moriles asked our host if he had any of the dry wines from that region. The response could have been more diplomatic: “yes indeed, we use it when braising the kidneys”. (I nearly choked on my fino but I think we got away with it.)

No danger of that kind of response these days – the dry wines of Montilla Moriles are gaining traction all the time and seem to attract really enthusiastic enthusiasts – the moment I started this blog I was under siege to include the region in the description. here is no doubt that there are some really superb wines coming from Montilla Moriles, as the four or five keen followers of this blog may have noticed, and I certainly have no problem with enthusiasm in general.

Nevertheless, it does grate at times that the fans of Montilla Moriles seem to dedicate an inordinate amount of their time comparing their wines to those of Jerez, as if to praise one you need necessarily disparage the other, and perhaps without knowing it seem a little chippy about the latter’s greater world reknown. Always strikes me as a little unnecessary. (In fact, it strikes me that the region is well placed to benefit from the resurgence of these traditional wines since in general they are free of association with the mistakes of Jerez’s more recent, less discerning past.)

In any event, this wine, on a label owned by the outstanding Perez Barquero and with a moniker as long as one of my intros,  is certainly well placed to benefit from such interest. It has a lot of my favourite variety of seaside grass on the nose, with nice raw almonds and a dry punchiness to it. Slightly full and greasy in texture, and on the mineral end it is warming and mouthwatering without really sizzling.

A very decent alternative to a fino from you know where …

 

 

Pandorga 2016

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One of the highlights of a top class recent shindig organized by the guys at Vinoteca Tierra was the chance to catch up with Ramiro Ibañez and try his new wines: the UBE Maina 2016 and this, the Pandorga of the same vintage.

Like almost everything Ramiro touches this is the latest in a series of ground breaking wines. A single vineyard, vintage specific, pedro ximenez – interesting stuff to there. But more importantly a wine that, rather than attempting to smooth out the differences between vintages, seeks to accentuate them. After a cooler 2014 season, very little asoleo and (naturally) lower temperatures of fermentation, the hotter 2015 growing season accentuated by more asoleo and a (naturally) warmer fermentation. The results were fascinating: the 2014 was apricot jam and the 2015 fresh, ripe apricot juice.

This 2016 is somewhere in between. Unbelievably, I failed to take any note of the alcohol or sugar content, and the subsequent dinner wiped the details from the “soft memory”. Nevertheless, I couldn’t forget the wine itself, and it has all the same characteristics but maybe greater overall balance, superb acidity, lightness and sweetness in a tight profile.

Not sure when it will be released but it is one to save up for.

International Sherry Week 2017

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I don’t know what it is about International Sherry Week but every year it catches me on the hop, in utter turmoil, and completely disorganized. Instead of a carefully planned and finely tuned social media campaign over several weeks I end up writing a post like this at the last minute and then shamefacedly sneaking into a couple of tastings – if I have time (which is not guaranteed).

But anyway, there is quite literally no excuse for not getting your sherry on next week. In Madrid alone there will be no fewer than 135 events – something like 20 per day – in Spain there are 773 and there are hundreds more worldwide: you can find them all on this fantastic tool on the official web. There are dinners, tastings, and drop ins of all kinds, and it really is the perfect opportunity to try a few new things whether you are a hardcore sherry fan already or just a curious winelover.

So with apologies for the short notice, get your sherry on everybody!

Oloroso la Barajuela 2013 

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This wine was only released a couple of months ago and in minute quantities but it is already a legend. The maker, the excessively tall and talented Willy Perez, describes it as “the wine of his life”, while one of the leading critics of the modern age calls it “by far the finest white wine I have had from Jerez”.

To be quite honest since last June I have been a little smitten with the Fino la Barajuela and maybe didn’t give this wine quite the respect it deserved (to be fair I didn’t have any to drink anyway). But albeit in thimblefulls I have been fortunate to have tried it on a number of occasions over the last few months, in February at the Cuatrogatos Wine Fest, in April when Ramiro Ibañez used it as an example of the wines from years gone by at another cracking tasting at Palo Cortado, at the Bar of Territorio Era (where else?) shortly after release and most recently at a superb tasting with the man himself at Taberna Palo Cortado. It just seems to get better and better.

The other night in Palo Cortado it was just superb. Just so powerful and complete in its range: everything from high notes of white fruit and blossom at the top on the nose through concentrated fruit and hints of nuts to mineral power at the bottom, with a richness that doesn’t seem heavy and a balance and perfect shape to it. A fascinating comparison with the finer profiles of the two finos that we had prior to it and with the richer, but slightly heavy, raya that came afterwards – the context really showing off the characteristics of all four.

I wasn’t in the best of shape at the time and it looking back at my notes it all became a bit too much: there are a number of swear-words in different languages, a lot of words underlines and block capitals everywhere. I also remember losing my composure in a number of other respects: I was almost overtaken by jealousy of my table mates, convinced that they had been poured 5 ml more than I had, and when the last of the liquid was gone I was overcome with sadness, like that old Jedi in Star Wars when the planet gets blown up. There was talk on the night of a further release years down the line of this wine at 15 years. It is hard to imagine it getting any better, but it is something to look forward to even still.

What an absolutely sensational wine.

 

Manzanilla de añada Callejuela 2012 – Bota 1/11 

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Just back from a cracking long weekend of autumn sunshine in the countryside which I enjoyed immensely. The only downside was that my rural wanderings meant missing out on the first tasting at the new premises of Taberna Palo Cortado (now to be found uptown in Calle Espronceda). And not just any tasting, either, but a tasting by the Blanco brothers, the genial owners of Callejuela, one of the most exciting of the “new” bodegas in Sanlúcar, and the source of one of my favourite little projects, the Manzanilla de Añada 2012.

Luckily, consolation was at hand in the form of little bottles of the aforementioned liquid – from the first, second and third botas – and given the circumstances it seemed appropriate to get them open and have another look at them.

Never one for half measures I duly opened all three but before getting into the inevitable comparisons I wanted to write a little bit about this, the first of them. It was and is a special little wine. It was the first “manzanilla de añada” that I ever tried, and it was the first wine to make me think about whether more flor is always better. Whereas now we seem surrounded by “añada” wines and unfortified palominos with a few months under flor, at the time this was something completely new and, to an extent, revolutionary. Indeed I remember opening a bottle of this on the first night of the Pitijopos and as I explained the concept – single vineyard, single vintage, static ageing, a collection of eleven botas – there was even a round of applause.

And I am glad to say the wine is holding up very well indeed. Still lush and wine-like, polished and compact. Thinking back to when it was fresh you would say the fruit had gone down the mountain a bit in the last couple of years – from blossom to something more herbal – and it feels slightly broader on the beam, with more of the liquorice root that I have come to associate with Callejuela. Still a very enjoyable drop.

Long live the Blanco brothers!

 

 

 

 

 

UBE Maína 2016

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One of the star wines of a great week last week, the long awaited UBE Maína 2016. First spotted at the Cuatrogatos Wine Fest in February this is the third of the wines under Ramiro Ibañez’s UBE label. 

Whereas the first two wines are from Carrascal and Miraflores – two of the most atlantic pagos in Sanlucar – this is from Mahina, the river influence pago famously rich in diatomeas.

And the wine doesn’t disappoint: it is a little tank, a lot of the aromatic hallmarks of the other wines but broader than it is tall and full of punch. Sapidity that hammers at the sides of the throat on the way in but is still fresh on the way out.  

Top stuff, and out soon. 

Manzanilla en rama La Gitana

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In Territorio Era for the first time in far too long – nearly three weeks – and back in business with a nice glass of a classic manzanilla en rama. A rich gold colour, a  nice punchy sea-air and burnt almond nose and an intense, bitter and savoury, vegetable olive brine palate. 

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Manzanilla Solear en Rama Autumn 2017 – the Iberian Lynx 

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The latest from my favourite series of manzanillas and you have to say it is a beauty: the Iberian Lynx. Rarest of the big cats and with absolutely cracking whiskers. It is a rerun of one of the first labels – from way back in 1999 – as a homage to the firefighters that helped extinguish this summer’s fire in Doñana national park, one of the Lynx’s last remaining habitats. 

And the wine inside is typically fine stuff.  More chalk and a touch less haybale and wild grass than I expected on the nose, and it also seems a little more oxidated on the palate. Still a flavourful, intense mouthful though – really quality manzanilla. 

Surtopia

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All too brief dropin at Surtopia – newly crowned Tapas champions – this morning. Always a fantastic spot, the food here just gets better and better, and the decor has been upgraded even further in the summer. 

But the neatest upgrade is to the winelist: in addition to the outstanding selection of manzanillas, finos, amontillados, palo cortados, olorosos, and red, white and pink wines from el Marco (no fewer than 21 table wines from the Cadiz region), they now have a super list of 22 grower- producer champagnes, at absolutely fantastic prices.

Of course I stuck to the old favourites – the house wine, which in this case is of course a special bottling of Sanchez Ayala’s famous Gabriella Oro.