Author: sharquillo

Tasting the Barajuela project

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Wanted to jot down my thoughts and impressions of a fantastic tasting I did with Willy Perez last Friday in relation to a project I find fascinating (and a wine that I really love). 

As I have written about ad nauseam the Barajuela project is all about recovering the old school wines of Jerez that once ruled the world. This means big, concentrated wines with a clear identity quite distinct from the lighter “manzanilla” style of current wines. It means low yields, later harvests in several passes (first for brandy, then fino, then oloroso) a short period of asoleo or sun drying to further boost concentration and a focus in the cellar on the wine rather than the flor or barrel effects. (For example, unlike many modern finos with pronounced acetaldehide profiles here efforts were made to keep a balance with the wine’s other characteristics – a balance that is achieved despite a very high level of acetaldehide.) The wines are also terroir and vintage specific and, since single vintage wines age quite differently to their solera counterparts, the back label seeks to recover the old school “palmas” system of classification. 

The tasting could be broken down into three sections, each a nice illustration of what the project is all about. 

First up, we had a run at the mostos from 2015, exploring the effects of the maturity of the grapes in the different “passes” at harvesting. We tasted the mosto for brandy, the greenest, least developed fruit, harvested in early to mid August, the mosto from grapes harvested two or three weeks later, and the mosto for the fino, from fruit harvested a week later still. There was a clear progression in aroma, weight and flavour in the three wines: more and more honeyed on the nose (the mosto de fino in particular had a lovely nose that reminded me of the “cojonudo” pastries you get in the mountains North of Madrid) and, quite apart from the growing strength and weight, more and more (extremely ripe) melon on the palate. Obviously there was a big step from the first mosto to the second, but it was amazing to see the step from second to third – the difference that that selection and one week of sunshine had made. 

Next up was an exploration of the effects of the flor on those mostos (not that much flor – these botas were filled more than usual). The fourth wine was a 2014 mosto de fino, followed by a bottle of the 2013 Fino la Barajuela and a 2013 Palma (roughly speaking, the 2013 fino with six or so more months under flor). Again, the steps between the wines were as instructive as the wines themselves: the 2014 mosto was extraordinary compared to its 2015 equivalent with a noticeably full and mineral mouthfeel – real power and zing to it- the 2013 Fino had that brilliant balance of concentrated fruit and mineral grunt and the Palma was just a touch sharper in both salinity and in the fruit flavour. I would find it very hard to choose between the two 2013s – would love to have tasted them blind – but since I was asked I reckon the fino was dead right, with enough fleshy juice to it despite all that power. (There may also have been some effect from its time in the bottle.) As for the 2014, my mouth is literally watering at the prospect of when that is ready.

Then out came the lesser spotted 2013 Oloroso la Barajuela. This wine is from grapes harvested later still – important to remember this is a different wine from the same vines, not a continuation of the fino – and has another step up in concentration. Rather than under flor it has been “traditionally” aged (but not for very long, which I gather has been the source of some issues with the DO and the traditional classifications, hopefully soon to be resolved). The power and solidity of it is impressive – for now it just has an edge of burn and oxidation but you get a feeling that given time it will be capable of the most amazing full bodied, high register caramel flavours. No bones about it – it is an absolute beast.

We didn’t in fact finish there, we also tried a 2014 pedro ximenez, an excellent mineral and refreshing 2015 Tintilla de Rota rosé and the 2015, 2014 and 2013 Tintilla de Rota reds, but by then my mind was wandering (I even left my notes behind before remembering just in time and dashing back in). It was a brilliant tasting  in which I learned a lot, and even better with some really cracking wines and a few laughs thrown in. Blessed are the rulebreakers and long live the new old school.

Pagos, soils, flor and wines with Willy Perez (and many, many, thanks)

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Today was another great day by any standards but for this blogger it was monumental. The great Luis “Willy” Perez took a few hours out of his permanent state of rolling harvest to show us some historic pagos and their soils, his fantastic hilltop bodega and, most importantly of all, the wines they produce.

It was not my first visit to the pagos of Jerez – in fact a couple of times today I stood in a spot near identical to five months ago (or at least I think so, we will never know for sure since the maps used on that occasion appear to have slipped over the edge of the world). But although the viewpoints may have been the same the emphasis and lessons were different to those I remembered. We observed the natural borders between soils of different types and the way the physical borders matched them, the way the different plantlife behaved on the different soils, the relationship between altitude, slope and soil type, and the way that the landscape had changed in other ways, with fincas abandoned by their winemaking owners.  Seemingly small stuff but just as in March it is easy to see that the implications of each detail are significant.

Then we visited the beautiful Finca Vistahermosa bodega. It is frankly spectacular and a must visit for anyone visiting the area. In fact it struck me as potentially enormously positive for image of the region as a whole to have a bodega like this – clearly and elegantly part of the landscape and as modern as anything you would find anywhere. It had absolutely every necessity – tanks of every material, barrels of every size and age – but Luis clearly placed a good deal more importance in the dusty dirt of the vineyards than the shiney and oaky gear indoors. Then we had a short visit to the room storing the Barajuela wines where Willy outlined the thought processes behind their making and, in doing so, turned quite a bit of my mental furniture upside down.

Finally we sat down with Luis, the genial Federico Ferrer of Cuatrogatos Wine Club and some of the young winemakers working with Luis – to taste the wines. It was a cracking tasting. We tasted the excellent 2013 Tintilla de Rota with its 2014 and 2015 siblings and an amazingly mineral rosé. More importantly, I will never forget tasting a full spectrum of Barajuela wines. I think it is the single most promising project in the region (just see here, here,  here, here and here) and tasting the wines at different stages of development and hearing the comments and thoughts of Luis as we tasted them was invaluable. While I am nowhere near understanding what these wines are, what makes them how they are and how they evolve – under flor and in the bottle – I felt for a moment as if I was getting somewhere. And what wines they are – these are the massive wines that Jerez used to produce, enormously muscular and flavourful. You have the sense that there is nothing that cannot be achieved with them.

And all too soon (but nearly an hour later than planned) it was over. It was a fantastic, unforgettable experience that I will never be able to repay, so all I can do is express my thanks for the extreme generosity of our host.

 

Santa Ana Pedro Ximenez 1861

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This was the second time I have tried this very special wine: the first was at a tasting years ago that persuaded me that Sherry was no passing fancy. Since then I have learned a lot and tasted/drunk even more and it was fascinating to come back to this with that perspective and context.

It is from Emilio Hidalgo, the family owned bodega responsible for some of my favourite wines and with a stunning range. Of all the sherries I have tried their epic old fino La Panesa would probably be the wine I couldn’t live without, while El Tresillo and El Tresillo 1874 are both absolutely outstanding. I am not even going to mention the 1860 Palo Cortado Privilegio due to shortage of superlatives. 

So this was one I have been looking forward to. It is a 100% pedro ximenez from fruit grown on Pago Añina. More importantly (in this case) it is from one of the foundational soleras – dating from 1861-and is a very very limited production wine that is bottled by hand in old school fashion. Needless to say it is, on average, many decades old (and, in sherry terms, quite costly, although I got this thanks to an offer at Vila Viniteca).

It is nearly black in colour and very dense – coats the glass with black brown – but despite that great age and serious appearance it is remarkably fresh and youthful. As one of the (very good) friends I shared it with pointed out, it is complex – figs, nuts and caramel (someone said black treacle but I would say more caramel) – and it is immensely smooth and long. For the second time in a week I was surprised by the lack of concentration and acidity in such an old wine – I even hankered for the peppery spices of some very old PX – but this is wine from the soft fleshy inside of the raisin without the rind. 

Old and fresh, smooth and full of fruit, sweet but not syrupy – elegant class. 

Fino la Barajuela 2013

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In a week of brilliant wines from all over this was for me the best of them all. Enough mineral power to set it apart from the crowd but more fruit and expression than the crowd expected from a fino. Really excellent. It is fortunate that there isn’t too much more of it or this blog would become a fanpage. (I absolutely love this wine.)

Apparently a second “palma” is to be released a few years down the road with a few more years under flor and it is going to be fascinating to see what that flor action does to this wine. Would also be interesting to see what happens with time in bottle – but for that I would have to keep some long enough.

La Bota de Palo Cortado 62 “Diez años despues”

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This is the wine chosen by the guys at Equipo Navazos to celebrate their 10th year and true to their recent releases it is a bit different. The previous anniversary release was a very limited edition and subsequently became very very valuable, so this was one I didn’t want to miss (and thanks to the guys at Coalla Gourmet here we are).

It is a palo cortado from the “Sanatorio” – the bodega of Manuel Aragon in Chiclana, at the far South of el Marco (and beloved of this blog for a number of reasons). Like a classic Equipo Navazos release we are told it is from a single cask that has not been touched for years and that the wine is an average of around 50-60 years old. 

It is a deep brown colour – crystalline but a tone that is a little dull. On the palate it is pleasantly gentle and fresh – in fact not as powerful or saline as I expected for a wine of its age. It is full of salty, nutty, tobacco and barrel flavours, maybe even a bit of orange peel hands – it is nicely integrated and has a very long, fresh but slightly bitter finish. It just lacks that power – while I generally pine for exactly this kind of elegance and flavour, here I am missing a bit of grunt. 

No doubt about it, another fascinating release. 

UBE 2014 

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A really fine bottle of wine from Cota 45 – this is a little ball of flavour. One of a number of cracking bottles of wine opened on a sunny terrace what stood out about this was the savoury, herbal quality of the flavours. Not acidic but a nice freshness to it. A class wine. 

Pandorga 2014

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We had this last night at the end of a cracking dinner with a really good little creme brulee (I took no photo of course so I am recyling one).  I also have one of these 100 year old PX beauties down here with me and was nearly tempted to open it but managed to rein myself in in time.

It really is an excellent little wine. A little apricot gem, sweet but mineral, tasty but fresh. Comparisons were made with late harvest rieslings but to me this has a bit more apricot and orange richness than you would find there. But it is a lot more than that: it is terroir specific (the Panesa vineyard, in Carrascal de Jerez), it is a pure expression of the fruit, and it has a specific vintage (2014, obvs). In fact it not only has a vintage, but by choosing to vary the asoleo (less asoleo for a cool season like this one, slightly more for a warm season like 2015), and fermentation without temperature control it almost exaggerates the qualities of that vintage.

But most importantly, a little gem of a wine.

 

 

Another unfair comparison

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Further to my musings earlier this week on the barrels used to age Socaire I was curious to try it against one of the woodier burgundies (let’s be honest any excuse is a good one).

Just as with my last comparison of wines from these two regions the differences are far more pronounced than the similarities. It is an unfair comparison in so many ways – fundamentally different cepages, ages, and soils – and in this kind of company even very nice wines can come across as a touch rustic.  Moreover it was not a well planned experiment – I expected more wood from the Pouilly Fuissé and now that I look at the ficha I see I have picked the wrong one altogether. Half of this was aged in lined concrete tanks and half in 2nd to the 5th use barrels (although in sherry terms I am guessing that a 5th use barrel would still be considered relatively “new” oak). I really need to sit down and work out a more useful series of side by sides (John set out some cracking minerals suggestions in the comments to that last post – will get working on those too.)

What is evident though is that the attitude to the use of wood in one case and the other seems to be slightly different – to an extent the Socaire makes use not of the wood itself but of the wine impregnated into the wood, trying to extract, with some success, the unique characteristics of the fino, rather than the oak, to enrich the aromas and palate. I was over categoric in my last post when I said that there was no conversation about barrel ageing in Jerez and Sanlucar (and Chiclana) and was duly put right. But although it is true there is indeed much more discussion about the botas used to age wines, I still don’t really see the same level of interest in the age or qualities of the oak itself.

 

 

 

 

Amontillado Quo Vadis

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Very old, very famous Sanlucar amontillado with an average age of over 40 years from the bodega Rodriguez la Cave, a once Hispano Frances bodega now part of Delgado Zuleta, who claim to be the oldest in the business. I was surprised that I hadn’t written about this on the blog already, but on a recount the nights where this wine have been involved have not been conducive to note taking. Anyway, better late than never.

As you can see it is a beautiful, lively amber colour with a hint of yellow orange. On first opening it was a little closed up and unforthcoming, but after a week or so open (with the cork in) it seems a different proposition (it is also true that I may be in a better mood/frame of mind, who knows).  Now on the nose it has some spirity fumes – closer to petrol than to brandy – then walnut skin, furniture polish, and cigar box wood.  

On the palate it is very dry and very salty, sharp but full and refined. Zingy and acidic feel on the tongue and massive in salty seawater volume, and leaves a buzz rather than a sting.  Flavours are woody, leathery, and tobacco, before a long long salty and savoury/bitter finish with the tongue still buzzing.

It is easy to see why this is for many the top of the pops in terms of Sanlucar amontillados – a salty beast.