Author: sharquillo

La Bota de Amontillado 58 – Navazos – Part II

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After all those palo cortados last night I felt like a nice glass of amontillado and this is just the ticket.

I first opened this bottle back in September and have had a few dips in the time since – it is one of those wines you can drink on any occasion. 

Anyway, here it is again, a beautiful orange amber colour – a touch darker than I remember from six weeks ago and maybe just a bit less sweetness on the nose. Seems an odd thing to say about a wine that has been traditionally aged for so long but in the few weeks open it seems to have lost a little energy. 

It still has a powerful zingy, acidic feel to it -really acidic on the tongue – and a big flavour of smokey herbs and burnt caramel. What I love about these amontillados is not just the bready, nuttiness but the lack of astringency compared to the olorosos and palo cortados – they don’t seem to have the same reduction at a similar traditional age. It makes the finish much lighter and more elegant. 

Whatever, this was cracking. Am glad to have had a couple of glasses, if sad to have finished the bottle by doing so. 

#sherryTT: A twitter tasting of palo cortados with SherryNotes

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Feel that I must quickly post about a brilliant event organized by Ruben at SherryNotes tonight. A tasting of five excellent palo cortados: Viejo CP from Valdespino, Antique from Rey Fernando de Castilla, Tradicion, Emilio Hidalgo Privilegio, and Apostoles. We tasted them as a group but a group all over the place – London, Madrid, Paris, Belgium, amongst others – using twitter (you can see the comments in real time by looking at the tag #sherryTT).

It was a great event – great wines, a nice group with some excellent thoughts, and even contributions from luminariea such as Edouardo Ojeda, Jan Pettersen, Fernando Martin Hidalgo, Jose from GB, Beltran Domecq and Cesar Saldaña (with Antonio Flores chipping in on Twitter from elsewhere). Most of all it was a feat of organization by Ruben – a great effort.

All the wines really were good. The Viejo CP was a lovely elegant, light butterscotch wine, the Fernando de Castilla has a light touch but some heavy notes, the Tradicion had a super structure, the Privilegio was just awesome and the Apostoles was a balance of contrasts like a hot, sweet espresso.

Really excellent event and a great opportunity to taste a range of palo cortados together. Many thanks again Ruben. (My tweets are compiled here.)

Romate Don José

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The last of my notes on this range of wines (after the Amontillado, the Palo Cortado and the flight) this is the oloroso. Again a “reserve” with an average age of 15 years+. 

It is a deep reddish brown like a fresh conker and has a very flavourful nose of old apple sauce and caramel. On the palate it has a nice spicey astringency/acidity and flavours of  brown sugar and a long long finish of burnt christmas cake. 

I like it a lot – maybe a little astringent and not a big range to it but a really solid wine. (Funnily enough I like it more than I did when tasted against its Brethren recently – seemed to suffer by comparison.) 

Sherry and the Mystery of Palo Cortado

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It has been a long time coming – I was originally asked to go to an early showing of this in Madrid (I believed the premiere but can’t be sure). I didn’t make it and since then one opportunity after another has passed me by. Now, once again thanks to the good offices of the unequalable Ruben at Sherry Notes (who already wrote about this back in January and February) I have had a chance to have a look and thought it would be rude not to share my views.

It has been received rapturously by some and not so much by others (this review in Variety is a good example). I have to admit I had had my doubts about it. I really dislike the blarney that sometimes surrounds palo cortado – the supposedly mysterious, magical wine that is “born” rather than “made”; and when I saw the title of this I feared the worst.

So I finally sit down to watch it and must say I enjoyed it. Frankly, it is a better documentary than the title made me expect.

To start with, there are a lot of heroes (and even friends) in here. If you love these wines you should take a look to have a chance to listen to the people that make them, write about them and serve them to you. From memory: the guys behind Equipo Navazos (Eduardo Ojeda and Jesus Barquin), Paola Medina (Williams & Humbert), Jan Pettersen (Fernando de Castilla), José Ramon Esteve (Esteve, evidently), Antonio Flores (GB), Pilar Pla Pechovierto and Ana Cabastrero (Maestro Sierra), Alvaro Giron Sierra, Paz Ivison, my man Guillermo Cruz, the Sherry Women, Cesar Saldaña, Beltran Domecq, Pitu Roca, Andoni Luis Aduriz, even David Muñoz pops up (and has a pop) — the list goes on. In particular it was great to see the Equipo Navazos guys at work – am a big if slightly grumpy fan of their wines and it was nice to put a face to all that endeavour.

Second, it has a wider reach than just palo cortado. It really is more of a general sherry documentary and covers a lot of good ground – not too much explanation of the basics, and it manages to touch on a lot of good stuff: the importance of terroir and harvest, the skills of the cellarmen, the characters of the different wines.

Third, it is beautiful to look at. There are some beautiful images of countryside, bodegas, vineyards, the town of Jerez, restaurants, bars, stews, not to mention the pimped up gaffs of some of the big families (the expression “decent drum” doesn’t cover it). There is nice archive footage of harvests, wine making, the criadera system, and flamenco singing. There are some touching stories of multiple generational involvement, life long fascinations, personal fascinations (the Roca lads were brought up in the “Andalucia town” of Terrat) and struggles (although a potentially moving story from  Pilar Pla Pechovierto could have been followed through a little). And of course there are a lot of interviews with the above mentioned luminaries, which are neatly strung together and full of nice nuggets.

And the story being told? Well in the end I find it hard to disagree, although I am sure that a lot of people in the business will do. If I had a criticism it would be that amid all the camerawork and talk of marketing and pairings you can lose track of the fact that we are talking about wines. Yes there is a segment on the pagos, there are snippets (which I loved) on their qualities (the macho macharnudo and the feminine, flowery miraflores) and on the importance of the soil and the vine.  Nevertheless, the wine, the wine making, the skills, all get a little lost in the visuals and talking heads. (From some of the snippets I bet there is a lot of this on the floor of the editing suite.)

And the mystery? The mystery is why they called it the mystery of palo cortado. Not only is there no real mystery these days (and here I defer to the great Jesus Barquin), but if there was, the mystery is neither announced or explored at any length – it is announced and immediately shot down! (Yes, there are some frankly vexing references to it being a “rebellious wine” and the like – but nothing too over the top.) in this sense for me the film is summed up by a moment at the end when Cesar Saldaña has time to say “I tend to prefer amontillado …  ” but just as he says “but a palo cortado is …” he gets cut off. Classic stuff.

All in all, I am glad to have seen it and think the world would be a better place if more people did likewise. (They are pushing on an open door convincing me that we should all drink more wines from Jerez and Sanlucar.) However, I really feel they slightly missed an opportunity to appeal to a more critical public. There was some good nuggets dispersed through the piece but when it came to the moment for critical argument all we had was (necessary) generality, some affirmation (a 100 year old wine may be history, but why history good? Is it great wine?) a bit of David “Dabiz” Munoz saying it was “brutal” and rock and roll and a little bit of blarney.

Still, bravo, or, more to the point, cheers! I have had a fair few glasses to help pass the time as you may have guessed.

Romate NPU amontillado

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Second of this range of reserve wines by Romate that I am tasting – after the Regente Palo Cortado a couple of weeks ago. As noted previously, the nice old school bottles are interesting but inconvenient. 

It is darkish amber in colour – not as much red/orange as in the palo cortado and it has nice nutty, umami aromas. Also a nice nuttiness to it on the palate – not too much salinity or astringency, and nice caramel flavours that stay in balance. 

A very nice, elegant wine – maybe lacking a bit of spark but a solid effort. 

Matusalem Oloroso Dulce Muy Viejo

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Photo is to scale – I have a nice set of these VORS GB wines in dinky little bottles for tasting.

Super dark in colour – real old wood polish brown, and the same kind of vibe from the nose. I was at a tasting where a colleague compared it to cathedral furniture and he wasn’t far from the money. A really reductive, astringent nose.

On the palate too you have that walnut skin astringency, a really acidic feel, albeit balanced by the sweetness which becomes a deep burnt caramel toffee – a really dark, savoury flavour. I have documented my skepticism with the sweetened wines and this is not fully convincing me either – the sweetness helps balance the bitter, astringent flavours but still seems slightly out of place.

A deep, serious wine with a touch of sweetness: a real wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Romate NPU, Regente and Don Jose

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Good chance to taste an amontillado (NPU, far right), palo cortado (Regente, middle) and oloroso (Don Jose, left). 

The visual impression is as you would expect – progressively deeper  and richer in colour from amontillado to oloroso. 

The noses are text book – the amontillado has more bready nuttiness, the palo cortado a touch of spicey ginger, and the oloroso by comparison has an even richer, old red wine and barrel aroma (to be honest a bit unbalanced and ott). Of the three the most elegant and appetising for me is the amontillado – the palo may be more interesting but I like the balance and umami of the amontillado. 
On the palate there are clear steps up in zing, acidity, and structure. Here the little bit of spice in the palo cortado gives it a nice added dimension, whereas the oloroso for me seems more intense but less defined – maybe that same bit of imbalance flavourwise.

Three nice bottles that seem great examples of their styles. All really drinkable too.

Alba Confitero Metodo Ancestral 2014

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This is quite something – a 100% palomino from the “Confitero” vines in Pago Miraflores that has been made into sparkling wine by the “ancestral method” (essentially, fermentation in the bottle using its own sugars and yeast).

It is a lively gold in colour – a hint of green. A nice nose of cider apples, citrus and minerals, cheese, even.

Not the longest lasting stream of bubbles – second glass has come out foamy more than anything. (Another mini bottle rant here – this bottle came with a beer cap which made it impossible to open without losing some – not sure if these last two issues are related.)

On the palate it is dry but there are the same fruit flavours of other palomino creations – apple verging on pineapple, turning to a bitter tonic flavour at the finish.

Oloroso Asuncion

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Little cold as it came and not great light in here but it seems a slightly dull, cloudy brown. For an oloroso it is not excessively fragrant. 

On the palate it is lovely and full bodied – I really think the PX works well as an oloroso. It is just a touch sweet but balanced with the bitter nutty, burnt caramel flavours – and it stays balanced during a nice long finish. 

A nice oloroso. Maybe just lacks a little oomph for my taste. 

Sacristia AB Manzanilla – segunda saca 2013

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It is the colour of regal old gold. Fresh open it is not as aromatic as I expected – haybales but a little muted. Also a little muted on the palate – not at all the intense herbal flavours I remember.

Not sure what to make of this. Has it tired out or merely gone to sleep? Am going to stick it back in the cabinet and try again tomorrow.

Day 2: Still the same colour (obvs). Still not very fragrant – hay bales but in the distance. On the palate it is a little livelier – not intense as such but flavourful, with yeast, saltiness and maybe a hint of cider apples.

In fact as the evening is going on it seems to be opening up more and is an elegant sup overall – not a blockbuster but nice enough.