Events

Lustau biological wines in Taberna Palo Cortado

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Finally getting around to writing up my notes – thumbs a blur across the iphone screen – of the fascinating tasting of Lustau biological wines at Taberna Palo Cortado last week. We got to try wines from all along the solera process – including the sobretabla and a wine from an intermediate criadera.

Anyway, here we go with my thoughts:

  • Sobretabla – one year old wine that has been fortified and will be used to refresh the La Jarana solera. As a wine you would find it alcoholic, rustic, unready and undefined, but it has personality alright – a really earthy, punchy little brawler. Whatever, I still appreciate the chance to try these whenever I can, because they can give you an appreciation of where the wines come from.
  • Fino Jarana – after the sobretabla you could really appreciate the fine quality of this and the work of the flor, of which it has had around four years. A very nice green apple and salty nose, and green apple on the palate too, with salinity giving it buzz and volume. A very decent young fino.
  • 1a criadera of los Arcos. This wine was not a successor to the last – from the first criadera of amontillado, but fed with manzanilla (I guess the Papirusa) rather than the Jarana. It had four years under flor and around two of traditional ageing. Like the sobretabla it was exuberant and a little unmade/undefined – fascinatingly so. Light in colour and slightly turbid, it had a slightly fuzzy, still pungent and salty nose with a little hazelnut to it. Again on the palate you noticed the salinity, which seemed to slightly overpower the nuttiness when it came.
  • Los Arcos itself is the real thing and showed some real benefit for its additional couple of years of traditional ageing (and of course finishing – whereas the previous wine was a bota sample this was a finished product). Four years under flor and four years traditional ageing this had greater clarity and sharpness. Refined hazel/apple or even tomato on the nose here – a sweet cherry tomato. Then a nice zingy bite on the palate and roasted nut flavours with a nice tasty finish.
  • Escuadrilla – now we come back to Jerez, and an amontillado with four years under flor (the Jarana) and a further eight years of traditional ageing. This was a cracking wine, crystal clear and a lovely chestnut colour, with a nose of hazelnut spread – really appetising nose. On the palate too it just seemed to have a bit more flavour and class than its predecessor – nice rich hazelnut and a long mouthwatering finish keeping the flavour going.
  • Amontillado VORS. It was followed by the senior amontillado of the range – a VORS (i.e., at least 30 years old in total). A rich red chestnut colour, again crystalline, this had a much more pronounced sawdust on the nose, then a palate that was more acidic first up, even dryer, concentrated flavour and then a very dry finish.

A really interesting group of wines and the kind of tasting that can be really instructive. I think my favourite was the Escuadrilla but there was no doubting the power and class of the VORS or the spriteliness of the Arcos. Excellent range of wines.

But there was more to come – a bottle of East India Solera was produced with the deserts, and although I am not in general a fan of creams and mediums this one struck me as most opportune and went down very nicely indeed.

And in fact there was even more to come because Abel Valdenebro, a genial chap and genius photographer, had brought along a lovely old Lustau amontillado from the 1960s, which was then followed by another couple of vintage bottles purchased by popular subscription (a whip around) from Paki’s fantastic collection, including a sublime Inocente that had been in the bottle at least forty years. (I rather cheekily asked Paki for a 2016 Inocente as a comparison and it was as stark a comparison as I can remember – will write on that anon.)

So many thanks once again to Carlos from Lustau and to Paki for a cracking evening, and to Abel and the other subscribers to the other wines. Top class all around.

Bodegas Tradición: 11 wines, 7 sacas, and 45 years

~ sharquillo ~ 9 Comments

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I have been fortunate to attend some really outstanding tastings in the last few years – of sherries and otherwise – but on Monday night I took part in one of the best that I can remember. The tasting was the first of three hosted by Reserva y Cata as part of International Sherry Week and the place was absolutely heaving: standing room only. And that was frankly no surprise because the concept and wines involved were first class: a vertical tasting of wines by Bodegas Tradición from the Sobretabla used to make the fino all the way to their 45 year old amontillado, by way of all seven fino releases and including special bottlings from criaderas of the fino and amontillado.

It was lead by Miguel Llanos, Tradición’s Commercial Director and guy in Madrid who for me has been one of the unsung heroes of the so called sherry revolution. Three or four years ago when sherries started to appear on the shelves of vinotecas and restaurants the Tradicion wines were at the fore and a lot of that was down to Miguel, who was leading tastings of these wines when that was still an unusual occupation. To my great regret I never made it to any of those tastings years ago but this one was worth waiting for.

Even better, we were also joined by Lorenzo Garcia Iglesias and Helena Rivero, the Director General and President of the company and even several of their colleagues, and whereas Miguel focussed on the characteristics of the wines, Lorenzo in particular provides some fascinating thoughts and explanations of the way the project and the wines had developed (and in relation to Esparto grass and its uses in furniture and footwear manufacture).

And that was really the central theme of the tasting: the way that the bodega, the fino solera and the wines had developed. Tradición’s is a relatively unusual story because despite a long family tradition the bodega itself is relatively new – founded in 1998 – and for the first 14 years it specialized in high quality VOS and VORS wines with average ages well above that of the bodega itself. They didn’t release a fino until 2013 (I was convinced I had missed the first releases but found out I was in on the ground floor) when they realized that the botas of fino originally acquired to refresh the solera of the amontillado had the quality and character needed to make an old, characterful wine in its own right. From there, what was a handful of botas, subject to static ageing in a corner of the bodega, has now become a solera with four criaderas producing two sacas of 3,000 bottles a year of a fino with an average age of around 12 years (which in turn is used to refresh the amontillado solera).

I love tastings which include a nod to the raw materials and and give you a sense of the different stages of the wines, but there were a lot of wines here so I am going to have to summarize my notes somewhat (I also link to past tasting notes):

  • Sobretabla – 100% palomino fortified to 15º that had spent around 6-8 months in bota. Raw and exuberant, I loved the sweetness of the fruit and herbs on the nose.
  • 2a Criadera of the fino – this would have had an average age of around 6-7 years and was already very fine. It had a nice herbal, floral nose with a touch of sweetness and a silky mouthfeel after the Sobretabla. Refined and very elegant.
  • May 2016 – one of only two finos that I hadn’t tried before this was a very elegant, very fine fino indeed. Had nice aromas on the nose – something like eucalyptus or woodchips – nicely integrated salinity, a compact palate of citrus and fresh almond flavours and a long mouthwatering finish.
  • November 2015 – quite a contrast to the previous wine this had a punchier, yeasty nose, bigger body to it and slightly more bitter almond flavours. 2015 had apparently been a very hot summer, even by the standards of el marco, and there were definite signs of oxidation and concentration in the wine.
  • May 2015 – probably my favourite fino on the night and again a big contrast with what had gone before – both with the November saca (which stands to reason) and with the 2016 saca. A really powerful, intense, sharp and compact fino this one, with a seemingly richer mouthfeel and more pronounced salinity. A really, really long finish to it too. Apparently 2015 was a year of expansion in the solera with new wines being fused with the old and this certainly seems to have an extra gear compared to the old wines that followed it.
  • October 2014 – you wouldn’t say this was as powerful as the May 2015 or as horizontal as the November 2015 but it had a lovely gold colour and again yeasty, slightly overtoasted almond aromas and flavours. The summer of 2014 wasn’t as warm as that of 2015 and the wine doesn’t seem to have been toasted in the same way. I found the citrus just a touch more pronounced – and a little more grapefruit than the others – and again a lovely long finish.
  • March 2014 – the other wine that I had not tried before (and I was allowed a double helping of this one). Again, a very different wine – lots of the same characteristics but this to me had a really salty sea air nose to it, a heavier, sea water salinity and maybe just a touch more of the herbal bitterness of age to it.
  • October 2013 – the summer of 2013 was also relatively fresh and this again doesn’t quite have the body and girth of the later autumn sacas. Has a very attractive slight sweetness to the nose though and what it lacked in power it made up for with maybe just a touch more definition with that suggestion of sweetness.
  • May 2013 – this was apparently the only bottle that had been located from this saca which gave a bit of extra frisson to tasting it and it was a delicious little half glass. Again had a touch of sweetness and lightness to it, and was slightly juicier than the other wines roasted almonds or even hazelnuts and even a little bit of dairy to it. Again I found it very elegant – the only problem was the quantity involved!

And those were the finos: an absolutely cracking flight of wines. It was great to taste them altogether and it made me change my mind about quite a few of the things I had written in the past. It was also fascinating to think about the wines in the context of the changes from static ageing to the solera and its expansion, the experimentation as the solera was built up and the different climatic conditions. (And it must be said, a chance to try wines from a new solera that has been created in recent years, even if from older wines and older botas, is rare indeed.)

It was also one of the clearest demonstrations of the value of seasonal sacas and dated bottlings. The differences in amplitude between the spring and autumn sacas was very clear, but also the differences in the wines of the different years. In particular I was intrigued by how different the spring sacas were: super fine, elegant fino in 2016; a meaty, punchy and sharp wine in 2015; seawater salinity and mineral in 2014; and floral and almost juicy in 2013. Some of those differences would be down to bottle ageing, but not all of them, and the variety in the wines  made an enjoyable tasting even better.

And we didn’t finish there either. We went on to taste wine from the second criadera of the amontillado and the VORS amontillado itself. These wines are absolute masterpieces and I am shocked and dismayed that I haven’t tasted them on this blog. I will search out an opportunity and write a proper post soon because after all those finos I just couldn’t give them my full attention.

In the meantime, I was really glad of the opportunity to taste the second criadera. If my notes are accurate the amontillado solera would have six criaderas, fed in turn by fino that has been fortified and with an average age of about 15 years. This second criadera was itelf a VORS, or at least a VOS, at about 30 years old, and had a fine slightly, sweet and citrus nose, rich flavour and balanced salinity, but the finished article was even better. According to my notes,  greater clarity and a richer colour, a “mixed marmalade” nose of sweet citrus, and bite, acidity and some bitter wood flacours to balance the blackened caramel. (I had never reflected on it before but the sheer amount of biological ageing of the fino that feeds these soleras really contributes to a very fine, elegant amontillado indeed.)

So an outstanding evening all round. As I posted at the time, my sincere thanks and congratulations to Bodegas Tradicion and Reserva y Cata for an outstanding event, one that will live long in the memory and already has me looking forward to the coming sacas.

Bodegas Tradición in Reserva y Cata 

~ sharquillo ~ Leave a comment

Viva Sherry Week. What an outstanding tasting this was. Bottle ageing, seasonality of sacas, wine making, static and dynamic effects. Tasting a line up of brilliantly made finos, with a clear family thread but fascinating individual personalities, and with the information to make sense of some of it. And the Tradicion Amontillado to finish – absolutely epic.

I will write this all up – 8 1/2 pages of notes – as soon as I make sense of it all. For now, just sincere thanks to Reserva y Cata and Bodegas Tradicion for a really top class event.

Sherry Week in Madrid (and beyond)

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

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This coming week, November 7-13 is International Sherry Week, a fantastic week-long, worldwide celebration of the top class wines of Jerez, Sanlucar and el Puerto promoted by the Consejo Regulador and the team at sherry.wine.  They have an absolutely brilliant search tool to help you find local events, of which there appear to be no fewer than 71 planned in Madrid.

I am feeling a little bit sheepish about the whole thing since my other commitments have limited my availability a lot lately and I am not sure of being able to take part in many of the events over the next week. In fact doubly sheepish, since all the events are probably sold out and this post is thus probably too late to be of practical use for many people. Even so, I wanted to celebrate some of the outstanding events that are lined up (and you never know there may be the odd place available).

Monday, November 7 –

Tuesday, November 8 –

Wednesday, November 9  is a holiday in Madrid and there isn’t as much going on

Thursday, November 10 –

  • Taberna Palo Cortado has arranged a pairing menu matching the wines of Bodegas Tradicion and the salazones and conservas of Herpac
  • Although not on the official Sherryweek program – and sold out long ago – Taberna Verdejo will be hosting Paola Medina of Williams & Humbert and Juancho Asenjo for another tasting/paired menu based around the excellent Colección Añadas

Friday, November 11  –

But this list is really only scraping the surface – you can take a look at the 71 official events in Madrid, the 889 in Spain or the many hundreds or even thousands around the world on the official website.

And neither should we forget the other places where every week is Sherry Week. At Enoteca Barolo they will be hosting the 11th sessions (two groups) of their awesome course on the traditional wines of Andalucia and at Surtopia, Angelita, la Fisna, Territorio ERA and elsewhere it will be sherry business as usual. I am looking forward to another great week and to getting my sherry on. Don’t be surprised if your twitter timelines take on a radically pro-sherry flavour in the coming days!

 

Tasting the Great Gran Barqueros 

~ sharquillo ~ 3 Comments

As trailed in my last post, last night I was lucky enough to attend a tasting of Gran Barquero wines given by José Ruz of Perez Barquero at Reserva y Cata, with the added bonus of the presence of Paco del Castillo.

There were four wines, all from the Gran Barquero range: the Fino en rama (a saca from October 20, 2016); a wine taken from the second criadera of the Amontillado Gran Barquero; a 2016 saca of Amontillado Gran Barquero and a 1996 bottling of the same wine. It made for a really instructive tasting which demonstrated the effects of oxidative ageing over time and, interestingly, of bottle ageing.

We started, of course, with the Fino en rama, which is from unfortified, 100% pedro ximenez and has spent 8-10 years under flor in a solera with three criaderas. It is an excellent fino en rama – intensely yeasty, flavourful (slightly bitter almonds) and mineral, and one of the things that always strike me about these Gran Barquero wines is how very fine they are in texture – the sense of how the glycerine and body you might expect from the pedro ximenez has been reduced by the flor over those years. (Interestingly, I was able to sneak a glug of a second bottle of the same wine and it had a quite different green apple and popcorn nose.) It was bottled only 8 days earlier but seemed to have  stood up to the bottling – will have to try and get some to see how it tastes in a few weeks.

We then moved on to the wine taken from the second criadera of the amontillado solera, which is refreshed from the solera of the fino en rama and also has three criaderas. Again there has been no fortification (we were told they hadn’t fortified for ten years or more) and the finished wine bottled as Amontillado Gran Barquero will have had an average of 15-20 years oxidative ageing on top of the 8-10 of biological ageing of the fino. It wasn’t fully clear to me what the average age of this wine from the second criadera was but I guess we are talking 8-10 plus 8-10 or similar. I found it a very enjoyable amontillado indeed – lovely straw and hazelnut nose, and even a little bit of raw yeast and juicy hazelnuts on the palate. Not powerfully acidic but a nice bite to it and good, mouthwatering salinity. Elegant and compact but full of fun.

Next came the finished Gran Barquero amontillado (from a bottling in September 2016) and to me it was a little step up in class and refinement. On the nose the sweet touches of the second criadera had gone but there was a richer yeastiness to it. On that little bit of extra acidity and salinity give it an even sharper entry and finish and the hazelnut flavours of the second criadera have intensified into roasted – borderline burnt – nuts and lead to a long, umami rich finish. It it a classic wine.

Finally, we were able to try a Gran Barquero amontillado bottled in 1996, giving us the chance to appreciate the effects of those 20 years of bottle ageing. As a caveat, it would not have been quite the same wine in 1996 – with a total age of closer to 15-20 years than 25-30. Moreover, I gather that these specific bottles have not exactly had a restful 20 years either: they had been shipped to and from the Canary Islands, no less, and with no guarantees as to the storage conditions.

Nevertheless, these bottle aged wines are all the go now so I was intrigued to see the differences – and surprised by the differences that were there, to be honest. First, and maybe least surprisingly, it looked its age: much darker in colour, not quite crystalline and with crumbs of sediment (see above). The most striking difference was on the nose – whereas the previous wine was all yeast, straw and herbs, this had an aroma of dusty old leather bound books – but also on the palate for me it had lost a little bit of the spring in its step, getting a touch dryer and with more bitterness, and even in terms of definition, again with a slightly dusty sensation to it. Really interesting to have tasted because the differences I noticed were things that in other wines in the past I had attributed to the length of the time in the barrel, but not quite my cup of tea as you can probably guess.

Overall though four top quality wines and an excellent structure to the tasting. When you throw in the knowledgeable commentary and explanations of José and Paco before during and afterwards it was an excellent night all round during which I learned a great deal. My sincere thanks to Ezequiel at Reserva y Cata, José and his colleagues at Perez Barquero and Paco de Castillo – brilliant stuff.

 

 

 

 

IV Salon de los Vinos de Terruño 

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

Just got back from a flying visit to a cracking event  underway here in Madrid – el 4º Salon de Vinos de Terruño (the 4th Salon of Terroir Wines) organized by the distributor Mibil Vinos. Some pretty interesting stuff – everything from champagnes (Marteaux, Pascual Doquet, Bereche and Lassaigne) to brandies, via an oxidatively aged Godello (pictured above).

Sherry fans are catered for by the Bodegas Yuste/Argueso with an impressive range of wines, including their special manzanilla La Kika and the very old amontillado Conde de Aldama. A real treat (although not very terroir focussed if we are honest).

As always, the real fun of the Salon is the other people that go to it and this one was no exception on that score with lots of friends and many of my favourite restauranteurs on hand. I couldn’t go for very long but there are worse ways to start the week.

Las Añadas de Williams & Humbert

~ sharquillo ~ 8 Comments

5e9b9cb3-ae40-4d2b-8a32-7f3c5ed34a0cHas been an intense start to the new academic year with a lot of work and, for some reason, a lot of hangovers, so apologies for the delay in getting around to writing up these notes of what was an absolutely fantastic tasting nearly two weeks ago (gulp).

I have written before about the genius concept of this Colección Añadas, about a few of the individual wines and also about an interloper in this tasting: the Vintage Fino from 2006. What made this tasting so interesting, though, was the chance to taste them all in close succession and the resulting comparisons were revealing.

Since the Collection is known as the “añadas” (or “vintages”) collection we felt we should go vintage by vintage (although it would also have been good to go biological first etc – if only we had had two sets, and time) so here we go in order.

  • 2012 Fino- I really liked it. Very clean nose of almonds, fresh, compact and elegant, nice sensation of acidity gives it an incisive entry and then it has decent salinity, stretching out the finish. Really good and to my mind another great advert for this style of younger finos.
  • 2012 Oloroso – again very good. The almonds are still there on the nose and on the palate but they are toasted on the palate and there is a clear oloroso imprint to it. Bit heavier, slightly spicier flavour but not as much acidity up front and a touch less salinity. Less elegant in profile and a bit more boisterous, you would say.
  • 2009 Fino – if anything the impression I had was that there was more fruit in the 2009 than the 2012 fino but this could be because it was slightly less compact. The saline zing up front and the fresh finish are more marked and the hazelnut/juiciness also seems more pronounced – gives it balance if not quite elegance.
  • 2009 Oloroso – again big on flavour and this is for me the best of the olorosos. Again heavier bodied than the fino but now the sweet hazelnut flavours are much more pronounced making it a really juicy wine.
  • 2006 Fino – probably my favourite wine on the night, this really had a bit of everything. Not a straight comparison with the other since this was bottled in 2014, so really had 8 years under the flor compared to 7 for the 2009, and has had two years in the bottle. Whatever the case you have to say it was bottled bang in its prime – a lovely combination of salinity and almonds that almost gives you dairy aromas, zingy minerals, a creamy texture, those flavours, a long fresh finish. Absolutely brilliant.
  • 2003 Amontillado – ran it pretty close however. This would be the smoothest, most elegant and drinkable 20% alcohol wine I can remember, with sweet hazelnut beginning to mix in with the bitter almond flavours and a touch of acidity to go with the minerals. Difficult not to enjoy this.
  • 2003 Oloroso – had a tough task following those last two wines and was noticeably less refined and compact – the fino/oloroso gap opening over the years. Hazelnut flavours beginning to taste toasted, nice acidic spiciness and more obvious alcoholic heat.

I feel like the tasting gave me an insight into the curve that these wines follow as they age under flor or in the open air. On the other hand, despite an identifiable common personality, given the different amounts of ageing I found it hard to get a feeling for the different vintages as such, and as I look back I have almost more questions than answers. In particular I would love to be able to taste the mostos that were used and know a bit more about them.

As I say, at the end I wished I could start again (but as it happened a magnum of an excellent 2004 Finca Sandoval took my mind off it – thanks Victor!).
No doubt about it though, seven excellent, enjoyable wines and educational too – well done to Williams & Humbert on a fantastic collection.

 

 

Ramiro Ibañez in Surtopia: Day 2

~ sharquillo ~ 5 Comments


Day 2 of Ramiro Ibañez´s masterclass on wines of the marco and while Day 1 was – with the exception of one very fine manzanilla – all about tuna and the meaty, muscular flavours of the rest of the region, in Day 2 there was a clear emphasis on the langostinos and all things Sanlucar.

The solid matter was again absolutely top class. We kicked off with some croquetas (langostino, obvs) and Surtopia’s signature bloody sherry, then a carpaccio of langostino with a foam of manzanilla, a ceviche (of guess what), an absolutely brilliant dish of langostinos and poached egg (give me an egg and call me an idiot, as they say around here), a tasty, tender false rice with, ahem, langostinos and finally some refreshing rebujito ice cream shots. No complaints whatever: on another day this post would be about the food.

But today was about the wines, and what wines they were.

Wine #1 was none other than UBE 2014, by Ramiro himself at Cota 45. This is an unfortified, 100% palomino (from three strains) from Pago Miraflores, fermented at atmospheric temperature before ageing 14 months in bota (but not under flor). Interestingly, Ramiro reckons this to be both the simplest wine to describe and the hardest to understand, and you can see where he is coming from because for a straight up palomino this has a few unexpected dimensions. Beautiful bright, gold colour with some goldish green hues. On the nose first up it was pure blanc des blancs – strawberry pastry aromas. On the palate the first sensation is the dissolved chalk sizzle of the minerals – really buzzy -and then a big dose of tasty, viney fruit but then what Ramiro calls the “verticality” takes over – long, direct and mineral. Lovely fresh finish. It maybe difficult to understand but it is a doddle to drink. Cracking start.

Wine #2 was an absolute beauty: Maruja Manzanilla Pasada “Bota No” 1/3 – from one of three botas kept to one side in the Maruja solera and only refreshed as necessary to replace the merma. The result is a wine that has slightly more golden, less orange colour than the Maruja Manzanilla Pasada and a more refined but somewhat less fruitful profile. There is a lot of acetaldehide, herbs in the nose and on the palate and a rich, salty butter texture that indicates a long exposure to the cabezuelas (something more common in finos than manzanillas). One step beyond in manzanilla pasada terms.

Wine #3 was another rarely (never) seen wine, a Palo Cortado la Callejuela 1/8. A rare example of a Sanlucar palo cortado (at least I can’t think of many) but there is no doubt about the classification. A nice brown-gold in colour and a lovely sweet nose with those toasted, burnt butter aromas. On the palate it is salty, spicey and slightly bitter, with liquorice and even coffee flavours. Not the most intense, acidic or explosive of palo cortados but elegant and enjoyable.

Wine #4 was the star of the show for me, the Amontillado Muy Viejo Don Paco 1/6 from Sanchez Ayala. A single pago  wine – fruit sourced from Pago Balbaina (Viña las Cañas) it would have spent some several years under flor and is a total of around 50 to 60 years old. A tone darker and redder than the preceding wine it had a salty, fine nose with just a bit of sweet nutmeg to it – a spicier sweetness rather than a pastry one. On the palate the intensity of sapidity and salinity is remarkable – a real all enveloping zingy power to it that gives it an explosive start and a big impact up front, with toasted nut and spiey nutmeg flavours that just balance the salinity. From there it is long lasting but without dragging its feet – not astringent or harsh. As luck would have it there was also a bonus glass that was even better.

Last but not least, wine #5 was another vino de la casa: the 11540 Medium Sweet. Again sourced from Sanchez Ayala this is a fascinating little wine made up of 60% amontillado, 20% youngish PX, and, innovatively,20% manzanilla Gabriela Oro  that spent a short time in bota together before bottling and hang together really nicely. It is an attractive dark-straw gold in colour and whereas I find that some medium wines can come across as spirity and over sweet on the nose – but this, while ripe-tomato sweet has a nice balance with a little bit of herbs and sea breeze. That little bit of manzanilla also gives it a bit more balance on the palate at front and back – a little bit of bite going in and a freshness to the palate. Ramiro described it as more “vertical” than many mediums and I would buy that. Interesting, imaginative stuff.

And that was that: five more unique wines in a variety of styles and a fascinating contrast with the first day. All in all a really fantastic event and a great chance to fire some questions at the maestro himself. There will be more to come from my notes when I get a chance to write them up.

 

Ramiro Ibañez in Surtopia – Day 1 

~ sharquillo ~ 2 Comments

I have a total of 25 pages of notes from the two days that Ramiro Ibañez was doing the butling at Surtopia. It was not just interesting, it was fascinating. Will take me a good while to write them all up but no time like the present etc.

The first night involved five wines chosen to accompany some fatty, meaty tuna dishes (at this stage the so-called “blogger” realizes that none of the 25 pages of notes refer to the food and hopes noone will notice the lack of detail). In fact I only have three pictures even …


At least I have some notes of the wines:

Wine #1 was Socaire 2014, a 100% palomino by Primitivo Collantes that I have been after for a while (in fact my first bottles were delived the same afternoon I went to dinner). 100% palomino from Finca Matalian, it is unfortified and has not spent time under flor but was fermented and aged for two years in botas that had formerly held Fino Arroyuelo. They were two years very well spent. The result is a beautiful dark gold colour and has a fantastic, lush nose that is blanc des blancs champagne first up, and gets more and more herbal – sweet herbs like rosemary or oregano – as it opens up. On the palate it is chalky and slightly saline without being zingy – austere minerals like a chablis. Long rather than wide, but wider than its little brother the Viña Matalian and a really interesting wine.

Wine #2 was the new edition of the 11540 Manzanilla. Whereas previous editions were selected from Barbadillo’s Solear, this fella is from legendary Sanlucar bodega Sanchez Ayala – from  1/46 of the original Gabriela Oro solera to be precise. Sanchez Ayala has been a happy hunting ground for exclusive bottlings in the past and the wines have a high acetaldehide style that is extremely attractive (and fashionable). This one has an average age of about five years and has been through 7 classes. It is a shade darker than the Socaire, a dark straw colour, and has a massive nose of hay bales, salty brine, roasted apples and spices. On the palate it is zingy, salty, with a suggestion of that baked apple but then a long, nutty finish. Really excellent again.

Wine #3 was the wine of the night for me: a Fino Amontillado Camborio. Fino from the legendary Camborio solera with those 10/11 years of biological ageing and that mineral structure that has been given a year of oxidation and has gained in character. Again a big acetaldehide profile of green apple over the sea air minerals of the fino but also touches of lemon on the nose. On the palate there is a suggestion of that green apple, then spices and herbs and a long, mouthwatering bitter almond finish. Really rich in feel and flavour but elegant too. Really superb.

Wine #4 was the only wine of the night that I had tried before – the Pandorga 2014, the stunning fruit bomb pedro ximenez  from la Panesa vineyard in Carrascal de Jerez. After a relatively cool growing season the grapes and 11 days of asoleo before fermentation in bota without any kind of temperature control. Fermentation lasted six weeks producing a wine that is 12º, has 270g of sugar, and more importantly has bags of fruit flavours and aromas including olives, apricots and orange marmalade. A delicious expression of year, terroir and fruit that has already become a classic.

Wine #5  was the “big dog” of the night, an old old Oloroso 1/12 from Almacenista Santiago. Really powerful, rustic, old school almacenista oloroso. It is a dark reddish brown in colour, with a cigar box woody nose and a really powerful, bitter palate. Real acidity and concentration and although it didn’t have any noticeable juicy sweetness neither was it astringent or dusty. Good salinity too but not over powering. No doubt about it: a fighting wine.


And that, as they say, was that for the first night (but not for my notes thereof – the remaining five pages of increasingly illiterate scrawl need much more work and reflection). Five really unique wines and a privilege to have been there.

 

Ramiro Ibañez in Surtopia

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment


My most sincere congratulations to Surtopia and Ramiro Ibañez for a great night last night and an epic lunch today. Yesterday was Jerez, oxidative wines and the fatty tuna. Today was Sanlucar, biological wines and the soft fleshy langostinos. I won’t give away more details because I know there is a full house due to dine tonight but look, both were top class.

Suffice it to say that:

First, Surtopia is really an excellent place. For any wine lover, and particularly a lover of the wines of Sanlucar and Jerez, it is already a fixture, but the food is better every time I go – the tuna with chimichurri de Sanlucar and the confit in manteca colorao last night and [a couple of the dishes today – spoilers removed] were outstanding.

Second, Ramiro Ibañez is the real, real thing. I have no less than 25 pages of notes from two meals. The bloke drops knowledge like it is confetti at a wedding and it will take me a while (maybe months) to absorb, let alone write up, everything I have learned over the last 24 hours. He is also a born educator: the 10 wines selected were unique, hard to get, and illustrative (to give you an idea, I had only tried two out of ten).

So if you are going tonight, I know you are going to enjoy. I wish I was going again!