This is a really interesting new release by Barbadillo. Love the name: at first I thought the shepherdess in question was the great Montse Molina but I gather it is a reference to a historic Barbadillo wine – the Divina Pastora (the first manzanilla released by Barbadillo, in 1827).

Whoever it is named after it is a really top drawer wine and another demonstration of the qualities of a manzanilla pasada. Barbadillo’s Solear en Rama are of course of the highest order (and someone once told me they were technically pasadas) but this is quite different – whereas the Solear are full of zest and life this is elegant and mineral, with a floral, green apple and sea air nose and an illusion of green apples on the palate and a smooth, compact salinity. (I say illusion in homage to the discussion we had while we drinking it – the issue of where this fruit comes from in manzanilla pasadas is fascinating.)

Lovely in fact. A fitting wine for such a famous name.

[Having bumped in to Armando Guerra at a recent Lavinia sherry palooza I can update this note slightly – it appears that this spends six years in the Solear solera and bodega before spending an additional three in the bodega of the Solear en rama. It really is intriguing how the fruit profile of this contrasts with the mineral and vegetable power of the Solear en rama.]

  
Another manzanilla pasada by Equipo Navazos – acquired from Coalla Gourmet  (as one of their wines of the week no less).

This has a dark gold colour – black and gold rather than orangey – and a nose that is briney with just a suggestion of baked fruit in there. 

On the palate it is very refined and smooth, very faint fruit notes at first, then the refined, laid back salinity – zingy but almost as an afterthought – then there are those baked fruit flavours, which get taken over by the salinity in the finish. 

Very refined and elegant all over.

I cannot believe I have lost my notes to this brilliant tasting – really unbelievable incompetence even by my poor standards. 

Anyway, from memory this was a pale straw colour – paler than you expect. On the nose this was green apples, lots of raw almond aromas, maybe just a little mineral background. The palate was fresh, mineral and punchy – again green apples – but elegant too. Lovely wine and a really nice start to the evening. 

I continue to follow the river manzanilla pasada hoping to find the source. My third bottle in as many nights, this is a classic by Equipo Navazos that I picked up from Coalla Gourmet (as a wine of the week, no less). Had a first bottle of it back in October but after the excellent Blanquito and Maruja from this week was intrigued to try it again.

This has a lovely gold colour and again a fruity nose: in these manzanilla pasadas I am beginning to expect  fruit rather than the caramel of a palo cortado or amontillado. This has a nose of old apples and ozone. On the palate it has a nice structure, a soft beginning, then mineral zing, then a salty fruit aftertaste – the most mineral of the three this week, but it has a nice balance.

Really excellent. I am going to dream about waterfalls of this stuff …

After the Blanquito yesterday I thought I would try this again because I had a memory of it being quite a contrast (a more organized blogger would, of course, have opened them together, but there we go, you get what you pay for, etc.).

The memory didn’t fail me though: this is a fish of a different kidney. Slightly darker in tone and fuller in flavours, and while the Blanquito made me think of apples and blossoms, this is all herbs, minerals and hay bales on the nose, and really suggests (a dry version of) jammy fruit on the palate. Quite full bodied feel to it too.

This wine also reminds me of one of the most bizarre and controversial tasting notes I have read. I still think it was harshly treated on that day – I love the fruity profile of this and would (and do) recommend it to anyone.

This was a gift a friend kindly brought back from a trip to Der Guerrita in Sanlucar and a very welcome one too. By Callejuela, one of my favourite bodegas, and by the hand of Ramiro Ibañez (in fact I have had it before).

Love the fleeting aroma of apples from this first up – apples that ripe, juicy, maybe even starting to rot in the bowl. Then the minerals seem to take over – that sea air/ozone. I don’t find the apples again after a while but I get blossoms and flowers in amongst the seaside fumes.

On the palate it is full bodied, saline, sapid and dry but with suggestions of those apples again – very nicely integrated – just turns bitter on the quite long, clingy finish. Mineral with a hint of fruit rather than the reverse.

Enjoying this with Camaron de la Isla – a moment of superb tranquility.

Second time around the block for this wine (didn’t really grab me the first time but there may have been some stemware issues).

According to the website we are looking at a manzanilla with an average age of 8 years from fruit from either the El Poedo or El Hato vineyards. There is a reference to the banks of the Guadalquivir river that doesn’t appear in the ficha of the Micaela but both are aged in the bodega “Molinillos 2ª” in the Barrio Alto of Sanlucar.

Since I had these two together at the Chula it is hard not to compare them. First thing you notice is the colour – this pasada is a rich gold but nowhere near as evolved. On the nose it is quite different in character too: a bitter olive, bready nose with none of the sweet citrus notes of the little cousin. Also savory on the palate by comparison, with more mineral zing and vegetable intensity and a saltier finish.

A big savory, punchy wine.

Another day another lovely bottle of sherry from Callejuela – this time a manzanilla pasada. 

Serious looking dark straw colour but a lively green apple nose like a much younger wine. 

On the palate it has that oily feel and salty intensity – the salty sting on the surface of your mouth followed by apple and yeast flavours. 

Very nice and very drinkable indeed. 

  
Yet another high quality release from Equipo Navazos and the latest in a line of very high quality manzanilla pasadas (the most recent – No 40 – is my favourite).
This is a golden colour (without the brown/green that I remember from previous editions) and crystal clear. It has a salty sweet nose, like salty chips, bready yeast and a bit of caramel underneath. 

On the palate it is smooth and silky, with a nice shape from the salty zing and a softer, sweetish finish. Not as much power and body as I expected.

A really nice drop once again – although for me it doesn’t quite scale the heights of the 40. Maybe just slightly past a pasada and on the way to an amontillado.