Manzanilla

A tale of two summers (and the winter in between) 

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

I will leap at any excuse to help myself to have a sup of these little beauties and fortunately just such an excuse presented itself recently. In a recent tasting, the guys at Elmundovino.com tasted both of these and came to the view that while the Solear en rama of Summer 2016 (teal or garganey) was more robust and full of life, it’s year in the bottle had given the Solear en rama of Summer 2015 (the red-necked nightjar) greater complexity. It inspired Victor de la Serna to write an editorial on the need to revise the traditional views on en rama sherries, and it has also inspired me to have a crack at the same comparison. (Credit where it is due, aa comparison made possible by the fact that Lavinia in Madrid still had some of the Summer 2015).

To give the exercise a hint of scientific rigour after the photos were taken I had the glasses shuffled so I could taste them blind (as the guys at elmundovino.com do) and I can certainly see where they are coming from. No doubt there was a difference and, not wanting to boast, I had no trouble identifying the 2015 (although I might have had more trouble had I not first read the other tasting notes). What I think of as the “bottle effect” (broadly speaking, fruit turning to herbs, herbs to spice) is definitely there in the 2015, and the 2016 was to me notably zingier, spicier, and longer. Personally, I reckon I prefer the 2016 but they are both right up my street.

On the basis that one might as well be hung for a sheep (or a razorbill), and since I had a spare bottle lying around, I thought it would be of interest to compare them both to the Solear en rama of Winter 2015.

Back in the day I tasted the Winter 2015 (Razorbill) against the Spring 2016 (Roller) and looking back at the tasting then I found those two quite close together. Compared against the two summer editions, though, the Razorbill is less fragrant (although it hasn’t been open as long) and more saline, with more zingy buzz, than either. If pushed, I would say the seasonal difference is maybe even bigger than the year in the bottle. Again, this fits the theory (and I didn’t, it must be said, taste this one blind) since the summer sacas are from botas whose flor, in the heat, is said to be less vigorous and the wine as a result has just had a little less of the flor “action”, while the winter saca would have had a veil of flor in peak condition.

More evidence, then, of the great value of this series, the need to taste every season, and the possible value of keeping them for a while in the cellar. Not that I needed any persuading on any of those fronts!

 

Manzanilla fina Orleans Borbon 

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment


I can be grumpy at times about packaging but there is a lot to like about this little bottle. It is a regular size, the label is a thing of beauty, the colours seem lively and appropriate and the magic words “Pago Balbaina” are proudly displayed. I couldn’t resist picking this up on my last visit to Der Guerrita.

I am very pleased to have done so too because there is also a lot to like about the contents. It is quite a pale lemony yellow and has aromas of straw and sea air, maybe some lemon and almonds. Then on the palate it has a nice punchy, zingy salinity, nice yeastiness and bitter almonds. 

Very nice little wine: nicely presented, zingy and tasty.

Manzanilla en rama Solear Summer 2016 

~ sharquillo ~ 4 Comments


This is majestic stuff – deep, darkish gold colour, straw-filled hay bale nose and bags of citrus and herbal flavour. Nicely integrated salinity that you only really notice afterwards as it crackles off the tip of your tongue. A little bitter spinachy herb in the finish. 

It is the latest edition of a series that I love – some links here – and which I picked up this week in the Casa del Jerez (although it is only fair to mention that I nearly got a bottle three weeks ago in Der Guerrita). 

Much hyped (at least by me) and I was looking forward to this – but it is really excellent. I really needed that! 

The young flor and the old bota 

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

Interesting contrast here between two wines that are both 100% palomino fino and have both spent time in bota but with and without flor, respectively. (They are also from opposite ends of the Marco de Jerez.) What I find interesting is the fact that what I recognize as the wood influence of the barrel is much more marked in the Socaire – which has spent two years in an old fino bota – than in the Manzanilla de Añada – which has spent nearly four.

I am no expert here but I am guessing that this lack of wood effect may be a function of the flor at work, or that the barrel influence is balanced by the lack of glycerine and sugar in the wine. Or it maybe that what I am attributing to the wood is really the effect of the wine impregnated into the barrels. On a completely different level, it reminded me of one of the more extraordinary wines that we tasted by Alba a while back: Alba Pago Carrascal Las Alegrías 2014. That wine was un unfortified palomino fino from Pago Carrascal (de Sanlucar) that aged for 18 months in a 650 litre chestnut bocoy that had held oloroso for over 80 years – and as a result had gained a fascinating, fine character and profile. It also brought to mind Mirando al Sur, a fascinating 100% viura from Rioja by Oliviere Riviere that had spent 18 months in a sherry bota.  (Indeed although I am even less of an expert this kind of thing has been de rigueur in the whisky business for donkeys years.)

It is something that has intrigued me ever since I started thinking about these wines: trying to get a handle on the importance of the barrels used. One of the first things a winemaker will tell you about their wines is how much oak it has had, where the oak was from and whether it was old or new. This conversation just never happens in relation to sherry. Maybe because of the historic nature of many soleras and the very limited number of vintage wines: even the new soleras that appear tendo to inherit barrels from old ones, while the vintage wines I know of, from memory, appear to be aged in old botas.

It would be fascinating to try something made in a new barrel, or maybe to make some wine in new american and french oak and give them a run against the oldies. Who knows maybe there is a stack of literature out there that I am not aware of – if so give me a shout.

 

 

 

Manzanilla de añada Callejuela 2012 – 2/11 

~ sharquillo ~ 6 Comments

After a special week this is a special wine.

A week ago I was feeling a bit of burnout – really tough month with everything going on around the world and to be honest I was ready for some holidays. A couple of nights out with the boys and a long chat with one of the most inspiring winemakers around changed that – and the arrival of this, one of my favourite projects – also helped (thanks to the Cuatrogatos).

It has the same fresh, lemony gold colour as the first bota, but the nose while fruity has a touch more sea breeze. Then on the palate it has a much more explosive zinginess – salinity and sapidity. Still has a good mouthfull of fruit but a little bit spicier and much finer, more vertical and direct. Then a long, long mouthwatering finish. Am watching the Open as I sup and the boys have played their putts and my mouth is still watering.

A definite step up and a much bigger step up than I expected from the first saca. This is a proper manzanilla alright.

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.

 

Manzanilla Deliciosa en Rama, Spring 2016

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

This is the en rama version of an old favourite and one that I have pursued for over a year – just never seemed to coincide with it until by chance I spotted it on the Coalla Gourmet tweet stream last week.

It is a lovely little bottle of wine, yeasty bakery on the nose, with citrus and sea air in the background. On the palate it is salty citrus fruit – quiet at first then intense and zingy – then salt and pepper that lasts a long time, mouth watering all the while. Really good stuff. Drinking it with salty pecorino cheese the fruitiness comes out.

A class wine full of flavour.

 

Manzanilla Sacristia AB, 1a saca de 2015

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment


A fella thought he had picked up the latest release – the 1a saca 2016 – but failed to read the smallprint and here we are with an old favourite.

In my defense, having tried the 2016 recently I knew immediately that this wasn’t it. This one is tasty though: it has opened up a little and I am enjoying it a lot more than I remember – there are some hay bales in the nose, the yeast is seeming more citrus and the vegetable flavours are seeming fruitier, with that zingy salinity in the background and a long, long finish. (A day later it is really singing in fact – lovely fruitful character to it.)

Really good, even if it wasn’t the wine I thought I was buying.

Manzanilla en rama Blanca Reyes

~ sharquillo ~ Leave a comment


Not seen this in a little while and it is much missed – a lovely yeasty manzanilla. Big acetaldehide profile making it fragrant and aromatic- lots of chamomile and nuts – and a bready, umami solidity to it on the palate, more of a buzz than a zing. 

It was absolutely brilliant with this asparagus salad in Sacha last night: not just any asparagus – a rare breed of some kind with a very celery like flavour – very simply prepared and absolutely delicious. 

Manzanilla 3 en rama – Spring 2016

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

The first of this year’s Lustau 3 en rama that is getting written up (after they very kindly sent me a set this week) is this lovely fresh manzanilla, the lightest of the three and fresh from bottling only a few weeks ago.

Although it has had the same four years under flor, in the same bodega, these are selected botas and it seems to me to have a sweeter, lighter touch than the 2015 edition, which I tasted in January (and which had at that stage 9 months in the bottle).

I really like it – the first impression on the nose was of sweet fresh green apples and apple blossoms, with slight touches of yeast and sea air in the background. As the bottle opened out the yeast and grassy aromas began to predominate but that first impression was very vivid. On the palate it also comes across as nicely defined: a sweet, floral and gentle start, then some zingy, intense salty grass-like flavours, and then a fresh, mineral finish, with faint traces of those apples.

I really like the freshness and the clarity of it – it is not big, intense or highly complex but I get the impression it is not intended to be. I also think I like it much more at 5 weeks old than I did at nine months – maybe I should drink it all right away!