The second of three red wines made by Bodegas Luis Perez and big brother of the Garum. I really enjoyed the Garum 2014 this week and this is just as good or even better.

Whereas the Garum is Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot from various pagos, and with 12 months in american and french oak, this is just 50% Syrah and 50% Petit Verdot, from a single pago (Corchuelo, which according to this plan is just before Añina as you head out of Jerez – based on the label we are looking at the Vistahermosa vineyard), and with 16 months in new french oak.

My memory may be failing me but this seems very similar in colour to the Garum – the bodega describes it as black cherry which works for me. Of the two this is maybe a touch clearer. The nose has dark fruit and a slight herbal character – maybe not as much as the Garum but it is there – then on the palate it again has that dark fruit with salinity, then some chocolate, then soft tannins that dry but don’t bite, then maybe a little bit of bitterness and again a saline, mouthwatering finish.

Very nice, silky smooth stuff.

Described as “entry level” by its maker, Willy Perez, this is a red table wine from Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot grown on various pagos in Jerez, with 12 months in american and french oak.

Relatively dark in colour and the nose puts you in mind of jammified blackberries, but spicey and herbal  – salty rosemary or oregano or a mix of the two. On the palate it has those jammy blackberries, nice acidity and soft tannins – and maybe I am imagining it but it seems saline to me – makes my tongue water. 

Good stuff on the entry level – looking forward to the upper floors now. 

Not a sherry but delicious and one to learn from. This is a Chardonnay/Savignin that has been two years in botas under flor and around four years in the bottle and is really expressive. Picked it up in Enoteca Barolo recently because I wanted to try it with some palomino white wines but couldn’t wait.

The colour is a lively gold, the nose has cheeses, citrus and and alpine meadows with the accompanying flowers. The wine has proper acidity – the difference with a palomino is striking – but has a lot of the fruit-to-herb characteristics you would expect of a palomino with a similar time in the bottle. It has that umami sweet cheese-and-herb flavour and maybe a bit of a clingy finish, although some salinity seems to come through to clean the palate eventually.

Really good – actually one of the nicer Cotes du Jura I have had lately.

An interloper from the Sierra de Gredos – the mountains to the West of Madrid on the border with Castilla y Leon, this got a run out at dinner last weekend (in Der Guerrita) due to its “crianza biologica” (biological ageing). It is by the Comando G – yet another young, terroir focussed group of winemakers who in this case are rescuing grenache (garnacha) from a life in servitude as a “workhorse” grape . They are probably the trendiest thing in Spanish wine right now  – but the wines are excellent (read this write up by Spanish Winelover for a flavour).

So this is white and grey grenache from 60+ year old vines in a North facing vineyard at 1230 meters. Fully artisan and biodynamic, it has apparently spent at least some time in demijons under flor, along the lines of a Jura (although I really have not found much by way of a ficha).

It is good stuff alright – very lemony in colour and character, with a buzz to it as if it was a white with maceracion carbonica. It is also potent, but you get the feeling that the biological ageing has taken the aromatics from the grenache a little. The result is really not comparable to a fino or a manzanilla (or the real vin jaune and Chateau Chalon that we unfairly matched it with) but on its own merit it is an attractive, characterful wine.

  
Back to this unfortified dry table wine from Palomino and PX over lunch at the Chula, this time the 2015.

Very pale but rich yellow in colour (lighting above is slightly moody due to high spec camera). Has a fruit on the nose – more exotic than an apple but not quite a pineapple – and then a herbal juiciness and minerality about it. There is sapidity there at the end – not long but it is a table wine after all.

Nice characterful stuff. 

Been a lot of chat about this in various spheres so I thought that by way of establishing wider wine world credentials I would record for posterity some of the non sherry triangle highlights of 2015.

Here would be the top 20 wines from outside the sherry region that I have notes of or can otherwise remember (there were several that slip through the net – in particular two Cotes du Rhone and a Raul Perez white wine that were extraordinary but I just cannot remember them).

Just impossible to choose the very best so not really in order but maybe slightly more impressed as the list goes on.

• Ceretto Barbaresco Bricco Asili 2008
• d’Arenberg Dead Arm 1998
• Rauzan-Segla Margaux 2000
• Casa Ferreirinha Reserva Especial 1990
• Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc 2007
• Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis 2008
• Francois Chidaine Montlouis les Bournais Franc de Pied 2011
• Domaine de la Janasse CdP Cuvee Vielles Vignes 2005
• Guigal Cote Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis 2009
• Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Cannubi (San Lorenzo) / Ravera 2007
• Domaine Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru 1983
• Pichon-Longueville Baron 2000
• Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay Clos des Chenes 2008
• Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard 2009
• Vieux Chateau Certan 2009
• Leoville-Barton 2003
• Vega Sicilia Unico 1999
• Henri Abelé Millesime 1990
• Leoville-Poyferre 2000
• Chateau Lafleur Petrus 2010

Not bad quaffing that when you look at it!

A lot of chat about vermut jerezano recently – mainly due to the release by Lustau of theirs – but contrary to much of the publicity theirs isn’t the only show in town.

Here we have a classic, old school vermut jerezano from a relatively new label – the Coleccion Roberto Amillo. Roberto Amillo is a guy from Logroño in la Rioja (pretty much as far as you can get from Jerez in Spain) who is said to have the biggest private collection of sherries and brandies, and sherry and brandy artefacts, in Spain. Never met the chap but can’t be much wrong with anyone with hundreds of sherries in their cellar. Apparently out of his collection he took to selecting and bottling his favourite wines and brandies and, as it happens, vermut. I first came across the Coleccion when trying his palo cortado in a big hitting line up at Enoteca Barolo and although I found it a touch on the acidic side for my tastes it was a special wine alright.

I find it hard to judge vermouths against each other although I have had plenty of them. In particular I was fortunate enough to experience an absolutely historic cata of bottle aged vermuts (and similar) from Ignacio Villalgordo’s collection (in Vila Viniteca) even if it served only to prove how little I know. 

As for this one, first up this has a strong, old oloroso vibe to it – reminds me a little of an old Barbadillo Quina I tried once (but not quite as concentrated or bitter). It is made with oloroso and pedro ximenez and 30 botanicals (it says on the label) but certainly isn’t sweet or sticky. Neither is it over-bitter – in fact it is very tasty but still pretty refreshing stuff. 

Overall this is very nice in fact – seems to me to have a bit more bite to it than a lot of vermouths but isn’t overdone. Well worth trying.