16/20

Campeonisimo 2014

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Had a cracking late supper at Angelita last night and tried a few interesting things, none more so than this. It is yet another of the many wines by Alba Viticultores (by my count it is the 11th different wine I have tried). It is a 100% listán sanluqueño (palomino fino) from a vine called “Campeonisimo” or “superchampion” in Pago Miraflores. This is the 2014, which spent 10 months in tinaja – apparently four of them under flor – and is 12.4% with no sulfites etc.

It is dark in colour for an unfortified palomino, looks for all the world like a manzanilla pasada. On the nose it had a sharp edge and pungency. On the palate it had relatively good acidity and while it wasn’t full bodied as such it was tasty  – ripe apples and savoury, herbal touches – and with a nice sizzling chalk effect at the tail end of it.

Another little gem.

Oloroso Galeon revisited

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Oloroso Galeon

Came across this little gem of an oloroso by Sanchez Ayala in Sanlucar for the second time a few days ago at a very very boozy barbecue with friends. I failed to take a picture so the above is from the last time (and a cracking pairing in La Chula), but I can promise you it looked pretty much the same.

It made me realize that some of my recent musings on the differences between the traditional wines of Sanlucar and Jerez were a little off beam. I had made the mistake of writing Sanlucar down as the home only of austere amontillados like Quo Vadis and the epic amontillado viejo Don Paco. Tasting this on the other hand brought to mind a very different style of wine, with the salinity and zing of a Sanlucar wine but a lovely rich caramel to it as well and the result is as tasty as it is elegant and balanced. (It reminded me, in fact, of two other cracking olorosos from Sanlucar: El Cerro and the 1986 Vintage Oloroso by Hidalgo-La Gitana.)

Am I imagining the salinity? My very nebulous grip of how these wines age makes me think that I might be, but there is no doubting the mineral nature and elegance of this. Really delicious, excellent stuff (and just as good with barbecue).

 

Navazos Niepoort 2014

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For me this is now a classic in its category – the first unfortified palomino I read about and tried (and didn’t understand at the time, to be quite honest). Now there are plenty such wines around – I took it to dinner a week ago to be tasted blind and it was remarkable how many other wines people mistook it for. I enjoyed it that night and am lucky enough to have another crack thanks to the marvellous wine list at Taberna Averias.

Very nicely integrated, mineral but juicy palomino fino – this one is a deeper colour than I expected and the bottle may have been open a while. On the nose it has a slight metallic aroma and sweet herbal notes – bit of white fruit maybe.  Then on the palate there is just a suggestion of herbal sweetness turning to bitterness and gentle, nicely integrated minerals – not zingy or salty but earthy and pebbly – with a touch more cool metal at the end.

Really good stuff – you can’t beat the classics. 

Manzanilla fina Orleans Borbon 

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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.

Solo 2013

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Here we have the latest new kid on the block, a wine I picked up from Enoteca Barolo and about which I have seen a lot of on twitter and the like lately.

It is from Lebrija, a town to the North of Jerez on the banks of the Guadalquivir and in Seville province, by Bodegas Gonzalez Palacio – a bodega founded and has a pretty good ficha  and a pretty good website with descriptions of the vineyard – Viña Abuelo Curro and the Lagar as well as the Bodegas – gives you the sense that they fall into the “winemaking” category.   As does this wine – it is an unfortified 100% palomino aged under flor in bota for 12 months (a 2013 so it has had a bit of time in the bottle too). So old school it is new school – fans of the history of the region will know that this sort of thing  was extremely popular in the 17th and 18th Centuries before the soleras came along (and in case you missed it it also says so on the back label).

It is nice colour – a slightly dark gold/straw with touches of green, and has the pungent aroma of a mosto. Smells like it is going to be full of fruit – baked, cidery apples and maybe just a touch bready. Then on the palate it has that little bit of biologically aged class – fresh and saline to balance the fruit. On the website they say pineapple and I would agree (not a ripe, sugary one, a slightly tough one), with a bit of bitterness and a fresh finish.

Another promising edition to a burgeoning new category of wines that some hope will be the new “entry level” for the wines of the region. Interesting stuff.

 

 

 

Manzanilla pasada la Pastora

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An unexpected treat last night while out at dinner with friends, this is the brilliant little manzanilla pasada by Barbadillo that I first tried and wrote about back in March. Really nice green apples to it – lovely stuff.

Unfortunately it wasn’t popular with my friends last night though – I ended up with most of the bottle to myself. Not a big wine drinking crowd, admittedly, but more proof that these lighter wines are more of a challenge for those new to the sherry experience. 

La Bota de Dulce Color 33 – “Bota No”

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I have been planning to come back and try this ever since my last visit to Sudestada and have had the chance to read up on it ahead of time.

This is Equipo Navazos in their element. As their excellent (as always) ficha points out, this is really a historic artefact, an example of the “colour” wine that used to be added to wine to – I think you can guess – give it colour and aromatic complexity. I recommend reading the ficha for all the details but this is a wine of about 80 years old that was obtained from the cellar of almacenista Juan Garcia Jarana (a happy hunting ground for these guys).

The “color” in question is black with a reddish brown edge to it, and the tear on the glass is that red brown. On the nose it is surprisingly quiet – I expected my eyes to water – but while all that aromatic there is a nose of distilled barrel with some eucalyptus.

On the palate again it is nowhere near as acidic or potent as I expected. (In all seriousness I wonder if it might have lost some of its mojo after a long time open, but then again for an 80 year old wine it isn’t exactly delicate.) Neither does it come across as sweet – despite the 190 grammes of sugar per liter it apparently has. In fact on the whole I find it balanced, tending to bitter. The bitterness and the barrel flavours are dominant – just a little woody spice, tobacco and resin at the end, and it isn’t really astringent either. Sticky length – one word I notice I haven’t used is salinity, and this is a finish that sticks to you rather than making the mouth water.

Really interesting and instructive.

Fino en rama Tio Pepe 2016

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Not my first glass of this but my first chance to have a good look at this 2016 edition (here at the bar of Taberna Verdejo) and I like it.

Has a very nice apple/apple sorbet nose and a fine, delicate almond profile – fresh almonds rather than bitter or toasted – tingling salinity in the background that comes through at the end for a fresh finish. Not overpowering, but elegant, and that apple is very attractive.

A fresh, zesty edition of this classic wine.

Manzanilla Sacristia AB, 1a saca de 2015

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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.

Pedro Ximenez OVNI 2015

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The second of a pair of fascinating sobre tablas by Equipo Navazos (in association with Coalla Gourmet) which I had during a great night at Angelita Madrid the other night. The name is a play on the Spanish term for unidentified flying objects (objetos voladores no identificados) – although this one is a winelike object (objeto vinicola). 

The ficha is again great (as is the new website) and this has “a few months” of ageing – some in stainless steel and some in cement tanks under flor. The resulting juice is pale in colour and has a nose that promises sweet, ripe fruit. On the palate though it is dry and slightly heavy, fruit flavours with soft minerals. 

No doubt about it, a very interesting little wine.