A fella is suffering here – an inflamed nasal passage (sinusitis like but less runny) and a pounding head and the certain knowledge that tomorrow will be even worse.
But this is just the job. Deceptively golden amber in colour, real walnut polish on the nose and the bags of flavour and punch on the palate. Top class, sizzling finish – real spice and bite.
My symptoms are the same but the mood is substantially improved!
Another absolutely cracking fino here, with a good 12 years under the flor but with a different profile to the one that went before (La Panesa). Loved this the first time I tried it and I am loving it again, although I had never noticed a little caramel-like postgusto when the almond gives way to the minerals.
Top class and highly enjoyable and another goody from the other place.
This is a collaboration between Cota 45 and Taberna Der Guerrita. For a few years now Cota 45 has supplied unfortified mosto from pago Miraflores to Der Guerrita but for this wine these guys have taken one of the butts and stored it away “tocadedos” style with no flor for three years before its release. It is the kind of wine that would have been common in Sanlucar going back a couple of centuries before the process of biological ageing and the solera system were widespread. As the label shows, it was harvested in 2013 and a total of 700 bottles were produced when it was bottled in October 2016. I tried it first in Territorio Era, but picked up this bottle for further study in Reserva y Cata.
You would guess it was a pretty old bota because despite those three years you wouldn’t say there was a lot of “wood effect”. On the other hand, you would also guess that it wasn’t a bota that had been used for fino or oloroso because neither is there “bota effect” (you don’t get the same character you might find in Socaire, for example).
Rather, what you get is a dark gold wine with a citrus and slightly ripe pineapple nose, not much acidity but a nice freshness and pineapple on the front of the tongue and then a lasting aftertaste of nicely concentrated, almost jammy citrus fruit – strong and sticky but at the end but not bitter either. There is no noticeable sharpness or zing but the mouth waters as the minerals freshen the wine up around the edges, letting that jammy aftertaste linger a good while.
This is a proper wine, and very enjoyable too. More please!
Here it is, the second edition of the most unique wine being made in el marco.
It is by Ramiro Ibañez‘s Cota 45 label and is an evolution of the Encrucijado 2012: whereas that was 50% palomino and had six varietals in total (10% each of Beba, Cañocazo, Mantuo Pilas (aka “Uva Rey”), Mantuo Castellana and Perruno) this is 40% “Uva Rey”, 40% Perruno and only 20% Palomino. The fruit was dried in the sun for two days to bring up concentration, fermented in bota, given a couple of months on the lees and then two more years in bota – including four months or so under flor. I am not sure of the historic back story but the back label has a reference to the old classifications of rayas, palmas and cortados, of which this would presumably be a cortado.
Dark gold in colour and has a spirity, honeysuckle, overripe melon nose. It is fat in texture for a two year old wine and on the palate it has an initial dash of that overripe melon but quickly turns to a grapefruity citrus. It seems more potent than my memory of its predecessor with less butterscotch, more grapefruit bitterness, and more obvious alcohol. However it is sharper in its features and has a more defined, elegant structure to it: there is just a little bit of acidity (some esparto grass from the empty glass at the end?) and a nicely integrated salinity leaving a mouth watering, fresh finish.
Overall this is different, even exciting, enjoyable and feels like it might get better with time. Only just 1,000 bottles made though so get it if you can. (I am having a glass at the bar of Territorio Era, since you ask.)
Have been curious about this wine for a while. By Sanchez Romate, the name is evocative – the “forgotten amontillado” – and I am a big fan of its nephew the “Fino Perdido“. I have also seen it on the Coalla Gourmet website a few times but nearly always sold out – more luck this time.
As the name indicates this was until recently “forgotten” in the cellars, reportedly for 25 years in 1000 litre toneles, and there is no doubt that despite its lightish brown shade it is a wine of real age and concentration. It has a pronounced, piercing nutty wood polish nose, then one of those sizzling mouthfuls – an entry of baked apple flavours then acidic bite and then mouthwatering salinity – a bitter wood and burnt walnut finish. But a lot of sizzle – the tongue is cooking away for ages after it is gone.
Worth the wait – quite a little handful and another top class wine.
I first came across Equipo Navazos back in 2012 when they were in their early 30s. The first wine I tried was the terrific La Bota de Palo Cortado 34 and I immediately bought up everything I could find from them and have been attempting – with limited success – to keep them for posteriy. However after trying “La Bota de Manzanilla 32 – 5 Years Later” the other day my curiosity was piqued to try this manzanilla pasada bottled in June 2011.
It is the “Capataz Rivas” (like La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 59) and is a direct relation of la Guita as the excellent ficha points out and there is a clear family resemblance in every respect. Like the Guita en Rama it has an evolved, dark copper colour and a salty sweet nose. Then on the palate it has the smooth silky, slightly fatty texture of an old wine, and a really elegant shape with salty zing, rich, sweet, slightly metallic apricot and orange fruit and a bittersweet finish.
And the effects of those five years of bottle ageing? I must admit I am not finding as big an effect as there was in the manzanilla the other day – which is logical since this would never have been as “fresh” as the manzanilla was on release. Rather, it would have had a little bit of oxidation before bottling and as such you would expect it to be a little more stable in profile. Maybe there is a hint more marmalade bitterness to the fruit and the finish than there was when I tried it the first time – or when I tried the 59 – and maybe the metallic notes stand out a little more. Nevertheless, this is very very drinkable.
An elegant, fruitful and characterful wine: lovely stuff.
After a week of relative sobriety the wheel nuts are unwinding pretty fast. The magnificent old Sanlucar palo cortado (pictured on the left) that I just had a generous glass of put me in mind of this old, old Sanlucar amontillado that I first tried in Surtopia this year and I couldn’t resist. As I mentioned back then it is 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.
In age and concentration we are comparing very similar animals and as you can see there isn’t much in it in colour terms (although the Gaspar Florido wine possibly has a touch more brilliance). On the nose the Don Paco has that salty sea air and really does have the “full ozone”, with maybe just a hint of spices to it. (The comparison may exaggerate the difference, but it doesn’t have as much “extra” as the palo cortado.)
On the palate it is salty and direct – salinity that goes beyond zingy to stingy – and then there are roasted, almost burn nut flavours and just a touch of sweet, winelike flavour from somewhere. It is long and dry, and the flavours that stay with you are the ozone, the iodine and maybe sweet cedar wood or cigar tobacco.
Absolutely cracking wine.
A much talked about new/old release from Rioja giant CVNE, this is a classic that was discontinued for a good while before being brought back in 2014 to celebrate the centenary of the brand. It gets reported on here because although it is nearly all viura from la Rioja, it has been topped up (somewhere between 15 and 20%) with manzanilla de Sanlucar (and from no less a bodega than Hidalgo-la Gitana). (And because they have it in Territorio Era.)
As you can see it is very very pale in colour. It is possible there is some sea breeze on the nose alongside the peachy, floral viura but I may be imagining it. On the palate again you have a nice combination of white fruit acidity and that touch of salinity – bitey at the front and mouthwatering at the end. The manzanilla definitely adds to the flavour profile too – gives it a bit of savoury depth.
A fresh, tasty and enjoyable wine and a very happy return.
Here is another interesting release by Equipo Navazos and one that is bang on trend.
Behold a bottle of excellent manzanilla – one of the top wines from Sanchez Ayala bottled by Equipo Navazos and one of the first of theirs that I tried. As the second band label makes clear, this bottle is one of six hundred that Equipo Navazos reserved at bottling in October 2011 and have only released again now in November 2011. These bottle aged wines are currently all the go (you may have noticed my own musings and even the new category on the blog), and indeed the stated reason for holding these wines back (five years ago) is to show that they are capable of ageing like any great white wine. The experiment deserves nothing but praise – these guys really have done as much as anyone to generate interest and debate about these wines, and this is another superb release on that score. (My appreciation also to Angelita Madrid – what a luxury it is to be able to have a wine like this by the glass.)
This wine is great. It was always a rich colour but now has an old straw complexion and a lovely yeasty, chamomile and acetaldehide nose, nutty, citrus flavours and zingy salinity. It has retained its biological character and is really top class.
But is it better than it was five years ago? Compared against my (admittedly fading) memory of the wine I first tasted it seems finer and has a bit more smokey flavour, an additional burnt edge and an even more elegant profile. But in my minds eye it seems a touch duller and blunter than it once was, and the additional edge of flavour makes it – to my imagining – slightly more bitter.
I fear I may be projecting my views about bottle ageing these wines. Do I remember this wine as zesty and fresh, or am I imagining that to confirm my theory? I will never know – I have a bottle in the fridge but evidently it is also five years in the bottle. And in the end, what does it matter? I am sure many others will enjoy this wine, which is excellent, and there is no doubt that that shade less punchiness brings it down nearer to the more accessible range of mortal wines.
But ultimately I am put in mind of that old sheep of the Lake District, Wordsworth, and his famous definition of poetry being “emotion recollected in tranquility”. Although I enjoy the poetry of these old wines, I generally prefer the emotion of the new ones.
Told my better half I fancied a manzanilla and went to get myself one – by the time I got back I already had one. I wonder if you can guess which one I brought to the party ….
This Zuleta manzanilla is cracking after a couple of weeks open. Has that same metallic/chalky aroma on the nose, heavy salty texture, herbal citrus flavour, zingy salinity and a long, slightly bitter citrus finish.
Way, way better than the other manzanilla.
undertheflor.com 