Jerez Wine

Saw this on Londonist and I can’t disagree with their moniker.

You can go on a  ”tapeo” and get a glass of Tio Pepe on the house if you spend north of four quid fifty at any of the participating restaurants. There’s also a chance to win a trip to good old Jerez. Well done to Gonzalez Byass for setting this up, I hope it becomes an annual thing…

Details here

Time for a break from poring over Jancis Robinson’s Companion, a trusty friend for these last few months. Time to leave the Gimblett Gravels,  Hawkes Bay and New Zealand just for a moment and fly back to Jerez to post this. By the way, Google Earth has been a fantastic way for me to have a “look around” vineyard areas I have not been able to get to in person.

I tried this wine at Vinoble for the first time, hot on the heels of my previous post.  It is an “en rama” style Manzanilla by Barbadillo. Clean and bright, it had obviously experienced a more thorough filtering than the 175th anniversary Tio Pepe mentioned below, but compared to the “conventional” equivalent – the Barbadillo Manzanilla Solear –  it was turbo-charged. They were tasted side-by-side. This “en rama” wine had a much deeper, golden colour; it was fuller bodied and absolutely packed with flavour, yeasty, salty and dry. A very morish wine!

I’ve seen an earlier “saca” of this particular Manzanilla for sale at the new-ish Laithwaites shop at Vinopolis in London. No doubt they will also have this “saca” by now.

Right, I’d better get back to studying for that WSET Dip U3 exam.

An interesting (and welcome in my opinion) development:

Gonzalez Byass is bottling a Tio Pepe “en rama” to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the company. En rama means “raw”, ie straight from the barrel, although in practice this wine will have had a light filtering to remove big bits and pieces. So this is the closest thing you can get to Fino straight out of the butt. More colour, not as bright, perhaps even a bit hazy, but way more flavour.

If you live in the UK, this wine will be available from June 2010 through the Wine Society, Lea & Sandeman, Harvey Nichols, Fortnum & Mason and Cambridge Wine Merchants.

Wine critic Charles Metcalfe tweeted from the LIWF last week: “Just tasted Tio Pepe en Rama at GB stand. Yeasty, full-bodied, utterly dry. Tio Pepe con mas cojones”

I hope this  is not a one-off. It should be good! I can’t wait to try it… possibly at Vinoble next week [sadly it wasn't available at Vinoble]

The local rag reports what looks to be a very nice turnaround in Sherry Vinegar sales. Up 30% for the first three months of 2010 vs 2009. I hope this continues into the next three trimesters.

Linked by Alistair Scott on the Jancis Robinson’s forum. This is genius!

Bar Pepito bills itself as London’s only Sherry Bar. I hope that is not the case for very long because this tiny little bar, in a courtyard near King’s Cross station, is genius and should be printed out all over London – especially near the big railway termini.

Can anyone think of a more civilised way to start the commute home? A quick copa of bracing Fino and a sliver of jamon. Some people say Fino does not travel well, but travel after a Fino is always better, so why on earth not? There are other sherries to be had at Bar Pepito, that’s if you don’t like Fino – a nice full range. The bar seems to be sponsored in some way by Gonzalez Byass: See the bright “Tio Pepe” sherry butts outside and much of the bar’s decoration. However that has not stopped them offering top quality sherries from other producers, like Fernando de Castilla, Lustau, Hidalgo-La Gitana and even a wine from the cultish Equipo Navazos. The bar is all the better for it. There’s an Enomatic machine in the corner, which contained amongst other things a rare 1968 añada sherry.

Bar Pepito opens to the great British public on Friday, 19th March 2009 and it’s worth a visit.

Bar Pepito
3 Varnishers Yard
The Regent Quarter
King’s Cross
London N1 9DF

The next tutored sherry tasting with appropriate tapas at the West London Wine School, the Wine Cellars, Fulham is on February 26th.

Places filling up fast…

Details here

Here’s an interesting post by Fiona Beckett about some food pairings with Emilio Hidalgo Sherries.
My post about Hidalgo on Catavino is here.

Shots from inside the Bodega. Some of the butts are on stone rests rather than the more usual wooden ones – stone rests are common in Sanlucar.

Some of the Hidalgo wines mentioned in Fiona’s post.

It’s not easy to get one’s hands onto bottles of the Equipo Navazos wines in this part of Spain, which seems strange, especially since this is the home of Sherry. I’ve tried before, without success. I’m assured there are good reasons for this, so the only thing I could feel when I managed to get examples of the latest Equipo Navazos wines was indecent glee. The number 18, a Fino made from grapes grown in the Macharnudo Alto “pago” and the number 19 which is an ancient Cream Sherry bottled in very small quantities.

This appears to be the fourth time Equipo Navazos have bottled a Fino like this number 18. A full (in all senses) and ageworthy Fino which, despite the dogma, is not a contradiction. Finos and Manzanillas are capable of developing in the bottle and I think all the Navazos wines are especially selected to develop and improve. The number 19 Cream is incredibly complex and layered. If you can get your hands on either of these wines then I think the price (they won’t be cheap, but definitely will be good value) is worth paying.

My tasting notes for the 18 Fino and the 19 Cream.

A very interesting little wine fair in El Puerto de Santa Maria this weekend devoted to the red wines of Cadiz province.

I’ve only just been sent the details:
Place:
Cloisters at the IES Santo Domingo, c/ Santo Domingo 29, El Puerto de Santa Maria.
Times:
Saturday 6th Feb 2010, 12:00-15:00 and 18:00-21:00
Sunday 7th Feb 2010, 12:00-15:00

Producers represented:

Barbadillo
Cortijo de Jara
Entrechuelos
González Byass
Huerta de Albalá
Ibargüen
Luis Pérez
Manuel Aragón
Páez Morilla
Regantío
Rey Habis
Viñedos de Taramilla

There are 3 tutored tastings, two on the Saturday and one on Sunday (in Spanish and limited to 60 persons each).

Please see here for details in Spanish