Jerez Wine

This was a new one on me and I was fascinated.

Equipo Navazos, who usually select sherries for one-off bottlings have got together with Niepoort to produce a white wine. The first I saw, or knew of, this Navazos-Niepoort 2008 White Wine was when Luís Seabra, the winemaker at Niepoort, conjured up a bottle at a dinner hosted by the Douro Boys after their EWBC tasting. This was not the only interesting wine Luis or the other Douro Boys conjured up, but I’ll stick to the story.

It seems what Navazos-Niepoort were trying to do with this wine is rediscover the roots of the wines from what is now the Jerez DO.  Wine from Palomino grapes, from the best terroir – the white Albariza soils,  aged for 4-5 months under flor and unfortified. There is more about what they were trying to achieve with this wine on the Equipo Navazos website. Admittedly I did not try this wine under perfect conditions. We had been tasting robust Douro reds and then drinking them with dinner, but it reminded me a bit of the “mosto” wines, which are available all around Jerez when it starts to get cold, so late November and December. These mostos are the new wines and unfortified.  The mostos will not have spent the same amount of time under flor, so probably not as complex, but the connection is there. There is a sweet, melon characteristic which I’m sure comes from a bit of time under flor. It appears the wine was bottled by Bodegas Páez Morilla, but I’m not sure where it was made or aged.

I’ve mentioned unfortified wines from Jerez before, and it’s worth reading the comments left on that post by Álvaro Girón.

In the picture, taken at the Restaurant 11, are Amy Lillard, Jason Mancebo and Oscar Quevedo.

Well, this has taken a bit of time! Mainly because the rest of the conference was so busy but also because I picked up the dreaded EWBC/Douro bug so I have been flat on my back since I got home.

The second day of the conference was packed with interesting sessions, my favourite by far being the one with Doug Cook from AbleGrape. I could easily have sat through another hour. The sessions finished up with a “Grand Tasting” of Portuguese wines lead by Charles Metcalfe. I always find that when Charles enters a room the mood lightens. He is a very witty and you just know that you are going to have fun when he leads a tasting. After Charles’ tasting it was off to the Restaurant 11, which has a great night views out over Lisbon. The food Restaurant 11 produced was beautiful and tasty, although it all come out in “tapas” portions and small quantities, so at the end of the night I was feeling pretty ravenous. Even so, I suddenly found myself in a cab with Pilar, Nico, Diane and Emily and off to the Barrio Alto for a few Caipirinhas. Any opportunity to study for my WSET Spirits exam next March must be taken! It was Halloween, so fancy dress everywhere! Very amusing.

The next day, Sunday, after a close shave, and an old nick-name coming back to haunt me, I was on the bus to Setúbal and the Terras do Sado wine region. This was one of the three regional tours offered to us bloggers. I love fortified wine and don’t know much about the Setúbal moscatels, so this was an obvious choice for me. The other groups went off to learn about cork or to the Alentejo.

On the Sunday evening after getting back to Lisbon there was a final conference dinner at the Restaurant Alfandega. Some of us had a plan for a civilised drink in a Lisbon square before dinner, but the only thing myself, Pilar, Nico and Vicky managed to achieve was to get ourselves soaking wet in what seemed like a tropical storm. We arrived at the restaurant cold and dripping. After drying off, the dinner was a lot of fun and then to bed for an early start for the north the next day.

I drove my own car up to the Douro for a visit laid on by the Douro Boys. We were royally looked after and it was a very interesting trip for me having never been to the Douro or really known much about the non-Port wines (apart from Crasto, which I had bought through Adnams a few times). On the first day we were entertained to lunch high up in the Douro Superior by Don Vito Olazabal and his family at Quinta do Vale Meão. After that it was by a charming little train that we got from Pocinho to Ferrão, to be lugged up the hill to Quinta to Crasto in a sort of a charabanc. My kind of place! The team at Crasto give us a vertical tasting in their gleaming fermentation room and then dinner was set out next to some old lagares.  After a very comfortable nights sleep at the beautiful Aquapura hotel it was off to Quinta do Vallado to be shown around their new facilities (a work in progress, we did have to scramble past builders) by Chico Ferreira and then a vertical tasting of his wines. This was followed by a vertical of the Quinta do Vale Dona Maria wines given by Cristiano van Zeller, who really is a fantastic raconteur and had us in stitches recounting  a story about a very particular kind of marriage.

Too soon we were then in the bus again for the short trip to Quinta de Nápoles, where Luís Seabra the winemaker lead us through an incredible vertical of the Redoma tinto wines over a fantastic lunch outside on the balcony. I will post in more detail about Vinoble, the Setubal trip, the Douro Boys trip and things like Charles Metcalfe’s tasting. There is so much more to tell!

The bus dropped myself and Sam Ockman from 1000corks off at Régua station to start the long trip home. We caught the train back up to Pocinho were I had left my car and when I dropped Sam off in Salamanca, I knew EWBC 2009 was truly over. I got home at 4.30am in the morning!

We’re fully into the swing of things at the EWBC, and I’m a bit pushed for time so this will be a quick roundup of things so far.

My EWBC 2009 experience started at 7am on Thursday 29th October when I left Jerez, in my car, for Portugal.

First stop was a pre-EWBC event at Cortes de Cima in the Alentejo. The Jorgensens really looked after us beautifully and put on a fantastic lunch. We had a live tasting of their full range of wines (including the illegal one), live because a group of people in Lisbon were able to join us. We had a quick look around their winery, a very slick and organised operation and finally – my favourite bit – we were each given four varietal wines from 2009 to make our own blend. We voted for the best blend after a blind tasting and that is going to be made up and bought to the EWBC in Lisbon. By one (winemaker’s casting) vote the competition was won by Wink Lorch and Sam Ockman (otherwise it would have been my blend)! They were talking of calling the blend “Sink”, a bit more of Wink in it than Sam methinks.

After Cortes de Cima I headed into Lisbon with Jim Budd and Per Karlsson in the car. It’s amazing how interesting discussion helps chew up the kilometres.  After a quick change it was off to Gemelli where we had a very convivial meal. It was great to catch up with old friends from EWBC 2008 and meet new people and I was feeling excited.

After a lie-in and look around the center of Lisbon, Friday 30th’s activity started with registration for the conference at the swish VIP Grande Lisboa hotel. Then we had a tasting sponsored by Vinoble, who weirdly for an organisation presenting at a bloggers conference have a website which does not even work? It points at the spanish Vinum wine magazine site. A bit of an own goal.  Apparently Pancho Campo MW was supposed to be leading this, but I guess due to Campogate gaining momentum he didn’t turn up. Mr Campo’s Marketing Manager, Esteban Cabezas, lead the tasting instead and after a sales job for Vinoble and Wine Academy Spain we got to taste some fantastic wines.

Next was the Douro Boys tasting, which had six flights of wine, 18 wines altogether. The whites’ fresh acidity was a revelation for me, especially as they come from a hot climate. The Douro Boys are all entertaining, humorous and fun. A very enjoyable tasting. We were then treated to a buffet dinner by the Douro Boys, with more of their wines and a few “specials” which were magic’d up. Like an 80 year old white port from Niepoort, the “Douro Boys” blend, a Douro Riesling, the Robustus 05 which appeared when we mentioned that Jamie Goode thinks the 04 could possibly be Portugal’s best wine ever and finally the most interesting for me, a collaboration between Niepoort and Equipo Navazos, a light palomino wine from Jerez, which has had only 3 months of flor on it before bottling. A bit like the young “mosto” wines which are sold in and around Jerez at this time of year.

Ah, finally, packed and ready to head off to the EWBC 2009 tomorrow morning. I’ve been looking forward to this EWBC since the last one. Ryan, Gabriella and Robert proved last year that they know how to put on a good show and as the program for this year’s conference has fleshed out over the last few months I have become more and more excited.

This year they have also managed to get some awesome sponsorship.

What am I looking forward to the most? I’m not sure where to start. There is quite a lot (in no particular order):

2. It’s going to be great to see old friends again.

7. Meeting new people who weren’t there last year will be fun.

9. The pre conference gathering at Cortes de Cima in the Alentejo. They have even set up a parallel tasting in Lisbon so we can all blog together live.

8. Given my obsession with sweet and fortified wines and that I live in Jerez, I’m REALLY pleased that Vinoble are getting involved, although I do wonder if since  The Wine Academy Spain recently won the contract to produce Vinoble any probing questions are going to be asked. It could all get very interesting…

4. Learning something new from the sessions, which are very grown up this year. Even “streamed” and all.

1. Food, especially food with wine. It looks like we’re in for a treat with the restaurants we will be eating at:  Gemelli, Restaurant 11 and Alfândega.

6. Regional visits. It goes without saying I chose Setubal.

3. A chance to learn all about Portuguese wine. My slightly ulterior motive is I definitely need more Portuguese wine knowledge for that dreaded and all encompassing WSET Diploma Unit 3 exam.

5. Finally, I was lucky enough to be included on the two-day visit to the Douro organised by the Douro Boys. That might just be a nose ahead in the most-looked-forward-to stakes.

I told you it was in no order. What would your favourite be?