Jerez Wine

It’s very windy in Jerez today, the “levante” is blowing. Nothing better than to retreat indoors and try some sherry. Two finos from medium-sized bodegas: Alvaro Domecq “La Janda” and Sanchez Romate “Marismeño”.

Romate remains in the ownership of local families, and have not joined the trend of cashing in and moving out of the centre of town. They must be sitting on some valuable real estate! Alvaro Domecq are less central but also in town. Control of Alvaro Domecq was recently gained by Manuel Jove, a spanish billionaire.

The Alvaro Domecq “La Janda” has a typical pale golden colour, the Sanchez Romate “Marismeño” also pale and golden but with perhaps a touch more colour than the La Janda.”.

On the nose they are very different. The La Janda seems light for a fino, and has clean, green, stalky aromas. The Marismeño is not pronounced either and has a sweet, fruity nose which reminds me of grated ripe apple.

The La Janda is is light, clean and crisp in the mouth. A bit like biting into a Granny Smith. There is a flavour of flor, which did not come through so strongly on the nose. There is a more rounded, fuller feel to the Marismeño and the flavour is of ripe apple.”.

I think the La Janda would go very well with salty, grilled prawns and the Marismeño, ice cold, on its own as an aperitif.”.

It’s been a while. Many apologies! From now on I hope to post more often than every second year.

Something I have been wanting to do for a while is side-by-side tastings of sherries from the same styles. Today it’s the turn of Finos: Tio Pepe by Gonzalez Byass has to be the best know Fino around. La Ina by Pedro Domecq soon to be by Osborne (the brand was recently sold by Pernod Ricard to Osborne) is probably not as wide-spread as Tio Pepe, but here in Jerez they are friendly rivals. Most little bars in town are either a La Ina establishment or are for Tio Pepe.

I bought half-bottles of these two wines. The half-bottle has to be the ideal format for Fino, especially when sitting outside in a sunny spot (where one should always try to be when drinking Fino), the wine doesn’t really have time to warm up before the bottle is empty. If the bottle is not finished in one sitting, then it should be easy to do so before it goes stale.

Both these wines had a very pale golden colour, La Ina with perhaps a touch more colour. Tio Pepe’s aroma was slightly more punchy than La Ina’s, but on the nose both had clean, pronounced, yeasty, flor aromas. Tio Pepe seemed just a tiny bit fruitier, with hints of green apple while La Ina had a more savoury edge. On the finish La Ina went on for a bit longer.

To be honest there was not much in it. Either would have done for me.

I wonder if there is not more difference within bottles of these wines than between them?

This week Jerez played host to “Vinoble“. It’s the world’s only wine fair dedicated to noble and fortified wines. The “salón”, as it’s called here, started last Sunday, ended Wednesday and happens every second year. As wine fairs go, it’s not very big, but this is made up for by the many interesting wines and the beautiful setting. The stands were laid out in the formal San Fernando gardens and inside the Villavicencio Palace, all within Jerez’s moorish fortress – the Alcázar. The nature of sweet and fortified wines means many of the producers were small, boutique, family-owned, experimental and passionate. I was very lucky to be given a couple of tickets for the trade days by a good friend here in Jerez. It’s a pity I didn’t have the time to try every one of the wines being exhibited.

As I arrived on the first day I bumped into a local mate, Stuart. This was fortunate as it’s so much better having someone to compare notes with. As a student in Scotland, Stuart used to work in wine merchants so knows his stuff. He also has all the WSET certificates under his belt.

Trying not to go off piste too soon, I’ll write about the sherries first. Two of the sherries sampled stand out for me because their palate was so unexpectedly different to anything suggested on the nose.

The first is the Lustau 1989 Añada, an age-dated sherry, which in itself is unusual. Everything on the nose pointed to a dry oloroso. Nutty and woody with faint aldehyde character. On the palate however, it was sweet, smooth, full and warm with flavours of dates and almonds.

The second wine, the Bodegas Tradición Palo Cortado Muy Viejo, was the opposite. This 32-year-old wine had a soft nutty nose with a certain sweetness, possibly a hint of honey. On the palate it was bone dry, almost salty, with woody and toasted flavours.

Lustau make one of my favourite finos, which we also tried. Puerto Fino. Its nose reminds me of roasted and salted sunflower seeds. My friend Stuart didn’t like this aroma and described it quite differently! It had a smooth, silky mouthfeel, which was matched by a refreshing acidity. Flavours in the mouth were hazelnuts and a slight saltiness. The only other wine we tried at the Lustau stand was their East India Solera, a dark-brown sweet sherry smelling of nuts and dried figs with just a suggestion of something savoury and salty, Bovril perhaps? In the mouth it was sweet, full bodied, complex and balanced, with flavours of nuts, wood and caramel.

Rey Fernando de Castilla make a very interesting fino viejo called Antique Fino. Some of their fino butts selected for inclusion in the amontillado solera are bottled under this label. It’s a fino from butts where the flor has become patchy and a bit of oxidation has crept in, adding a touch of amber to the appearance and a nuttyness and fullness on the nose and in the mouth. For comparison we tried their Classic Fino, a pale lemon colour, green apples and straw on the nose and dry, flinty flavours in the mouth. Of their other wines we tried the Antique Amontillado which had quite strong aldehyde character on the nose, slightly medicinal with iodine aromas. In the mouth it was nutty, woody and salty with a long dry finish. Their Antique Palo Cortado had less aldehyde on the nose and a hint of caramel in the mouth. We were fortunate to speak with the owner of Fernando de Castilla, Jan Pettersen, and his commercial director Andrés Soto. They are a small company aiming high and it shows. Their wines and brandy are first class. Yes, brandy, because Mr Petterson kindly poured us a slug of that too. I don’t know which of their bradies it was, but it had a clean, fresh nose with aromas of apple and oak. On the mouth it was soft, smooth and dry with a long dry finish. Very nice!

More about other sherries in my next post, also the South African stickies and other assorted sweets at Vinoble…