Manzanilla ... second chapter of a true Masterclass

 

Lately I have very little free time to dedicate to my great passion ... wines and their world ... but I have been able to translate this wonderful reflection of my good friend and mentor Blas Cerón on Manzanilla, one of the best white wines in the world, in his opinion ... and my own.

At the end I will leave the links to some previous reflections on the same subject, which can complete, for those who wish, a great Masterclass on this wonderful wine and its protagonists.

Soon we will talk about a great area ... Chateauneuf-du-Pape ... also in depth ... and taking into account what Henry Bonneau once said to some "wine journalists" who knocked on his door because they wanted do an "expert report" about the area ... his answer was: I am here all my life and working on this and I am not yet an expert ... and he slammed the door on them ...

MANZANILLA . The origin, terroir and soleras

About a year ago I wrote about Manzanilla, and I said that for me it is the best wine in the world, even ahead of champagne. Today I still think exactly the same. So I was talking about the value of the human part, the people who have made it possible that today we enjoy revolutionary Manzanillas, non-existent in the last 30-40 years.

Now I want to go a little further, delve into the origin, to be able to understand and enjoy better each glass of Manzanilla, which we drink regularly and sometimes unconsciously.

I am convinced that the vineyard, like anywhere else in the world, is key to understand the character and longevity of the best Manzanillas. Without forgetting the magic of best soleras, unique, different, and the passage of time, the work of winegrowers, capataces and wineries.

Let's briefly discuss some of the best Manzanillas we can drink this summer.

There is little to say about EQUIPO NAVAZOS, everything is known, and it is extraordinary. They were the turning point between a chaotic age and a flourishing age, the ideological origin of new air that today breathes in Jerez. But 15-20 years have passed, and the world is spinning speed, new times, new ideas, and new traveling companions. Currently Navazos markets 6 Manzanillas, very different from each other:

The Florpower Manzanilla is an experiment following the latest trends, an only vineyard (Miraflores), a single vintage (2015) and with asoleo (sunning, there is no alcoholic heading), with the aim of enjoying the most attractive and pure youthness.

The Manzanilla Pasada magnum is another special bottling, but the other way around, in its last stage of life, at that moment when the wine is ceasing to be Manzanilla in order to glimpse some traits of Amontillado. Although it will age very worthily, I do not predict a great qualitative improvement. I try to enjoy this intermediate stage in which you don't usually bottle any wine, and for me personally I am very attracted when the sensations are not so evident.

The Navazos Manzanilla, the classic that usually repeats, always, except the two last bottled, it has been selected at the Sánchez Ayala winery, using the grapes from a very good vineyard, Las Cañas, in Balbaina, which marked the character of the wine. But since that number 4, from 2007 (it was then called Manzanilla Las Cañas) until the current number 93 (now called Manzanilla Navazos), many things have changed. On the first years Sánchez Ayala did not bottle any wine and Navazos could choose whatever he wanted, marketing the first sacas of the highest quality. Later Sánchez Ayala begins to bottle its two Manzanillas, Gabriela and Gabriela Oro, which today still do not demonstrate its full potential (let's not forget that, to make a great wine, apart from vineyard, winegrowers, oenologists are needed ...), before which Navazos begins to include in the assembly final boots from younger kennels, obtaining wines perhaps a little more attractive, but less deep and forceful. The last two sacas, 71 and 93, already come from La Guita, where Eduardo Ojeda manages a special character (nothing to do with the conventional Guita), focused on the Pago de Miraflores, and with an age of 7 years, to search, with their own means, the Manzanilla they want to sell as Navazos.

Qualitatively the first sacas were unforgettable, although it is true that there were very few high-quality Manzanillas then, later, an attempt was made to show the quality with selection work in the winery, and now they have put in place the right means so in a few years they will find the highest quality, based on a vineyard, exactly the same as they do with La Bota de Fino, from Macharnudo. A wine that, with 9 sacas in 13 years, shows how Navazos has gone adapting to the circumstances, and its fight to always obtain wines of the highest quality.

And finally, the Manzanillas Capataz Rivas (now Capataz Cabo, Rivas retired), Bota Punta and Bota No, which come from the same 15 boots sole, located on the left from the entrance door in the old winery of La Guita, on Calle Misericordia del Barrio Alto de Sanlúcar. The three wines, very different from each other, are authentic jewels, with an evolution magnificent in the bottle for several decades. Capataz Ribas/Cabo is an assembly of a small percentage of each of the 15 boots, Bota Punta as its name indicates is on the tip of the andana and it is the one that is usually filled with wines from the other boots, and the Bota No when you decide to bottle part of a boot determined by its individual characteristics.

The three wines come from a single hearth, of great character, with an outstanding energy, and with an impressive capacity for renewal (after each bottling the boots are filled with almost as old wines, and the boots impose their character on them in just a few months).

Follow their evolution, drink them since they are in the boot until several decades later bottling is a great pleasure for lovers of Jerez. They are one of those few wines that make you think of everything: the sea, the albariza, the palomino, the history, the friendship, the passage of the time, the value of work, salt and iodine, beauty, Sanlúcar ...

SACRISTÍA AB are, and by far, the best signature wines from Jerez. Antonio Barbadillo works in different wineries, selecting in each of them the boots and the quantities that he deems appropriate, at his free will, without any pre-established rule, varying the coupages in all bottlings. Therefore, regardless of whether the wines are better or worse, we like them more or less, they are unique, unrepeatable wines. Market a single Manzanilla, in 3/8 and magnum format, with a very different evolution in the bottle.

The First Saca of his Manzanilla Sacristía AB 3/8 was selected, 10-12 years ago, in Bodegas Sánchez Ayala, when it was not yet elaborated, coinciding with the first sacas of Navazos in the same cellar. The result was spectacular, a wine so magnificent that I was so surprised that I drank many bottles in a very short time, I did not waste occasion to taste it with my friends and clients, a wine that left its mark on me, a Manzanilla I did not even imagine that it could exist, and that I would like to taste again today to appreciate its extraordinary evolution (sadly I no longer have any in stock).

Between the second and the penultimate Saca Antonio Barbadillo has selected his Manzanilla  at Bodegas Yuste, and the result, regardless of whether the work is impeccable, is different. Yuste is owned by a businessman who invested part of his capital in making a large winery (the second in Sanlúcar after Barbadillo), buying the old soleras from other wineries in Manzanilla. But in wine, as in many other things in life, money is not absolutely everything, there are other things much more important. I am convinced that if you buy five old Botas and put them together in a new wine, it doesn't inherit the energy of the five, but loses the character of five, and takes several years, with an essential, complex and meticulous work in the cellar, so that the new wine has character and identity own. We have simultaneously tasted the high-end wines of Yuste, Manzanilla La Kika, and Sacristy, and always without exception Sacristy is much better. And it is very logical, Kika proceeds of a partial bottling of all the boots of the solera (in Sanlúcar it is called Primera Criadera), which is a good method to obtain regularity but not quality, while Sacristía AB is the result of an exhaustive selection process.

The last Sacristía AB 3/8 saca was selected in the cellars of Orleans, and for me it has a very high level again, it reminds us more of the first serve, with its differences, than all intermediate. And some may think, why do I like it less than the previous ones?

Orleans has its vineyards in the pago of Torrebreva, one of the most coastal in Sanlúcar, and this is transmitted in the wine, which is very elegant, vertical, finely saline and iodized, light ...,but, whether we like it or not, and more when we don't have much experience, our mind appreciates before the intensity and maturity of the old soleras of Yuste than the balance and finesse of Torrebreva. and also, now we have an advantage, Orleans at the moment does not bottle anything and Antonio can freely choose everything he deems appropriate. Sacristy AB 3/8 returns to the elite of Manzanillas, with a very current style, pure, direct, fresh, subtle ... Undoubtedly the origin is decisive, Torrebreva determines the character of the latter takes the same as Balbaina determined the first Saca, while an old assembly hearth (of different soleras) only contributes to the wine the attributes of old age, without further ado (the same could be said of Fino Tradition, made as La Kika, its only virtue is its age, and that for whom we like the wine is too little).

Sacristía AB magnum is another story. While La Kika magnum is clearly better than The Kika of 0.75, because the notes of maturity are joined by glimpses of youth, in the case of Sacristy, the result is very different, not so much for quality but for character. Until now the wine is marketed two years after bottling and it is very brave, needing a few extra years of bottle aging to show all its enormous potential. The evolution in bottle of Sacristía Magnum impresses. Perform a vertical tasting of all the you take out allows you to enjoy unforgettable wines that grow, minute by minute, like the best white wines of the world, with a very powerful, compact, full, seamless feeling ..., being extremely complex and deep, structured and intense, yet fine and fresh. A very exclusive bottle at a bargain price, because this quality worldwide does not would drop from € 300-400. But we are convinced that with the last bottling, in Orleans, quite possibly due to its character, this extra waiting time will not be necessary to be able to fully enjoy it.

In BARBADILLO its different Manzanillas are marked by the vineyard of provenance, Gilalbin and Santa Lucía, almost 500 hectares of the 6000 DO, located very far inland, far from the sea (compared to many other vineyards, especially those from Sanlúcar), so its musts need a long aging time to soften its power and natural structure. 

However, and so that there is no confusion, Barbadillo manages the grapes from another 400/500 hectares of vineyard spread throughout the appellation.

Until 1999 Barbadillo made a single Manzanilla, Solear, which was marketed at least 5'5-6 years of aging, and even then, it has a character perhaps too forceful for most of today's consumers. What a difference with any coastal pago that, regardless of its evolution in the bottle, which depends logically of the quality of the vineyard, it can be bottled and enjoyed from 2-3 years.

In 1999, a legendary wine was bottled for the first time, Solear en Rama Saca Estacional (seasonal), selecting the best botas in Barbadillo (and there are many and very good ones), and giving it an additional aging of 4-5 years in another winery, to carry out an exhaustive process of selection prior to the smallest bottling. A magnificent wine, one of the best in history from Jerez. And an evolution in the bottle in which you don't notice the passing of the years, even decades, always keeping intact its elegance and balance. 5-6 years ago, with the incorporation of Armando Guerra and the boom of the best Manzanillas, Barbadillo has to react, and what does it big: Armando and Montse devise 4 new Manzanillas.

In the Nave Tradición Manzanilla grapes from three vineyards are used, and the two more close to the sea they balance the more austere character of the young Gibalbin wort, being a Manzanilla with only three years of aging to enjoy from its bottling, not worrying its greater or lesser evolution in the bottle. For the first time Barbadillo shows full strength, intensity, youth and joy of a very young Manzanilla.

In Levante/Poniente, they selecting, according to its position within the winery La Arboledilla, the 3-4 coolest Solear botas, vertical and pure, for Poniente, and the most balanced, accessible and round for Levante. All of them anticipate the passage of time, they are the ones that do not require those 8-10 years of upbringing to be fully expressive. The tasting can be misleading, the selection can confuse us, we can even believe that it is a coastal vineyard. Its evolution in the bottle is very interesting. In the early years wine it continues to grow in the bottle, as if it were in the bota and needed more time, losing part of its attractive freshness, but being more complex and deep.

The Mirabras 2014 Manzanilla, recently commercialized and in very low quantities (not let us forget that it is an in-depth study of the white wine Mirabras, with greater aging), represents the most current trends of a single vineyard and a single vintage, although it has a slightly longer aging than other similar wines, for the individuality of the vineyard of origin, which is a great success. It is a great pleasure to enjoy of how the same wine changes throughout its life.

But for us, without a doubt the best Manzanilla created in recent years by Barbadillo is the Manzanilla Pasada Pastora, possibly the Manzanilla pasada happier and fresher, and at the same time forceful and complex today. A created masterfully by Montse Molina. Now when Solear's best botas are selected to give extra parenting time, these branch according to their character, to Solear's in Rama Saca Estacional cellar (as has been done since 1999), and Pastora's cellar, looking at Poniente, where the botas with the freshest and vertical wines are carried. Pastora has been a great success, Gibalbín as a vineyard and Solear's exhaustive selection is essential to achieve its individual and current character. If Barbadillo already had the part intellectual with the Solear En Rama Saca Estacional, now has the hedonistic part with Pastora. Both evolve in the bottle equally well, very slowly, keeping almost intact and invariable all its qualities.

The range of Manzanillas from Barbadillo is extraordinary, and demonstrates how they have been able to get the best out of a Terroir with a lot of individuality and character.

RAMIRO IBÁÑEZ and WILLY PÉREZ are the authors of the greatest revolution that has experienced Jerez in all its history. Yes, greater than Navazos, which was extraordinary, and it was the worldwide recognition of the quality and diversity of Jerez. But Ramiro and Willy have achieved much more, fully revitalize a region from the inside, from the origin, from the vineyard, from the small winegrowers, from the historical knowledge…, and this has much more strength, generosity and value than 100 wines rated with 100 Parker points.

Their degree of knowledge is of such caliber that ideologically they can only make wines, in addition to the highest quality, of great character, respecting at all times the traceability of each bottling, a concept that until now did not exist in Jerez and that for them is essential.

So it is not about finding wonderful botas, bottling them and sharing them with your friends, and get fairly good scores, but their work goes much further, they want to show the origin and history of each wine, they want to give it the value that the wine deserves, they remain even in the background (until now the usual practice was on the contrary, there was talk of secret botas and the buyer's ability to bottle it and take all the honors).

In La Riva, the joint project of Ramiro and Willy, they make two Manzanillas. The Manzanilla Fina comes from Miraflores, exactly from the La Casilla Verde farm, one of the best of the many in a 300 hectares vineyard. Ramiro's work is extraordinary, for us it is currently the best Fine Manzanilla of Sanlúcar, with a notable difference over the rest, because with approximately three years of aging it has a balance, delicacy and complexity never found at such a young age. Its evolution is secondary matter, I imagine that 6-8 years, but it does not matter, you have to drink it right now, although the first years always go for the better. We tend to extol freshness at age 10, but the complexity at 3 years is just as shocking, and even much more unusual.

The Manzanilla Pasada is an out of series, an endless wine, coming from the hearth of a vineyard started in 2012, in the very prestigious Cerro de los Cuadrados, one of the best vineyards of Balbaina Alta. On the nose you imagine what is coming, the wine enters the mouth, like a missile, and immediately comes to mind, compact, without any fissure, in fullness, left over energy, and gently spreads its charge of happiness among all our neurons. It is anticipated a very slow evolution in the bottle for at least 30-40 years.

With Ramiro and Willy we have, as with other 8-10 winegrowers, a very special relationship, we feel fully identified with their ideology and their work.

Ramiro Ibáñez individually owns the Cota 45 winery, and advisor/director technician of Bodegas Juna Piñero, and solely responsible for the high quality of the wines of this cellar.

Visit Juan Piñero with Ramiro and taste the 8 Manzanilla Maruja criaderas and the 2 La Maruja Pasada is a great and didactic experience to appreciate the evolution of the Manzanilla in bota for 14-15 years.

  

Manzanilla Maruja is bottled at 8 years old and we might think that it is 3-4 years old at most. For me its main virtue is enjoy how Ramiro is able to maintain tension, lengthening the passage of time, rejuvenating it, occupying that attractive intermediate point between conscious wine and unconscious, a wine to drink in sips enjoying the sea. The vineyard of origin of the grapes is mostly from the Pago Callejuela vineyard, owned by the Blanco brothers, large farmers and luxury providers, from Sanlúcar, suitable for making Maruja (they also work small plots in Añina and Macharnudo, historically large pagos in Jerez, of greater quality, but that do not agree with the profile that Ramiro wants to transmit with Maruja).

The Manzanilla Pasada Maruja is an evolution of the previous one, but a different concept. At 8 years, prior to the bottling of Maruja, the wines with the greatest potential for continue its upbringing, remaining six more years in the two breeding grounds of the Maruja Pasada.

Very different from each other, for very different occasions, for different pairings, for different friends ..., so irresistible and happy is the Young as attractive and complex the Pasada.

Cota 45, Ramiro Ibáñez's personal project is the most innovative project, surprising and exciting from Jerez. Ideologically it is unmatched, it unites indissolubly the history, the tradition, the terroir, the quality…, and to do this in the current times is very difficult and complex. Apart from his Pandorga and Agostado, an authentic conceptual revolution in relation to sweet wines with an oxidative profile, the highly recognized Ube, by Uberrima, by Ramiro Ibáñez are undoubtedly the most brilliant and deep of how organic wines would be, and specifically Manzanillas, during the 18th century.

Ramiro simply does what they normally and naturally did for centuries, no more or less. He has returned from respect and study to reinterpret tradition, so his detractors, those who always have the absolute truth, must be more cautious.

Manzanillas were historically wines from a particular vineyard and vintage (therefore, there were no criaderas and solera), and with a slight sunning - asoleo (nothing to head with alcohol). If we think it is very different from the industrial production method, which rewards the quantity to the quality, which has triumphed in Jerez in the last 40-50 years, but is nevertheless practically the same as how all white wines are made worldwide. Not us let's obsess about separating Manzanillas and white wines, Manzanilla is simply one of the best, for me the best, white wine in the world.

Ramiro makes 4 Ube: Miraflores, Carrascal, Paganilla and Maina. The four are, as they should be, very different from each other, and each one of them conveys the character and individuality of each vineyard.

Ube Miraflores would be a First coastal Cru, a vineyard of 300 hectares (let's not forget that in Jerez the vineyards are very extensive, for which the different plots have great value), close to the sea, with soils very diverse and with different types of albariza, used by Ramiro to use grapes from different plots and thus achieve a light wine, but at the same time intense and deep, very complex, saline, sapid and iodized, fresh and spring.

Ube Carrascal is the Coastal Grand Cru, the closest pago to the sea, which started 50% in the urban boom, and today thanks to Ramiro and some other winegrowers is a well-known pago with great potential. Ube Carrascal vineyard, with less than one hectare, is from 1902, and its grapes are capable to show all the lightness and freshness of the sea with the depth and complexity provided by the vineyard age. A world-class white wine, at the height of the best white wines of the world. Sadly, the processed quantities are very little, generally less than 1000 bottles. I imagine, due to its evolution in 3-4 years, that it will improve in the bottle during the next 20-30 years.

Ube Paganilla comes from a small interior pago, close to Maina, equivalent to a First Cru. It is a vertical, stylized wine, easier to understand than Miraflores, perhaps less complex, but more floral, equally saline and iodized, perfect to get started in the palomino whites.

Ube Maina is the Grand Cru from interior, a compact and powerful wine from Sanlúcar, very intense, but at the same time with the finesse and elegance who possess the great vineyards. In what is considered by many to be the best vineyard in Sanlúcar, Ramiro cultivates a small plot, La Charanga, about 35 years old, with which he makes only a few thousand bottles, very insufficient for the high demand. An extremely complete wine, bordering on perfection, and of an extraordinary character, a unique wine of worldwide stature, at the level of the best white wines from Burgundy (which is five times more expensive, and sulfurous).

This comment, which originally intended to be brief, is getting too long, reason why we must be finishing. I would like you to delve a little deeper into the wonderful world of Manzanillas.

I love all the Wine Lists that start with 15-20 high quality and great character Manzanillas.

I hope and wish that my writing can be useful to you, that was my objective, beyond transmitting my concerns and reflections.

Links about the same subjetc:

Manzanilla... best white wine in the world - Episode 1 

New Sherry wines... re-evolution