Blas Ceron is one of my best friends, if not the best. He was also my mentor in all this wine stuff.
But we both always went beyond our passion for wine and that is the real reason for our friendship. What unites us is the "passion" and the world of wine may not be more than a good excuse.
I translate here the last reflection of him. I am not going to "decorate" it with photographs, because it is so intense and profound that I do not want to distract you with anything else.
If you are an expert amateur, you will be able to understand the depth and beauty of what my friend Blas says here... if you are not, I hope that you will at least be able to glimpse the essence... and the essence is what I have already told you: PASSION.
But it is not an adolescent passion and full of hormones, but reflective and from deep knowledge.
We both like Philosophy, History, Sociology, Psychology, Neurosciences... ultimately we are Humanists... passionate humanists.
enjoy!
Ramiro Ibáñez has been a turning point in the history of Sanlúcar and Jerez (Sherry) wine. This is not a joke; I am very serious. I am not referring to the inflection point as a mathematical or sociological concept, but as a wine concept, how a single person manages to change a reality that has been in force for decades, how in barely 10 years has he been able to make all of us great aficionados feel, think, and enjoy those wines of a very different way. Apart from great historical wines, from very old and extraordinary soleras that are the result of time, and from all the very mediocre wines that have abounded in recent decades, there is currently an important group of wineries whose wines breathe vitality, energy, humanity, closeness, pleasure, present…
How does this turning point occur? As it always does, with people who make it possible. The generator(s) of ideas is essential, very rare and emotionally very special people who can generate small ideas that over time become great transformations. Thanks also to the equally essential work of the connectors, those people who believe in these ideas and transmit them to many aficionados, who, in turn, must decide whether to continue comfortably with wines that they were already accustomed to, or start a search path towards new one’s ideas and emotions. It's like a fire, it starts, it spreads quickly, but we don't know when it ends.
Sometimes ideas are so simple and so powerful that, with the right connectors, they become true successes, and only then can we speak of a turning point (yes, there are very, very brilliant ideas or wines that reach 100 times 100 Parker points but fail to be a turning point).
How I like the relationship between Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez. I am aware that in liking and in loving there are always many degrees, difficult to explain and quantify, but I admit that I feel absolute personal and professional admiration for both. Between them it is not just about a great friendship, what is important, is that on an intellectual level they complement each other, and together they achieve what any individual human mind would be unable to achieve. The ideas can be apparently simple, a return to tradition extolling the value of the land as the source of quality and character, but the discourse always must be very powerful. And in the speech the Ramiro-Willy tandem is essential, very possibly separately neither would have achieved the turning point of Jerez and Sanlúcar. At this point, analyzing other issues seems secondary, Sanlúcar and Jerez are very different, just as we can think that Ramiro and Willy are, but behind the appearance is the essence, and there the differences are minimal. Ramiro and Willy's relationship reminds me of the relationship I have had with Alberto Redrado over the last 25 years, they in the preparation and we in the marketing, with the same energy and passion, it being fair to recognize that they have generated that magical point of inflection of Sherry Wines, I congratulate you!
So far, we have only talked about theory, and I, as you know, love practice. I prefer practice, drink a wine, and then calmly see if we reach any conclusion or not. We often hear chefs and winemakers speak very well, and when we taste their food or their wines we are paralyzed, because sometimes handling words is easier than cooking pasta or making a sparkling wine. But of course, when we talk about someone who has been the turning point of current sherries, his wines are simply impressive, which does not mean that everyone enjoys it at first glance. He makes 8 wines in three ranges, and each one is a marvelous balance between tradition and innovation, between hedonism and pleasure.
Today I want to talk about Carrascal Las Vegas 2019 from the Ube range, a unique wine from a unique vineyard. It is the wine that I drank on Christmas Eve 2022. I pass on my appreciation that I conveyed to Ramiro. At 7:06 p.m. I wrote, “Good night and happy holidays. At home I am the only one who drinks wine, and for this reason I only drink a bottle, calm, without haste, until the last and minuscule step. Tonight, I really wanted this bottle, and I will enjoy it thinking of Sanlúcar and especially of you. A big hug". At 11:50 p.m. I already talked about the wine: “I have already finished the entire bottle, I wanted to leave two fingers for tomorrow, to see how it evolved, but I have not been able to. I have decided that the next day I should open a magnum to be more relaxed. I have drunk the entire bottle with amazing ease and pleasure. It is something extraordinary, how you can transmit so much complexity, saltiness, and flavor in such an elegant, fine, delicate and beautiful way. A wine that seems to fly, that jumps from neuron to neuron to. That is Sanlúcar, Jerez is something different. I had never felt this sensation. At the first moment I thought of you, in the vineyard, in the landscape, in the sea... I was very satisfied. Then I remembered, for the first time in 15/16 years, a Comte de Vogue Musigny 91 Magnum, how it slowly and infinitely surpassed an impressive Trapet Chambertin 90 Magnum. I perfectly remember those 2/3 hours with both wines in the glasses, how forceful lightness prevailed with great class over powerful intensity. Today Carrascal Las Vegas 2019 could have done the same with the best Jerez wines. It has impressed me. Later, with a little more time and less temperature, the wine reminded me of the great wines of the world: Montrachet, Kirchentuck, Clos St. Hune..., I felt that it started at its height, but ended up surpassing all of them. It moved me. Finally, the wine spoke of many more things, of our life, of happiness, an emotional state infinitely superior to pleasure. It makes me understand why I have dedicated so much of my life in the last 30 years to wine. I sincerely thank you that a bottle of wine can make me so happy. Thank you so much".
Agostado is the wine that should represent Jerez in a supposed interplanetary tasting. Gold for sure, there is no other option. Only comparable to Willy Pérez's Palma Cortado. Perruno, king grape and a bit of palomino, a prodigy of diversity and innovation, of the courage to dare to elaborate what no one dares. Vines over 100 years old that simultaneously convey inexhaustible youth and infinite complexity (how difficult it is to combine both) in each glass. In each sip you drink Trebujena, the Guadalquivir, Doñana and the Atlantic Ocean. A wine had never been made in Jerez that at 2/3 years old transmitted everything that this one transmits, sensations of which there were no records, since they are their own, in a completely decaffeinated version, and often without energy, of wines much older. The first contact is sensual, like no other Jerez wine has ever been, it catches you from the purity of the soil and the complexity of the grape, and you enter a new emotional stage for the first time in your life. It is the Jerez wine that best unites, indissolubly, the past, the present and the future. It is possibly the most surprising Jerez wine of the last 50/60 years.
Pandorga PX is a jewel that should never disappear, it should be protected, not by Heritage, but by all those sommeliers who enjoy wines with character. The worst thing about wine is its price, due to its quality and comparing it with its wines of a similar size (German TBA, Eszencia de Tokaj, Yquem…) it should be around €250/400 and since it only costs €27.85… pseudo-experts pay no attention to it. I am convinced that it is by far the least profitable wine from the Ramiro winery, you just must think about its microscopic yields to understand it. But what is the wine like? One of those few wines that surpasses man in longevity, and that each sip, however small, entails a mental cataclysm of challenging and intense emotions that have no end, surpassing in most cases the intellectual capacity of the person who drinks it. Great experts and dear friends, what an injustice you commit when you drink hundreds of Champagnes and hundreds of Burgundy every year and sadly you don't even know this wine. And acidity junkies, when you get over the disease it's time to start with great wines of a universal character. I love that it makes us consider that mental debate between pleasure and hedonism and realize that we should not choose, its vicious part is as surprising as its intellectual part is attractive. It is one of the only wines in the world whose finish is measured by minutes instead of seconds. It is one of those few wines that always remains intact in our memory.
Blas Ceron.
