FALL VIP 2021
EXCLUSIVE: - Every member receives 1 of 1500 bottles of the second bottling of Buelan Compañía de Saca’s manznanilla, "Las Canciones No. 1 Mirador Manzanilla (SACA II)" named after a new song of the same title!
1) VINO DE PASTO - Bodegas M. Antonio De La Riva, Macharnudo Blanco 2017 (750mL)
Renowned winemakers Willy Pérez & Ramiro Ibañez set out with the goal of connecting old soleras to their vineyards, and have done just that with the revival of the M. Antonio de la Riva label for their almacenista project. In the early 20th century, the historic bodega was well known throughout the region: founder Manuel Antonio de la Riva was an important figure who fought for the reputation of Jerez, and for the winemakers and importers as a member of the local parliament. Bodegas de la Riva held 53 hectares in Pago Macharnudo, one of Jerez’s most famous pagos and often cited as the birthplace of modern sherry. Domecq purchased the bodega in the 1970s and eventually sold off all of the soleras, leaving the name defunct. Willy and Ramiro recently revived the name and label for their project of bottling forgotten soleras as a tribute to this storied name in the region.
Grape: palomino fino
Place: Jeréz de La Frontera
Pago: Montegil
Vinification & age: This Vino Blanco is sourced from the famed palomino parcel El Notario, situated in Macharnudo Alto. Grapes were hand-harvested at the end of August, given 6-8 hours on skins before being pressed and wild yeast fermented in 600L bota at ambient temperature, and aged under flor for 20 months. This style of white wine was typical in Jerez in the early 1900s, and was a signature style of the de la Riva bodega.
Production: 1500 bottles
2) MANZANILLA - Buelan Compañía de Sacas, Las Canciones #1: Mirador Manzanilla (Saca II) 350ml
a bottling chosen from 3 Botas of manzanilla selected with the help of Ramiro Ibañez of M. Ant. De La Riva and Bodegas Cota 45. A saca of 1500 bottles from almacenista, Bodegas del Río, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, led by 3rd generation capatáz, Luís del Río.
“Las Canciones” is a series of barrel-selected sherries named after songs. “Mirador” Manzanilla is named after Nick’s song of the same title, released in December 2020, inspired by Mirador de San Nicolás in Granada, Spain, a church and lookout or watchtower overlooking the city and the Alhambra.
It is a young, lively manzanilla with an average of 3yrs in solera with intense notes of citrus, sea shells, and salt. Literally a stone’s throw from the sandy, brackish delta of the Guadalquivir River...a short drive north past the very end of the Bajo de Guía, it truly captures the terroir of Barrio Bajo in Sanlúcar. The barrel was selected from a row of barrels along the warmer wall of the bodega, and a warmer side of the room, leading to a fresher, more playful expression.
Grape: palomino fino
Place: Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Pago: Miraflores Baja
Vinification & age: 3 years average age in Solera
Production: 1500 bottles
3) FINO - Bodegas Poniente, Fino El Aljibe (750mL)
This rare Fino is named after the Poniente winds, cool and humid Atlantic western winds. Following the arc of history, winemaker Alberto Orte embraces his family’s rich tradition of solera system wines from Montilla-Moriles to create this unparalleled project from El Aljibe. Poniente sherries are the product of the thoughtful blending of precious, treasured soleras and criaderas from the 18th and 19th centuries, refreshed in the traditional method each year with wine from our own organically farmed estate vineyards (San Cristóbal, San José y El Aljibe) in the Pago Añina, one of three more known pago sites in Jeréz designated as Jeréz Superior. The wines are produced and aged in our historical estate, a restored house tucked among the vines of El Aljibe.
This fino comes from a system of four criaderas and one solera, with a median age of over 8 years. The wines used to refresh the fourth criadera comes from our organically farmed estate vineyards in the Pago Añina, from a meticulous clonal selection of more than 200 ancient and mostly forgotten clones of Palomino. The first saca (bottling) of this wine occurred after 2 years resting in the winery before bottling and release.
From select soleras averaging over 8 years old. Not fined, only lightly filtered. The wine has rested two years in the winery before release. This wine was neither clarified nor stabilized, only lightly filtered before bottling.
Grape: palomino fino + clones of palomino
Place: Jerez De La Frontera
Pago: Pago Añina
Vinification & age: 8+ years average age in Solera
Production: 1500 bottles
4) AMONTILLADO - Callejuela, La Casilla (500mL)
From the moment you observe the Blanco brothers in their natural habitat, roaming the chalky backroad vineyards of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, you realize that you’ve just entered into a humble and deep rooted rincóncillo of the Marco de Jerez. And as the dusty Albariza swirls in the summer heat of the Levante, the term “Salt of the Earth” quickly permeates the mind.
There are no men in suits or English speaking guides. No video to watch, or gift shop to visit. In fact, the very humble, charmingly decrepit bodega just expanded beyond the small cellar as they slowly added new space for more fermentation tanks and even…a…bathroom. The adjoined side of the old building remains still, dark, dank and dusty, stacked high with cobwebbed laced botas.
José “Pepe” Blanco and his brother Francisco “Paco” Blanco started the Callejuela winery with their father and “dos botas viejas” in the year 1980 within the family home in town, where their offices still remain. They were OG Almacenistas making base wine from their own Palomino vineyards that they sold to the local bodegas of Sanlúcar.
28 hectares of family owned fruit planted within three vineyard sites of Macharnudo (4ha at 74m) and Añina (8ha at 83m) within Jerez, and Callejuela (16ha at 62m) in Sanlúcar de Barrameda which houses their two tiny bodegas less than two miles from the sea. It is there in the Callejuela vineyard where the two small bodegas on their property store their botas and age their wines.
The grapes are handpicked early September, two weeks after most farmers, to ensure maximum ripening and highest retention of the chalky albariza soil. The grapes are sourced from all of three vineyard sites and blended for press, fermented in stainless steel and then fortified to 15% before entering into the Solera system to age as a Manzanilla. After more than 7 years aging biologically under flor, the flor loses vigor and dissipates as the wines begins its journey to Amontillado. This wine is then aged oxidatively for an additional average age of 20 years.
Grape: palomino fino
Place: Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Pago: Macharnudo, Añina, Callejuela
Vinification & age: 7 years average age in Solera under flor, 13+ years oxidative.
Production: 600 bottles/year
5) OLOROSO - Valdespino, Solera 1842 Oloroso VOS (750mL)
Valdespino is a tiny crown jewel of a winery that exists within a much larger wine and spirits company called Grupo Estevez. The goal of the winery is to use all the possible resources of the company to make some of the finest, most distinctive and artisinally-produced Sherries that are available today. This "spare no expense" approach applies to everythng from the entry-level Finos and Manzanillas all the way up to their uber-rare and amazingly complex VOS and VORS wines that hearken from ancient and well-kept soleras.
The origins of this historic bodega date back to 1264 when Don Alfonso Valdespino, one of 24 Knights responsible for expelling the Moors from Jerez, was rewarded for his efforts by the king, granting him land in the city of Jerez. And thus began Bodegas Valdespino! The estate was purchased most recently by Grupo Estevaz in 1999.
Produced in an unusual style for high end wines, the NV Solera 1942 VOS is a semi-sweet Oloroso with around 8% Pedro Ximénez, 60 grams of residual sugar and quite high acidity (6.8 grams) compared with others. It's a very old Oloroso with the PX added at around the halfway mark in its aging process (around 30 years on average) so the two will be well integrated with each other. This is close to a Cream Sherry, and has an unusual nose with aromas of tar, charred oranges, tobacco, menthol with some reductive touches that are fresh and sweet at the same time; quite unusual. The palate is quite sweet, but somehow balanced, intense, round, with good length. Valdespino belongs to Grupo Estévez, who ages and amazing 35,000 butts of sherry in their winery in the outskirts of Jerez.
Grape: palomino fino, Pedro Ximénez
Place: Jerez De La Frontera
Pago:
Vinification & age: 30 years average age in Solera oxidatively, the PX added about half way through
Production:
6) PALO CORTADO - Bodegas Baron, Palo Cortado (750mL)
Manuel Baron Fernandez founded this Sanlucar company in 1895, with the purchase of some old soleras from the almacenista of Anselmo Paz. His descendants can claim a winegrowing history that stretches back even further, however, for Baron’s wife, Dolores Romero Sanchez, came from the Sanlucar family of Romero de la Balsa, who has been cultivating vines in Sanlucar since the mid-seventeenth century.
Today, the main portion of the company’s bodegas are clustered together in the upper portion of the town, with some buildings dating back to 1871. The cellars house nearly 10,000 barrels of wine in total, including those original and venerable soleras of Anselmo Paz, which are still in use today. In addition, the company owns 140 hectares of vines divided among three sites, all on prime albariza soil: the Finca Atalaya, Finca Martin Miguel, and Finca El Poedo.
These are wines produced from very fine must, initially fortified to 15% (MANZANILLA) by volume and their casks are marked with a “PALO” or slash.
Grape: palomino fino
Place: Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Pago: Miraflores Baja
Vinification & age: Once the sobretabla stage is completed, if the tasters note the existence of certain very characteristics in some of the casks in which the flor has been maintained, they will mark it as a potential PALO CORTADO by drwing a horizontal line across the original salsh mark. The wine is then again fortified to above 17% by volume, thus redirecting the process of oxidative ageing. This wine ages for 25-30 years!
Production: