Nº1 - WINTER VIP 2020

1) FINO - González Byass, Tío Pepe Fino Dos Palmas (Saca 2018)

An iconic wine drawn from only 2 botas of sherry in the Tío Pepe En Rama Solera. 8 years of age!

2) MANZANILLA - De La Riva, Manzanilla Pasada

De la Riva is a renowned historic Jerez brand that was rescued by young winemakers Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez in 2017.

This wine is from a Jerez pago, handled in Sanlúcar. The fruit is from 'La Blanquita' vineyard within Balbaina Alta, 9km in from the sea at about 65km and the most coastal vineyard of the Jerez zone. The wine has an average age of about 10 years (twenty botas were left without withdrawl and freshening for 6 years). Only 2,000 bottles of Pasada will be drawn, before this solera is allowed to naturally on-mature until it is Amontillado.

3) AMONTILLADO - Alexander Jules, Amontillado

Alexander Jules sherries are barrel selected bottlings by Alex Russan. Alex searches the Sherry Triangle for exceptional soleras of unique composition or circumstance, tasting each barrel in the solera, marking with chalk those he feels to be the most complex and elegant, or those that reflect the profile he would like to bring out from within that solera. All bottlings are en rama, being only gently filtered or entirely unfiltered, with no other treatments or additions.

A continuation of the solera utilized for the Alexander Jules Manzanilla 8/41—thus the same wine, but with an additional 9 years of oxidative aging. What historically would have been called an Amontillado Fino (a young Amontillado), it has one foot in its Manzanilla upbringing, the other in early oxidative character. This is the most food friendly style of sherry. Spontaneous fermentation and flor. Bottled "en rama" with a gentle 0.65 filtration to preclude flor development in bottle. No SO2, fining or cold stabilization.

4) OLOROSO - Callejuela, El Cerro

El Cerro is the Oloroso in a series of four wines that was released by the small bodega Callejuela in 2015. The Blanco brothers started making wine in 1980 and they are bottling it under their name since 2015.

El Cerro is said to be just over 20 years of age

The grapes are from the owners’ own vineyards, and the winemaking is assisted by Ramiro Ibáñez. Bottled en rama or unfiltered.

5) PALO CORTADO - Rey Fernando de Castilla "Antique 20yr"

6) VERMOUTH - Barbadillo, Atamán Vermut

In a 200-year-old company with sixteen bodegas, sometimes suprising things get found. In this case, Barbadillo discovered old tonic wines of indeterminate age and recipe, and called on winemaker Montserrat Molina to develop a new vermouth recipe to approximate the flavor profiles of what they had found. The result, Atamán, is a potently delicious sipping vermouth built on Manzanilla sherry with quassia, bitter orange, wormwood, elderberry and rosemary dominating the botanical roster.