Was extremely fortunate last weekend to be able to visit the great pagos of Jerez and Sanlucar in the company of one of the most important innovators in the region today: Ramiro Ibañez.
We started in Corregidor in Carrascal (Jerez) where Willy Perez is making some exciting wines and made our way across the Jerez pagos – Carrascal, Macharnudo, Tizón, Añina and Balbaina – then on to the pagos in Sanlucar – the much missed Martin Miguel, Mahina, Miraflores and Carrascal (where Ramiro is making most of his). We visited some celebrated vineyards along the way and, more importantly, we were able to see the lie of the land, and feel the differences in conditions. Although it was a beautiful sunny day, there were noticeable differences in breeze, temperature and humidity, and the differences in terrain were even more evident – colour, shape, slope, orientation, you name it.
The day got even better as we visited Cota 45, had a close look at the different types of albariza and tasted the wines from each different soil type. And that was when it all started to make sense.
Anyway, here is my first post on what was a fantastic day (there will be more to come as my thoughts take shape).
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your regular posts on sherry. I’m a sherry lover and was fortunate enough to spend a week in Jerez and Sanlucar on holiday last year. The information you provide is great and I enjoy reading your blog and posts here.
Keep it up!
Cheers guys! There will be plenty more to come. Saturday was one of those days that are pivotal in a life of trying to understand wine and I feel on the verge of a great understanding.
Probably wrong.
Cheers!
Thank you Andrew. Interesting as always, and hopefully a sign of more things to come from Sherryland.
Any online source for vineyard maps?
Andrew very timely we are currently visiting my daughter who is spending the semester in Sevilla. It is getting crazy here for the Santa Semana and we will head to Jerez this weekend. Do these wineries do walk in tastings, and if so, can you suggest 1 or two to represent?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi guys.
Yep there are some maps around of the pagos of Jerez, not so much for Sanlucar
The best is this masterpiece: Plano parcelario del término de Jerez de la Frontera, por D. Adolfo López Cepero. Año de 1904. (*Obra derivada)
But this one - not quite as good - can be printed: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/7af6764386243bbda1f1b9a94/files/PLANO_DE_PAGOS_JEREZ_Y_EL_PTO_STA_MARIA.pdf
For Sanlucar, much more difficult - in fact the guys are going to send me the maps we used and I will try and make them available.
Hi Mike,
In Jerez you should certainly visit Bodegas Tradicion - and I think that is something that is relatively easy to arrange, but to be quite honest I have only ever visited places where I knew people - Emilio Hidalgo (who as far as I know are not set up for visits) and Cota 45 this weekend (which took months to organize). If it is possible to go to Emilio Hidalgo I would do it, and other bodegas that must be worth visiting are Fernando de Castilla and Valdespino. I am unfortunately travelling at the moment so can’t help much - I bet you could get good information from sherry.wine or from sherrynotes.
Sorry!
Visits to Bodegas Tradicion and Fernando de Castilla are excellent. The only thing I find at the former is that because the wines being sampled are regularly refilled from the solera, they are painful to drink! I prefer to open their wines at least a week in advance and drink them over the next 2-3 weeks and they are so much more expressive. They would obviously last much longer than that, but they are consumed well before!
Thanks a lot. Actually, maybe it is a good idea to enter the vineyards directly into http://weinlagen-info.de/ . Then you and everyone else have them online and even mobile.