Valdespino

The history of Valdespino, at least as participants in the wine business in Jerez, goes back to the 1430. It's a lineage that goes back a good bit further than that of any other bodega in sherry country. Valdespino's history as a sherry producing bodega, however, can be traced back to 1875. Since 1999, Valdespino has been owned by Grupo Estevez, a large company with other interests in Jerez (primarily Real Tesoro) as well as a business breeding Andalusian horses. With over 25,000 barrels, a few large bodegas to age their various sherries, and a huge bottling facility, Grupo Estevez is a medium large producer by Jerez standards (which makes them very large by any other measure). That having been said, Valdespino is still amongst the best houses in sherry, definitely the crown jewel among the products in the Grupo Estevez portfolio. If you follow Equipo Navazos' bottlings, you will recognize Valdespino from their fino, amontillado and palo cortado editions.

A few factors help to define Valdespino's sherries and make them amongst the best around:

1.) Valdespino owns a 56 hectare vineyard in Marcharnudo Alto, regarded as the best district for growing palomino grapes in Jerez.
2.) All estate fruit is used, fermentation occurs on-site next to the bodegas where soleras are held (both of these situations are rare in Jerez; even the boutique bodegas generally buy wine from growers)
3.) Fermentation occurs in old wood 600 liter botas - everywhere else fermentation is in stainless steel tanks. I'd be curious to see exactly how this affects the flavor profile, but until the winery does an experimental solera of fino inocente from inox fermented wine (which to my knowledge they have no plans to do) I guess I will never know.
4.) LONG AGEING. Even their fino (Inocente) has ten criaderas, whereas most commercial finos only employ four. Fino Inocente is an older, richer, but yet still mineral and very fresh fino. This of course forms the base of their amontillados and palo cortados, also tops.

Though I was familiar with the Fino Inocente (my favorite fino) as well as the solera 1842 (a lightly sweetened VOS oloroso with terrific, rancio, walnut character), I had yet to try Tio Diego Amontillado, which I tasted at the winery. For an amontillado, it is still very fresh, not too heavily marked by wood, and very reminiscent of the Inocente. In fact, you might even refer to it as a fino amontillado given the lighter color and strong fino character of the wine. It averages 14 years old, 7-8 years of which it spends as a fino, so the "fino amontillado" description seems to make sense.

Unfortunately, there was no time to linger over palo cortado and dry oloroso this time. Maybe on another visit....






Next up: Gonzalez Byass is pronounced "BEE-yahs" and makes more than Tío Pepe.

Good fino, Great fino

I have been enjoying two tasty bottles of fino over the past week. One is marketed by a very well known (arguably the best known in the US), large shipper of sherries and the other is from a small, but significant producer with some prized real estate in one of the region's best vineyards.

Lustau Almacenista Fino del Puerto Obregon

Lustau started out as a family owned bodega in the late 1800's. They then became a reliable blender of sherry, or almacenista (a sherry blender, who historically was not allowed to commercially bottle their own soleras; in sherry country you are either a shipper - no matter how small, or an almacenista selling to shippers). In 1990 Lustau was bought and became a shipper. The company established the idea of marketing special bottles of some of their favorite almacenistas' best soleras. This is one such bottle, from José Luis Gonzales' fino solera of 143 barrels. It has an 18K golden hue, which leads to some classic aromas and flavors of salt, browning apples, and walnuts. This bottle is no slouch, a deal at $20.

Valdespino "Ynocente" Fino Macharnudo

From both a sourcing and production standpoint, this sherry is very unique. The grapes hail solely from the Macharnudo vineyard, which is viewed to be amongst the best for palomino grapes in Jerez. The fermentation, typically carried out in the region in 50,000 liter stainless steel tanks these days, takes place in used American oak barrels of 500 liter capacity. Then the wine is aged seven years prior to being bottled. The color here is significantly paler than the Lustau. Its aromas are very fine, there is a purity to the fruit and less of a flor dominated quality. Flor, of course, is that cottony layer of yeast growth growth which simultaneously prevents fino from oxidizing while lending a nutty character. Perhaps theirs is a thinner layer than usual, which allows the fruit to stand out more? Having recently reviewed the Jura issue of The Art of Eating, I do recall a producer saying that his layer of flor is the thickness of a playing card, whereas in Jerez it can be up to 1 centimeter thick. Flor aside, this bottling, from sometime in 2008, is great. If you have had the Equipo Navazos No.15, then this is the same bodega which provides them with some "botas" (butts, or barrels) of fino sherry from the very same vineyard. Off the strength of this particular bottle, I think I may prefer Valdespino Valdespino to Equipo Navazos Valdespino. I'll let you decide that one for yourselves, however I would encourage you to find a half bottle of this wine, which at roughly $18 is very much worth the tariff.

Given the quality of the Macharnudo vineyard, as well as the recent excitement created by labels such as Equipo Navazos and some boutique bodegas, one cannot help but wonder if the sherry triangle will start moving in the direction that Burgundy, and more recently Champagne, has. That is to say, a greater choice of estate bottled wines, from specific vineyards, produced by dedicated farmers and artisans. This question may be built upon a false presumption or poor understanding of the reality on the ground in Jerez/Sanlucar/El Puerto de Santa María, but nonetheless I'm going to risk looking misinformed and pose it to anyone with any background, perspective, or opinion on the matter.