The new wines from the Marco de Jerez: Sherry and Manzanilla reinvented, by going back to the past
In 2008 Niepoort collaborated with Equipo Navazos to make a special wine: an unfortified flor-aged table wine. This was to kick start an explosion of interest in the wines from these special terroirs made without fortification. Some years later, Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Pérez began going back to the future: finos and manzanillas made as they would have been before big sherry took over – wines of terroir without the need for fortification. At this tasting organized by Simplesmente Vinho and Luis Gutierrez we were joined by Ramiro Ibáñez, Raúl Moreno, and Willy Pérez as we looked at ten new wave wines from the Marco de Jerez.
Each year, in February, a remarkable wine festival is held in Porto, Portugal. It’s called Simplesmente Vinho, and brings together winegrowers seeking to make interesting, usually low-intervention wines from Portugal, and sometimes also a few guests from elsewhere. This year the guest theme was the unfortified wines from the Marco de Jerez in the south of Spain, and a pre-festival celebration was held in the Niepoort cellars.
This is an appropriate place to hold an event like this, because back in 2008, ahead of the curve, Dirk Niepoort began a collaboration with Equipo Navazos, a micronegociant in the region who have really helped establish the fine wine dimension of Sherry and Manzanilla, called Navazos Niepoort. This project used unfortified biologically aged Palomino to express the terroirs of this remarkable place.
‘When I started with Navazos it sounded crazy and wrong,’ says Dirk, ‘but it was similar to when I started making table wine in the Douro: now it is almost as big as Port.’ He adds, ‘I have nothing against fortified wines: it is just respecting a terroir that is amazing at making something in a special area that is unfortified. In Sherry the combination of albarizo and flor is magic.’
We then tasted through a range of wines, most of which were fermented in traditional sherry barrels and then aged under flor, but the only common thing to all is that they weren’t fortified. Most are Palomino but before phylloxera there was a lot more varietal diversity in the Marco de Jerez. In the past, says Ramiro Ibanez, there were different wines in each town. There were 35 white varieties and 43 red ones.
Flor is so interesting. When it comes to encouraging its growth, dry extract in the wine and high acidity are both stressful for its growth. But if you have 15% alcohol and low phenolics, the flor grows like crazy. The most important variable is the vintage. But, in general, if you have a more dilute wine, you have more flor. If you have soft soils and higher yields, you get more flor. If you have higher humidity, then there’s more flor. [Harder albariza results in more stressed fermentations and thinner flor.]
Ramiro Ibáñez, one of the growers present, explained that Sherry has had a series of crises, particularly those in 1717, 1817 and 1970 (the collapse of big Sherry). He says that each time, a group of clever people design new products that get them out of the crisis, and the new wave of still white wines is important for the region. ‘Brandy was used to get us out of a previous crisis,’ he says. ‘Now, more people are coming to the region and making wine.’
Willy Pérez is another of the leaders in the current table wine movement in Sherry. He was born in 1981, which was a great sales year for Sherry, but after this, he says, it all went downhill. He started making unfortified wines in 2002, but was looking to make wines in Sherry from international grape varieties. Things changed when he travelled. ‘When you leave your home,’ says Willy, ‘you discover who you are.’ He travelled to Australia, and there he started making wine, and while he was there he discovered the writings of James Busby, who was an important figure in establishing wine in the colony. Willy red Busby, who had undertaken a tour of Europes wine regions, including Sherry country. This prompted Willy to do some more reading, and he began to realize that Sherry in the past was a very different wine to how it is today. Now he’s making wines without fortification the way they would have been made in the past. He describes what Dirk did with Navazas as ‘very important for us as a new generation.’
‘Sherry is one of the best wines in the world,’ says Dirk. ‘One of the best apertifs. Palomino is the best translator from the soil in a hot climate, and with the flor it potentiates the expression of the soil. This is what drove me.’
He adds, ‘Sherry was destroyed by mass production 50 years ago. It’s a bit like Kabinett in Germany; it is not taken seriously. Kabinett is one of the best wines in the world. So is Manzanilla and Fino.’
‘If you have the right terroir and pick at the right time you can make something that is a sexy mother****er that you want to drink. Sherry used to be the thing: let’s get it back to there.’
So how did Navazos Niepoort come about? Dirk spoke to Jesus Barquin and said he’d like to make and unfortified wine in Sherry casks with flor, and bottle it as a wine. The result made quite a splash. ‘This is the wine that sparked this movement,’ says wine critic Luis Guitierrez.
Bodega Primitivo Collantes Tivo 2019 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
A few years ago Primitivo Collantes partnered with Ramiro Ibañez to recover the thick-skinned Uva Rey grape variety, which was almost lost. It has high pH (3.8-3.9) but despite the lack of acidity, the flavours are good. From 75 old vines they planted 6 hectares, and the result is this wine. This was aged under flor in Sherry barrels for 6 months, then another six months in tank without flor. This is the first 100% Uva Rey wine for a long time! It shows complex citrus and flor notes with some fine spicy detail and a saline twist, and there’s even a hint of oiliness. There’s lovely depth here with a mineral streak. Precise and bright, but with depth. 95/100
Reta TA/MIRA Miraflores 2023 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
This is a wine made by Chilean winemaker Marcelo Retamal, and his daughter designed the label. It’s from a 1.76 hectare plot at the highest point of Miraflores. It’s 100% Palomino (massale selection), fermented half in Sherry barrels and half in barriques. Lively and mineral with some nice brightness. Vivid with a bit of flor character, but not too much. Salty, bright, precise and linear with good acidity. 93/100
UBE Miraflores Alta 2023 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
Miraflores is a famous vineyard known for Manzanilla, with a pago close to the river and one close to the ocean, making different styles of wine. This is the upper side of Miraflores where the albariza is known as Tosca (in 1771 they classified albariza into seven different types: the texture of albariza is important and the coastal is softer and the inland is harder). Linear, salty and vivid with real precision, purity and focus. Salty and mineral, and really refined. 95/100
Raúl Moreno Destellos 2023 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
This is the only wine Raúl makes without flor. He’s lived most of his life in Australia and studied there. It’s 80% Palomino and 20% Arinto (this was mass selection that he grafted onto 50 year old Palomino) in Miraflores Alta. Fermented on solids then aged in chestnut. The Palomino was pH 3.8, the Arinto pH 2.9, overall pH 3.3. Full malo and just 30 ppm total SO2. Powerful, nutty and bold with lovely depth to the pear and peach fruit with some nuts and spice, and good acidity with a hint of aniseed. Complex, with a nice chalky edge to the palate, and some good reduction. 94/100
Bodegas Luis Perez La Escribana 2023 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
This is from Marchanudo. 15% is fermented in sherry casks with flor. Complex and layered with orange peel and spice. It has minerals but it also has ripe fruit. Bold and layered with power and intensity, and a hint of tar. This has lovely balance, showing depth and precision. 95/100
M. Ant. de la Riva San Cayetano Macharnudo 2023 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
This is made in topped sherry casks, 15% of which have flor. Saline and detailed with lovely pure fruit (pear and white peach). Good balance and a supple mid-palate. Very fine and expressive with nice precision and purity, as well as a subtle chalkiness. Some delicacy here. 94/100
Navazos Niepoort 2018 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain (magnum)
‘This is the wine that started it all,’ says Luis Guitierrez, the famed wine critic. ‘It was not the first unfortified wine in the region, though,’ he adds. Barbadillo had been making an inexpensive one. Such a lovely flor influence here: salty and intense with focused citrus fruit, high acidity and a bit of grip. Very fine, with lots of intensity. Ageing really well. 96/100
Forlong Stardust 2022 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
Organic. Made in two bota (Fino barrels) that were kept topped up, with no flor, just the influence of the cask. Supple, fresh and a bit salty with nice complexity and precision. Saline and multidimensional. 94/100
Bodega El Piraña La Rosa 2023 Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Spain
This is the last vineyard in the province of Cadiz, where the albariza is less pure and there is more organic matter. The grapes are naturally riper here. Farming Is organic. Tangy, bright and stony. Linear with high acidity (there is some correction). Some wet stone character. 92/100
Breaking the theme a bit, we tried a new Manzanilla from Niepoort, made in collaboration with Barbadillo.
Niepoort x Barbadillo Manzanilla Solera NV Spain
This is the first step in making Manzanilla the way it should be, says Dirk. Complex, layered, fresh and salty, with green apples and lemons, and a stony mineral edge. Such precision and focus with a Sake-like edge to it. 95/100
