Anyone who has visited the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera (home of fino and amontillado) and the nearby town of Sanlucar de Barrameda (home of manzanilla) will have everlasting memories of their age-old bodegas. They are shrouded in centuries of bygone glory, before the disasters of the past 50 years as sales began a dramatic worldwide slump. By 2010, plantings – chiefly palomino – had fallen to one-third of their size at the end of the ’70s.
In 2005, a group of sherry aficionados was formed by Jesus Barquin, a wine writer and Professor of Criminology at the University of Granada, and Eduardo Ojeda, chief winemaker at one of the giants of the industry, Grupo Estevez. With a small circle of friends, they searched for small parcels of sherries in butts (barrels) held in small bodegas forgotten and/or without a commercial market. The key to the wines, called Equipo Navazos, is their greater than average age, and that they are to all intents and purposes just as they were when drawn from barrel. The kings and queens of the English wine press – Jancis Robinson MW, Andrew Jefford, Jamie Goode et al – have showered the wines with praise, and I’m not about to argue.
This phoenix arisen from the ashes is the rediscovery of fino and manzanilla sherries handled in the same way as they were a century ago. These wines are bottled with only a light filtration and improve with time in bottle – the opposite of “modern” wines, which are sterile-filtered and stripped of colour, and best consumed within six months of being bottled (manzanilla is particularly fragile in this regard).
Now we have complex wines that need a minimum of six months in bottle, the best with a lifespan measured in years, not months. More at bibendum.com.au
NV Equipo Navazos I Think Manzanilla En Rama Saca de Julion de 2019
Pale straw-green; a mown grass, hedgerow, nutty bouquet. The palate is vibrant, fresh and crunchy, with a classic dry finish, lingering long, with no phenolics, and a fresh breeze aftertaste.
375ml; 15% alc, screwcap 95 points, drink to 2023, $33
NV Equipo Navazos Navazos Fino En Rama Saca of February 2018
Pale bronze, golden hue; intriguing contrast of juicy flavours and the expected pungent, mouthwatering aldehydes; plus sparks of salt. A lovely fino, with that special freshness (en rama means from cask).
375ml; 15% alc, screwcap 97 points, drink to 2023, $32
NV Equipo Navazos Navazos PX Gran Solera Saca of July 2018
Mid-depth mahogany, the colour grading to olive on the rim. Its racy complexity offers rich Cadbury Old Gold chocolate, together with dried figs and spices. The finish is, of course, sweet, but it doesn’t cloy.
375ml; 16.5% alc, screwcap 95 points, drink to 2024, $63
