‘Albero’ Manzanilla en rama saca 3 2022

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Original label art by Leah Teschendorff.

Albero is the result of a single annual saca (the castellano verb sacar is to take out or withdraw) of unfiltered or en rama Manzanilla, from the solera system of barrels, or soleraje which generates Barbiana Manzanilla. Barbiana is an Andalucian market brand (typically not exported) owned by Delgado Zuleta, and hence the little sister of the renowned La Goya Manzanilla. La Goya has seven clases, or different age levels within its soleraje. Barbiana is a little younger and has four clases (if we were in Jerez, these would be called scales).

Each year, we go to Delgado Zuleta to taste and decide upon a single release to withdraw, bottle and ship as our own selection wine for the following year; sometimes the result will be a mezcla, sometimes it will be a bota seleccionada. Scott and Leah do this tasting together and then collaborate on the label, which is Scott’s hand-writing on Leah’s artwork.

Albero is local dialect (rather than amarillo) for the particular earthy yellow ochre of the town streets, also commonly painted on bodega walls, alternating with rich chalky whites. Between them they suggest the golden wheaty character of Palomino, the saltiness of the Atlantic and the white chalk of the Albariza soils in and around the coastal/estuarine village of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

In tasting to select Albero each year, we actively look to represent the Four Colours of Fino. Yellow and white for cereal, salt and chalk of course, per Leah’s label. But also burnished blues to signify the diatoms (maritime fossil material) in the chalks, which once were deep seabeds. And then Azahar, the smell of a citrus grove at night, the orangey scents which time and air imbue in the best Finos.

Among many other things in back of this wine, motivation-wise, Albero stands as Scott and Leah’s tribute to their favourite pueblo in España. If you have any idea how many great villages we’ve eaten and drink-drank-drunked in, you’d know the size of this call … Falset and Sajazarra have strong cases, but really, if we had to pick one place to call home? The Atlantic, Rio Guadalquivir, Flamenco, Chalk, Palomino, living life under a Clear Blue Andalusian Sky … and the best bar in the world, Casa Balbino.

Albero is bottled en rama, virtually un-filtered (it gets a tiny three micron polish). Both the sacar and bottling processes are done in accordance with moon phases, making sure the wine is awake, but not riotously so when being handled. En rama bottlings of Fino are fascinatingly different wines to the more common filtered variants. Basically, en rama wines represent the whole of the barrel, while filtered wines edit out all the information at the bottom of the barrel. Filtered Finos are ‘thinner’ and over-state the importance of the Velo de Flor – the live yeasts populating the surface of the barrel. TSA is crazy about the Cabezuelas – the collection of spent yeast in the bottom of the barrel. Keeping this in the mix adds body and gives us much more rich, savoury earthen character, fully expressing the chalk. AND, the spent yeast cells add an incredible, highly gastronomic flourish of bitters to the wine.

Albero Manzanilla en rama will develop positively over several years in the bottle, especially in lovely magnums! On the next page, we’ll detail the tasting/blending process behind the 2022 saca, which was bottled in December 2022. Expect a rich, golden, magnificently earthen wine, sapid-salty, ocean-blue-toned by bajamar (low tide pool smells) and brushed with orange bitters.

ALBERO Manzanilla en rama Saca 3/2022

Probado para mezclar Nov 8; sacado de botas Dec 8; embotellado Dec 16, 2022 This wine was tasted in order to put together a blend on Scott’s birthday, November 8, 2022. As it happened, this was the toughest wine tasting day, EVER! We decided on a final blend eight days later at near midnight on November 15. Just four weeks later it was in bottle, labelled and ready to ship to Australia. Albero 3 landed in Oz at the end of March 2023, and will go into the market after a suitable rest-rehab interval around June 2023.

So – The Tasting?!

Scott and Leah had post-international-jet head-and-chest colds, with ALL the phlegm. And, it was an apocalyptic root day (something called a double-node root day): a “stay in bed and drink gin, don’t attempt anything gastronomic” the hell-mouth is here kinda day. All well and good, but we had a dozen folk joining us later the same day for a week of in-Marco learning, and Tuesday AM was the only possibility to taste and decide on this year’s Albero. It ended up being one of the most challenging and – eventually – rewarding processes we’ve ever gone through!

Challenging, and not in a good way, but we did have one advantage. We already knew the barrels we were tasting. We simply started by re-tasting Bota 4/34, which we had selected three years prior to be a single barrel bottling. And then we re-tasted the four botas which we had blended as the very first Albero bottling. Three of these five end up in the mix, one fleshy and front-loaded, one fruitful and running, one with spice and grip. An hour in, we have a base blend. This time, we are working with both Manuel (the capataz) and the wine-maker, Jose Antonio. In castellano I tell Jose Antonio what I want and Manuel runs around with his caña (vanencia) making micro-blends to my whims. “Jose Antonio, I am not sure if it’s the root day or my palate, or if it’s actually the wine, but I feel we just need a bit more fruitiness here. Do you have a nice barrel a scale (clase) or so younger, that isn’t marked by flor, just a lovely bota of vinous palomino?” J-A directs Manuel to a specific cask and when it comes back to me it’s exactly what I had imagined and asked for. We now have a base blend of four barrels which will go on to be 80% of Albero Saca 3/2022. But, I’m not done yet …

“Jose Antonio, now I need bitterness. Do you have a barrel with a long, strong driving amargo structure. I need me some cabezuelas.”

“Señor, I believe your rule is that we are not allowed to use barrels from La Goya, only from Barbiana?”

“Jose Antonio, there are no rules!”

“Well there is a barrel in the La Goya XL reserve solera of 10+ years old Manzanilla that is exactly as you describe …”

“Please, let’s taste it!”

A couple of minutes later Manuel is back with a caña of LGXL and it’s magnificent. Shark-like bitter. We have a first blend to consider now, with a fifth part of this wonderful elixir. It’s stern, noble, magnificent bitter wine with a dose of abstract aldehydic chisel to boot. But it is also this doublenode root day apocalypse and our palates are kinda trash. It’s hard to commit when you just can’t be sure of yourself.

“Jose Antonio, I want to try another way, just in case this blend turns out to be too damned serious. Do you have an amargo bota, a bitter wine that’s less stern, still bitter but vertical rather than horizontal, and just a bit less demanding?”

“Si, Señor! One of the botas we use to bottle for you each year as magnums of La Goya en rama is as you describe.”

Manuel races off to bring back a sample. Lovely, delicately bitter, vertical, free. We make another blend. And now we have two wines to choose between – the linear, running bitters or the more delicately touched vertical bitter component. Which to choose? Which one is Albero?

I ask Jose Antonio and Manuel to make a meaningful quantity of each blend and say I’ll be back tomorrow to collect them and taste to decide which one is in fact going to be Albero. Wednesday leaks into Thursday and on to Friday and over repeat tastings of the two blends, we just can’t get the answer clear in our heads. Root days continue; head and chest colds fail to clear. I’m working 18 hour days translating castellano live in meetings with wine makers and our travelling school group of 13. Friday lunch time I make the call to Jose Fede, the GM of Delgado Zuleta.

“J-F, I am sorry but I just can’t make a decision on Albero this week, and the sample blends are getting tired. Can you ask the guys to make two fresh blends for me on Monday morning. I’ll be going to Sevilla that afternoon and will start over on the tasting process Monday arvo/Tuesday AM and will let you know what we are going to bottle.”

So, the group tour ends. Leah and I collect the new samples and drive up to Sevilla for some R+R. We taste on Tuesday, but are not clear on a preference between the blend marked with the strongly linear bitters versus the easier vertical bitter component. Now it’s Wednesday and we are meant to be in Cordoba, to eat the world’s best wet rice at Casa Pepe Sanchis. We just make our 3.30pm lunch booking. You eat rice. Then you need to walk. Then you need to nap. Holy fuck, it’s 10pm and we have samples of our wine options on their second day open, it really is now or never! Down to the hotel bar, order a big gin and some cheese and sliced meat, get some nice wine glasses, and pull out the samples. Taste them and write them up, yet again …

The light bulb moment. Why am I limiting myself to thinking this versus that? Wine 1 OR Wine 2. I like both bitter components. I love the 80% base that’s in common to both blends. What if I blend the bitters? There’s only 1/3 of each bottle left by now. I blend the blends, 75mls each of both, stir and pour for Leah and me. Something’s happening; this is going somewhere … now my palate can finally get intuitive and tell me what I want. I re-blend the blends, 2/3 of the linear, more strongly bitter wine and 1/3 of the more delicate and vertically bitter touch. Bingo. Things lock in. Tectonic plates shift. Inter-galactic explosions go off. The matrix is code-cracked. Shit gets clear. Wow! Hello, Albero 3.