Wine of the week — Spanish Wine Collective

Bill Bolloten starts Sherry Week 2024 with an iconic Manzanilla that might evoke some beauty and hope in a Spain reeling from devastating floods

Solear Manzanilla Pasada en Rama: Saca de Primavera 2023 (Bodegas Barbadillo)

DO Manzanilla - Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Variety: Palomino Fino

ABV: 15%

€15.00 from Barbadillo (37.5 cl, Saca de Otoño 2024)

€14.22 Vila Viniteca (37.5 cl, Saca de Invierno 2023)

There has only been grim news from Spain for the last week. At the time of writing, the floods in the Valencia region have killed at least 214 people, and emergency services are still searching shopping centres, garages and underground car parks for missing people.

As Sherry Week 2024 begins, there are few positive things to write about, and our thoughts are with the bereaved families and people who have lost everything. Yet life goes on, and the wine community in Spain, like so many others, has pulled together to show solidarity and offer practical help. And in place of despair, the beauty of the natural world and all that it provides, including wine, will remain a solace and a comfort.

The rainfall we have had in recent weeks in Andalusia might just offer some better news for the species of waterfowl featured on the label of this iconic Manzanilla from Bodegas Barbadillo.

The ánsar, or common graylag, is the largest European goose. In winter it usually migrates from northern Europe for the more temperate climate of the Doñana wetlands that border the town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. In recent years their numbers have dropped to an alarmingly low level due to years of drought and the overexploitation of water. Doñana has been at risk of losing the annual pageant of tens of thousands of geese flying over and landing to raise their chicks.

Last winter the population of ánsar arriving in Doñana was 60% less than in 2023, and 80% less than in 2021. Of the 40,000 to 50,000 specimens of ánsar that usually spend the winter in Doñana, researchers counted just 4,216 this year.

Although the recent rainfall will not fully compensate for the impact of drought, it has partially filled some of Doñana's aquifers and wetlands .

*Laguna de Santa Olalla, Coto de Doñana*

I welcomed these fragments of positive news, of hope, as I opened this saca estacional, a seasonal extraction from one of Barbadillo’s soleras. A limited edition (2000 – 2500 half bottles) of the Solear Pasada en Rama is launched at the beginning of each season: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Each bottling is subtly different because of the effects of weather, humidity and the evolving microclimate of the bodega. And for each new saca Barbadillo commissions an original watercolour illustration of a different bird or animal species from the Coto de Doñana to decorate the label. The ánsar was painted by the sanluqueña artist María Ángeles Arias.

*El ánsar, watercolour by M. Angeles Aria*

With an average age of between eight and nine years of biological ageing, it’s bottled without any filtering. The spring 2023 bottling I uncorked had an additional 20 months of bottle ageing.

Deep gold in colour, it offered up intense aromas of yeast, almonds, hay and iodine-rich sea spray. The palate is full and concentrated. Saline zing and zest are there, but it’s also broad and generous. The finish is long and very dry. Really exceptional, and one of the best Manzanillas I have tasted.

The Spanish Wine Collective send our thoughts to all the communities affected by the flooding, and our solidarity to everyone assisting with relief efforts.

Readers can help by donating to Caritas, World Central Kitchen and the Spanish Red Cross.