Wine Style: Amontillado

Hidalgo-La Gitana was founded in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1792 by Don Pantaleón José Hidalgo, who took over the management of a small winery belonging to his father-in-law, Roque Bejarano. The company remains under the control of the founding family, whose eighth generation currently manages the business.

The historic cellars stand in Sanlúcar’s Barrio Bajo, close to the Guadalquivir estuary. The producer currently cultivates more than 120 hectares of Palomino in the pagos of Balbaína and Miraflores; its principal vineyard properties include El Cuadrado and Pastrana.

Manzanilla La Gitana is the flagship wine and one of the most widely distributed Manzanillas, undergoing biological ageing in Sanlúcar and reaching an average age of approximately five years. La Gitana En Rama is released in limited selections intended to preserve a closer expression of the wine as tasted from the cask.

The producer dates the origins of the Pastrana project to 1985, when Javier Hidalgo and Portuguese wine producer Cristiano van Zeller set out to create a Manzanilla based entirely on a single vineyard. Finca Pastrana covers approximately fourteen hectares in the Miraflores pago. Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana was first commercially released in 1997 and undergoes more than twelve years of biological ageing before bottling. Pastrana was one of the pioneering modern expressions of vineyard-designated Manzanilla; earlier historical precedents, however, cannot be excluded.

The current VORS range comprises Napoleón Amontillado VORS, Faraón Oloroso VORS, Wellington Palo Cortado VORS and Triana Pedro Ximénez VORS, each with a certified minimum average age of thirty years. The company also markets Wellington VOS 20, a separate Palo Cortado with a certified minimum average age of twenty years. The Napoleón and Wellington names are traditionally linked by the producer to wines supplied to French and British interests during the Peninsular War — an association that forms part of the family and commercial tradition of the house.

Barbadillo was founded in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1821 by Benigno Barbadillo y Hortigüela, who returned to Spain after developing a successful commercial career in Mexico. Together with his cousin Manuel López Barbadillo, he acquired the El Toro winery and established the foundations of a family business that has remained closely connected with Sanlúcar for more than two centuries. The company is currently chaired by Manuel Barbadillo Eyzaguirre, a member of the seventh generation of the founding family.

Barbadillo is one of Spain’s largest and oldest family-controlled wine businesses and one of the leading producers of Manzanilla. Its ageing operations are distributed among sixteen cellars in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, whose different locations and orientations enable the company to work with the variations in humidity, ventilation and temperature that influence biological ageing under flor.

Barbadillo occupies a fundamental place in the commercial history of Manzanilla. According to the company’s archives, in 1827 it shipped its first casks of Manzanilla to Philadelphia. Shortly afterwards, it marketed Pastora, which the producer describes as the first commercially bottled Manzanilla. The company also claims to have been the first producer to employ the word «Manzanilla» as the name of this style of wine.

Manzanilla Solear remains the centre of the portfolio and reaches an average age of approximately six years. Manzanilla Pasada Pastora and Solear En Rama undergo longer ageing, developing greater concentration and a more mature expression of biological development. In spring 1999, Barbadillo launched the first seasonal bottling of Solear En Rama. Four sacas are now released annually, corresponding to the four seasons and reflecting the changing condition of the flor throughout the year. This initiative played a decisive role in establishing the modern commercial category of seasonally bottled, minimally filtered Manzanilla.

The current VORS collection comprises Príncipe Amontillado VORS, Obispo Gascón Palo Cortado VORS and Cuco Oloroso VORS, each carrying official certification guaranteeing a minimum average age of thirty years. These wines should be distinguished from the Reliquia collection, drawn from some of the oldest and most limited stocks preserved by the family. The series comprises Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez; releases are extremely small and vary according to the condition and availability of each solera. Reliquia Palo Cortado was the first dry Sherry to receive one hundred points from The Wine Advocate and remains one of the most highly regarded wines in Barbadillo’s history.