Wine of the week: roller-coaster thrills from an invigorating sherry

This bone dry, palate-invigorating, sharply tangy sherry is one of the most incredible wines to be found on our shelves, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
By Matthew Jukes
published

794-la-gitana

La Gitana, En Rama, Bodegas Hidalgo, Manzanilla, Sanlcar de Barrameda, Spain (£14.95, reduced to £13.95 each when you buy by the case, Lea & Sandeman, 020-7244 0522, LeaAndSandeman.co.uk).

It's a parcel that I am very excited to open each year. It's not very big and it only weighs a few pounds, but when the dinky, preview, sample bottle of La Gitana's En Rama arrives I get a roller-coaster thrill.

Made from only the "free run" juice and only using natural yeasts for fermentation, this wine is the most honest and elemental of all styles of Manzanilla. The term "En Rama" means that this bone dry, palate-invigorating, sharply tangysherry is bottled without filtration or fining. It is literally from the barrel and therefore it is the untainted juice directly harvested from palomino grapes grown in the famous Albariza soils of the Balbaina and Miraflores districts of El Puerto de Santa Mara and Sanlcar de Barrameda respectively.

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La Gitana (£10, Waitrose) is one of the most incredible wines found on our shelves and there is a bottlestationed permanently in my fridge door, but the rare, seasonal En Rama version turns up almost exactly when this column is published and it tastes like you are standing in the Bodega and have simply plunged your arm into the barrel and pulled out an ice cold glass of electrifying Manzanilla.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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