About this WINE
Bodegas Emilio Lustau
Emilio Lustau was established in 1896 and was initially a small family concern until the founder`s son-in-law placed it on a business footing.
The firm is perhaps best known as pioneering the Almacenista system, whereby individual dry sherries are produced from small private holdings. These are bottled under Lustau`s name but with the individual bodega's name on the label as well. Today they are amongst the most sought-out Sherries in the region.
The firm also produces superb wines from its recently acquired 170 hectare Montenegrillo vineyard.
Palomino Fino
Palomino, named after Fernan Yanez Palomonio, one of King Alfonso X`s knights, is the primary grape variety for Sherry styles (Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado) production.
It is a high yielding variety that is widely planted in Spain producing mostly insipid thin, dull wines lacking in fruit and acidity. However it thrives on the predominantly chalk based soils of Cadiz where it produces large bunches of golden yellow grapes, which ripen in early September. The resulting must is transparent in colour and somewhat neutral in flavour, but the subsequent wine can develop a coating of flor before maturing in the solera system and produce a whole range of intense and aromatic sherries.
It is also grown in South Africa, California, and Australia where it is fortified to make sherry-style wines.
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Description
As one recently returned from Jerez, a trip which included a visit to Lustau, I feel imbued with a sense of loyalty and gratitude both for the wines of the region and to Lustau who are arguably the flagship producer of these scholarly palomino-based wines.
The bodega itself overwhelms the senses of sight and smell with rows of barrels slowly turning from inky-black to seaweed-green, as the natural yeasts present in the atmosphere settle on the black paint and form a thin layer of mould. This in tandem with the heady notes of freshly baked bread and autolysis which waft out into the street through the purposefully positioned hatches in the external walls, set the scene for a vinous odyssey of real interest and merit.
The decision by Lustau to release an ‘En Rama’ (bottled without undergoing filtration, to the uninitiated) range of wines, encompassing an example from each of the towns making up the ‘sherry triangle’ is indeed the first such release in history.
The Puerto de Santa Maria has arguably the greatest complexity of the three, there are strong mineral nuances, marzipan and of course a saline quality which ‘cuts to the quick’ to coin a popular phrase. A purist’s wine to be sure but anyone with an inquisitive nature should be reaching for a bottle
Nicholas Stewart, Wine Buying
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