Encrucijado 2015 White

This year, SWL is celebrating Sherry Week with a small anomaly:  a wine from the Sherry region inspired by historical styles yet lacking the DO seal and no longer available under its original name. It nonetheless helps illustrate the wave of change that swept through the area in the early 2010s, led by a new generation of producers championing a much-needed return to terroir.

Willy Pérez and Ramiro Ibáñez have undoubtedly been the most influential figures, thanks to their joint project, De La Riva, as well as their individual work in two key locations of the Sherry Triangle: Jerez de la Frontera for Pérez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda for Ibáñez. Their in-depth  historical research into the qualitative foundations of Sherry has often resulted in wines that lie outside the official regulations.

This new generation of producers has championed static ageing and vintage wines, avoided fortification and explored individual pagos (vineyard sites) and their associated styles, including terroir-driven whites. Many of their ideas have been reflected in recent amendments approved by Jerez's Regulatory Board, notably the end of compulsory fortification and the forthcoming designation of origin for white wines made from albariza soils.

Although modernity in the Sherry Triangle is typically associated with unfortified albariza whites and the judicious use of biological ageing to preserve terroir expression, producers like Ramiro Ibáñez have also offered a fresh perspective on oxidative ageing.

What did a 19th-century Palo Cortado taste like? Encrucijado was created in the 2012 vintage to answer this question. "Cortado is typically a wine from Jerez de la Frontera," explains Ibáñez. "There, in the mid-19th century, a winery could have 5% of wines under flor and 95% ageing oxidatively." Wines were then classsified as palmas (intended for biological ageing), cortados (for oxidative ageing), and rayas —a catch-all category that included second pressings, wines with residual sugar or volatile acids, and unsuccessful palmas and cortados. "A winery might have 20% palmas, 20% cortados and 60% rayas," notes Ibáñez. The best palmas and cortados would age in casks, earning the title of two, three or four palmas/cortados, depending on how long they rested in oak, with four meaning over 35-40 years. The best casks, on the other hand, were aged statically.

With Encrucijado, Ibáñez set out to produce a cortado with the potential to become four cortados, while avoiding the traditional cask-ageing times. Another key element was the recovery of late ripening varieties used in the 19th century for oxidative wines, such as Perruno and Uva Rey, which were neglected after the phylloxera outbreak. The wine underwent spontaneous fermentation in casks and was aged for 10 months under flor and a further 10 months oxidatively. It was bottled at the point when a 19th-century cellar master would have classified the wine as cortado rather than raya, hence the name Encrucijado (crossroads). It is an unfortified wine that was aged statically and the grapes were briefly sun-dried.

The 2015 vintage was special for several reasons. Being a warm year, the wine reached 15% abv naturally. It was also the last vintage to be released under its original name. Due to trademark issues, it has been sold as Agostado since 2016. Agostado wines are now made exclusively from Perruno and Uva Rey grapes, whereas the 2015 blend still contained 10% Palomino grapes. The current retail price is around €52.

This is a wine to savour slowly and in quiet contemplation. Far from having reached its full potential in bottle, it displays a particular austerity, with nutty (hazelnut) and spicy notes over a background of dried apricot and toasted aromas. It is comforting and textured with a touch of density, good acidity and chalky-saline notes that linger into a very long finish. Deeper rather than concentrated and less structured than a 21st century dry oloroso, it is highly versatile at the table, especially with autumn dishes. It can simply be enjoyed on its own or used to travel, with Ibáñez as your guide, back to a fascinating moment in Jerez’s history.

Only 1,800 bottles were produced.