Agrícola Calcárea is Juan Jurado's small project in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Born into a family of olive growers in Dos Hermanas (Seville), Jurado began his professional journey in hospitality in the United Kingdom. There, in addition to learning English, he developed an interest in sommelierie. Later, he moved to Australia, where he combined front-of-house service in several restaurants with work at various wineries. The Covid pandemic brought him back to Andalusia after 12 years abroad. Following a stint with Raúl Moreno and harvests in Chile and northern Italy, Jurado decided in 2021 to become a winegrower, investing his savings in a 1.2-hectare vineyard in Pago Miraflores.
Planted in 1950 with Listán and other traditional grape varieties that Jurado aims to revive, the vineyard was well cared for by its former owner, a Sanlúcar winegrower who sold grapes to the cooperative and still offers Jurado advice. Jurado farms the vineyard with the help of a mule and a small tractor, replacing any faults in the vines with massal selections from the old Listán clone. He practices organic farming and incorporates some biodynamic preparations, though he is not certified and doesn't plan to pursue certification until his project is more firmly established.
Jurado produces six wines, which he primarily sells in Spain, with some export sales. All of his wines undergo skin fermentation to varying degrees, though the influence of a veil of flor veil is minimal. "It’s a great winemaking tool in this region, but you have to know how to use it, and I’m still learning," he explains. "Too much flor can dominate the wine, and I want the vineyard and soil to shine through in the glass."
Porfía Blanco (800 bottles, €17) is Juan’s flagship wine, and he expects to increase production in future vintages. It is fermented in various vats and aged for around eight months. This wine is the best representative of the work he is doing to revive local minority grape varieties. In 2022, his first vintage, he carried out eight individual microvinifications of Beba, Mantúo de Pilas, Doradilla, Cañocazo, Mantúa Castellana, Indiana, Jaén Blanco, and Vigiriega. However, the 2023 vintage has been reduced to six varieties.
He sources the grapes from friends, neighbours, and his own vineyard in Miraflores, where he has also grafted some rows with his favorite varieties: Vigiriega, Jaén Blanco, and Indiana. According to Juan, these three varieties combined are excellent transmitters of the soil’s character, offering good acidity, texture, and finesse.
Sin Bulla (1,300 bottles, €19) is his main white wine. For the first vintage, he used Palomino grapes from Miraflores, Mahina, and Campix to discover which vineyard sites he preferred. The winemaking process, according to Juan, was somewhat improvised. "After treading the grapes, we went for lunch. We had a couple of bottles of wine and, of course, had to take a nap. By the time we returned to the winery to press the wine, five hours had passed, which explains the long maceration time. Now we follow this process religiously," says Juan. He ferments the wine in an old manzanilla cask, where it develops a light veil of flor and is aged for nine months. The 2023 vintage is made exclusively from Listán grapes from his Miraflores vineyard.
Due to their high acidity, Cañocazo and Indiana are the main varieties used in Porfía Ancestral (300 botellas que prevé ampliar a 700, 19 €). Juan harvests these grapes early and blends them with smaller percentages of Listán and other later-ripening varieties. Once fermentation is complete, he reserves a portion in a demijohn without flor, which he later uses for refilling after disgorging.
Inspired by his experience with Moscatel in Chile, Juan produces Arrinconado (800 bottles, €19) with grapes he purchases in Chipiona. He harvests them early to preserve their natural acidity and ferments them with half their skins in a century-old amphora from Extremadura for nearly a month, then ages the wine in the same vessel for six months. According to Jurado, this wine becomes more expressive with time in the bottle.
El Descontrol is an unusual blend of Moscatel and Tintilla, born from a spontaneous decision made at three o'clock in the morning after a long harvest. Both varieties were fermented separately with their skins for 10 days in old amphorae. Juan jokes that this wine came to life because the Moscatel press was only half full, so he added Tintilla to fill it for pressing. When he tasted the wine the following month, he found nothing wrong with it, so he let it age in a stainless steel tank for six months. Eventually, his importer in Taiwan, who was looking for a rosé, tasted it and bought the entire production. In 2023, he only made 300 liters but hopes to repeat the style in future vintages.
Porfía Tinto (400 bottles, €22) is made from Tintilla de Rota, sourced from Pago Carrascal. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are carried out in stainless steel, and the wine is aged in seasoned 500-litre barrels with a touch of flor. Aromatically, it has hints of Barbera, but it’s a wine with strength and tannic structure. Juan believes Tintilla has great potential: "I don't think the best Tintilla from the region has been made yet, nor the best Moscatel, and there's still a lot of research to be done on the whites," he admits.
Being such a young bodega, new developments are on the horizon. After three years working in temporary premises provided by Armando Guerra and his father in Barrio Bajo, Juan hopes to relocate to a larger, more functional winery on the outskirts of Sanlúcar. He also aims to give his brand a clearer identity by unifying the label designs, following the style of Porfía Blanco, created by Sanlúcar artist Laura Millán, who won a Goya for her art direction in the film La Sociedad de la Nieve (The Snow Society).
Although Agrícola Calcárea is not part of any DO, it shares common concerns with other regional winegrowers like El Piraña, Barrialto, and Sotovelo. Together, they have formed the group UVA (Unión de Vinificadores Artesanos) to participate in fairs such as Vinoble.