I ran a tour to Jerez earlier this week and one of the wineries that we visited was Lustau which has just released a new range of ” en rama” wines. There are 3 wines, a fino from Jerez, a fino from El Puerto de Santa María and a manzanilla from Sanlúcar de Barrameda and they are all labelled “3 en rama”. They come in 50cl bottles and the one I bought, which was the Jerez fino, comes from only one cask meaning that quantities produces are very small. This cask was chosen by the cellar master Manuel Lozano as it contains exceptionally good fino. It’s a pure “en rama” fino as it has been drawn straight from the cask and has not been treated at all.
I tried my first glass of the wine yesterday evening and the second at lunchtime today. It has a deeper colour than most finos as they lose colour due to the filtering process they go through. The nose has aromas of toasted almonds, yeast, bitter orange and some floral notes . On the palate it has a certain butteryness and on the first day quite a bitter tanginess on the finish. I enjoyed the wine more today as the bitterness is much less with more of a chalky/minerally finish. This finish also shows considerable length.
Anyone who is serious about wine should try sherries like these. For me the finest finos and manzanillas are on the same quality level as great Riesling and great white Burgundy.
