Sherry: Uncle Joe and Palm Sunday
Photo by Gareth Lewis-Jones
On 12 May 1812, Manuel María was born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. He was one of seven children born to José Antonio González y Rodrigo and María del Rosario Ángel. Don José Antonio, a knight in the service of Carlos III, had been posted to Sanlúcar as the Administrator of the Royal Salt Marshes. This was a form of 'exile' imposed upon him as a result of his philandering at court.
In 1832, Don José Antonio died, leaving the family in a difficult situation financially. Consequently, Manuel María, his two sisters, four brothers and mother all moved to Seville, where Manuel María finished his studies and moved into banking. A year later, however, he gave up banking, took a loan and set up a small sherry production business (a bodega) in Jerez de la Frontera.
He sought help from his mother's brother who owned a small bodega in Sanlúcar: José María Ángel y Vargas. José María, Uncle Joe, if you will, appears to have been pleased to help, bringing the benefit of his winemaking knowledge from Sanlúcar to Jerez. Uncle Joe didn't appreciate the wines of the Jerez region and Manuel María kept butts of manzanilla from Sanlúcar in his new bodega just for him.
Pretty quickly, the help from Uncle Joe seemed to pay off. Two years after setting up, Manuel María exported 10 butts of sherry, scaling to 67 in 1836 and 819 in 1837. He went into business with English wine merchant, James Blake Byass and the scaling ramped up significantly. This eventually led to the partnership between the two and the bodega's enduring name: González Byass.
González Byass is famous for its market-leading brand of fino sherry, Tío Pepe. Tío Pepe was one of the first trademarks awarded in Spain. Whilst we like to think that Uncle Joe may have had a hand in the branding, he certainly had a hand in the production process, as Manuel María's long-term confidant and advisor. One of the activities that he opined over was the quality and movement of wine through the solera system in the bodega.
In the Western Christian calendar, tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. In Spain, this taken pretty seriously and is marked with a lot of traditions, including the affixing of palm leaves to the sides of balconies. The image of the palm, however, can be seen year-round in bodegas such as that of González Byass.
The winemakers make chalk marks on the sides of the barrels in the solera system to indicate the type of sherry and, importantly, its quality. Those sherries found to be exceptional in terms of quality, fineness and cleanness of taste are marked with a palm. These characteristics develop where biological ageing continues beyond the growth of the flor (the special film of yeast that develops on the top of dry sherry). Just as Uncle Joe would have done, cellar masters create their own interpretations of what they deem 'exceptional' to be. With different ages of the exceptional sherries come different palms: the older they are, the more fronds they have. Traditionally, and we expect this to have been something Uncle Joe will have championed, these sherries of unexpected excellence were reserved in the bodega for private consumption or special occasions rather than for commercial sale.
For Tío Pepe fino, González Byass have maintained this system and over the past decade have released their Palmas range once a year. There are three finos in the range: Una Palma, Dos Palmas and Tres Palmas. The numbers in the names signifying how many fronds on the chalk palm were made on the cask in the bodega. For the Tío Pepe Palmas, one equates to six years of age, two equates to eight years, and three equates to ten. And the way they treat them is closer to how Uncle Joe used to work. A standard fino is clarified and filtered an incredible amount (using 0.4 micron filters); the Tío Pepe Palmas are filtered a lot less, allowing more of the flor characteristics to be retained in the bottle.
Here's what we noted down when we tasted the Palmas finos:
Una Palma
On the nose: a fairly standard - if more intense - set of fino aromas. Quite strong yeast and apples (green and red?), with some almond
On the palate: a little salty and quite balanced. A decent amount of acidity. Perhaps some quince coming through
Dos Palmas
On the nose: very strong yeast this time - stronger than Una Palma. Olive brine, nutty - something darker than an almond (hazelnut?)
On the palate: lemons, lots of briny tastes, with the obvious bready notes from the yeast. Something spicy at the back of the throat (some very light ginger?)
Tres Palmas
On the nose: yeast, lanolin, hay, something leafy - like autumn leaves before they fall. Lemons, a suspicion of apricots and some caramel(?)
On the palate: pretty intense. A lot of cream in here. Savoury pastry, lemons, green apples, olive brine, hazelnuts, maybe even a bit of Brazil nut? (There used to be a type of sherry called fino-amontillado, which was fino on the cusp of turning into amontillado as the flor faded; wonder if this is what it tasted like?) A finish that goes on for days.
Would we buy them again? In a shot. What a way to mark Palm Sunday, too.
Even though Uncle Joe used to spurn Jerez wines in favour of the manzanillas of his hometown, we suspect that he might approve of the Palmas sherries. After all, his name is on the bottle: Uncle Joe translates into Spanish as Tío Pepe.
