Description

Jerez presents a paradox. It is one of the world’s most historic wines, still made largely with pre-1900 techniques, yet few people seem to care. It was once the most popular wine on the planet and is now competing for the title of the least popular. The reasons are manifold—some circumstantial and external, some inherent, including the unique, sometimes confusing world of flavours originating from the dual influence of yeast and oxidation that shape most Sherry styles.

The effort put into understanding Sherry certainly pays off. At their best, there are some of the most unique, compellingly complex and sensual wines we have on our lucky planet. Despite a depressed market, Sherry producers continue unabated on their quest towards quality. There have never been so many exciting bottlings available to the discerning drinker, and Wojciech Bońkowski MW’s Report is a perfect guide through the maze.

More importantly, though, Jerez is on the cusp of epochal change. Finding itself in a perhaps unprecedented financial and structural crisis, a new generation of vintners has a clear vision to completely reorient the region’s wine production. For the first time in centuries, Sherry wine is being gradually sidelined, and a new style of contemporary, refreshing, mineral, uniquely flavoured wines is taking the lead. These table wines fall outside the D.O. of Jerez, with various terms are used to encompass them: vinos de pasto is the most commonly used. This quiet Jerez revolution is one of the main motifs of my Report.

Wojciech spent a week in Jerez earlier this year, visiting bodegas large and small and tasting a total of 400 wines, with over 250 included in this first-ever Sherry Report with full tasting notes. Overall, 24 wines scored 95 points or more, and three 98 points.

For ease of navigation, the notes are sub-divided into the different categories of Jerez wines, each preceded by an introduction, starting with the dry table wines through Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado all the way to sweet Pedro Ximénez. There is also an extra section titled “Monuments of Sherry,” in which he discusses some of the oldest and most complex, but often also most challenging wines available on the market today.