La Guita
Manzanilla
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
La Guita is the manzanilla from Sanlucar and the most popular wine in the region. Aged under highly active flor for four and a half years, La Guita develops intense complexity while retaining beautiful freshness. They bottle six times a year, as opposed to once or twice as many other houses, to capture as much freshness as possible.
La Guita is made in two bodegas, and the smaller of the two, Bodega Misericordia, dates to 1526. Located in the heart of Sanlúcar, it was once the Hospital de San Juan de Dios. The larger bodega, Pago Sancular Viejo, is located on the road to Jerez and accounts for about 80% of La Guita’s production. While legally allowed to source grapes from anywhere in Jerez, they focus exclusively on grapes from Sanlúcar – specifically from the Miraflores vineyard.
Vineyard
The Palomino grapes used in La Guita are exclusively grown in Sancular, with the vast majority of them coming from the historic pago of Miraflores, which appears in vineyard classifications as far back as 1868, and more recently in 1951 when Manuel Barbadillo ranked the top sites in the region. Mirafores is notable for the purity of its chalk dominated albarazia soil and its proximity to the sea. Legally, manzanilla can be made from grapes anywhere in Jerez, as long as they are aged in Sancular, but La Guita believes it’s native terroir is an important aspect of their quality.
Additionally, and even more rare, La Guita also fortifies their manzanilla with distillate from the same local palomino grapes. Nearly every other bodega in the region fortifies with cheaper Airén distillate from La Mancha.
Sancular de Barrameda is the northwest tip of the “Sherry Triangle” and is tucked along the Atlantic coast. Historically, it has been a center of innovation in sherry production, and it’s thought that the concepts of the solera system and flor aging were both developed there. Manzanilla must be aged in the bodegas of Sancular.
Winemaking
Like it’s more famous cousin fino, manzanilla is simply a palomino based sherry aged under flor. However, due to its proximity to the ocean, temperatures in Sancular remain more stable than in the rest of the region. This allows for more vigorous yeast activity, which imparts more flavor, and also allows the capataz to perform more sacas. The saca is the process in which sherry is extracted from the barrel, and the more frequently this is done, the fresher the final product. While a typical bodega in Jerez might bottle once or twice a year, La Guita often bottles six or seven times annually.
The minimum aging requirement for manzanilla is two years, but La Guita far exceeds that and won’t release anything younger than four or five years of age.
Tasting Note
Bright yellow colour with greenish hues. Sea salt, very mineral, extremely delicate with zesty citric hints on the palate and a saline aftertaste.
Food Pairing
If it swims, you should eat it with La Guita, preferably raw. Oysters, shrimp, oysters, clams, oysters, smoked salmon, oysters, sushi, oysters or oysters make an amazing pairing.
Color
White
Grape Varieties
Palomino
Appellation
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Alcohol
15%
Suggested Retail Price
$14.99
