La Gitana Manzanilla En Rama 2024
Produced from 100% Palomino grapes grown on white albariza soils at Hidalgo’s highest quality vineyards of El Cuadrado at Balbaina Alta. Manzanilla En Rama is sherry at its very best - unfined and only lightly filtered free-run juice which has spent eight years in the solera. This Spring 2025 release is available in limited quantities (only 35 barrels with a capacity of 1,000 litres of the Solera are used).
Tasting note:
Intense, complex and balanced on the nose, this En Rama has a wonderful salty character influenced by the close proximity of the cellars in Sanlúcar de Barrameda to the sea (only 500m away) as well as the altitude of the Balbaina vineyard (100m). Matured using the traditional “Criaderas y Solera” process in American oak casks, under a layer of “flor” integrated by the yeasts, the wine is intensely gold with green tints. At 15% alcohol, it is perfect served as an aperitif with salted nuts, olives and jamon or with fish, seafood, asparagus or artichokes.
“It’s that time of year, and who’s brave enough to bet that it won’t be another glorious summer, given that climate change is heating things up at an uncomfortable pace? If you would like to bathe your palate in the ultimate, refreshing, and palate-cleansing wine, you have come to the right place. As you will no doubt have gathered, I love absolutes! This year’s En Rama release of the legendary Manzanilla La Gitana beats last year’s, and I could have sworn last year that the bar could never have been lifted any higher! Of course, this means that this twenty-pound wine is the second-best value ‘perfect 20/20-scoring’ wine on the planet (after Hidalgo’s very own Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana) You must buy both, as while they share undeniable DNA, they perform entirely different duties. My featured En Rama is the benchmark fortified-wine-style aperitif, while Pasada Pastrana is the finest, elite tapas accompaniment on earth! EnRama sherries are made from ‘free run’ juice and only use natural yeasts for fermentation. This means they are the most honest, elemental, and sharply tangy of all styles of bone-dry sherry. They are bottled without filtration or fining – which means you are drinking this invigorating elixir ‘directly from the barrel’ via the medium of its bottle, which, if you play your cards right, is only a mere messenger for this wine given it holds it for only a month or so between the winery and your glass. Be sure to seek out this limited-release 2025 bottling because it is smoother, creamier and more magical than ever before. It is safe to say I have never tasted a more electrifying En Rama in my life! Do not miss out on this legendary wine!”
- 20/20 Matthew Jukes May 2025