Bodegas Viuda de Manjón: Sherry's Renaissance

“Sherry, isn’t that something your grandmother used to drink?” That’s how I opened this episode of Sparks by VinoVonk, and I answered it straight away: no. Let’s make sherry great again, as Nadine Visser keeps telling me. My guest is Pablo García de León, sixth generation of Bodegas Viuda de Manjón, co-founder of the relaunched bodega and in charge of marketing and sales. We tasted four sherries together over video, Pablo in Spain and me in the Netherlands.

A Bodega Named After a Widow

Pedro Manjón and Leona Mergelina founded the bodega in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1846. Pedro died a few years later. Leona took over and built it into a well-known name, in the Marco de Jerez and well beyond. Viuda de Manjón means widow of Manjón.

After three generations the family sold most of the company to González Byass. They kept the vineyards, and for many years the grapes went to other bodegas. Five years ago the family bought some of the brands back. Pablo’s mother, the fifth generation, now owns the company. In Spain the brand is called Leona, after the founder; it means lioness. When the bodega started exporting last year, that name turned out to be taken elsewhere, so the international label reads Leaena, the Latin word for the same thing.

Two Pagos on Albariza

The family farms around 20 hectares, mostly Palomino with some Pedro Ximénez and Muscat. The land sits in two pagos: Miraflores near Sanlúcar, one of the best known according to Pablo, and the small, old Espartina in Jerez. The soil is albariza, a white chalky earth that Pablo likens to a sponge. It reflects the sunlight and holds on to rainwater through the hot months. The oldest vines are around 30 to 35 years old; new blocks went in five years ago and again this year.

Four Sherries

Fino Leaena. Pablo calls fino the puerta de entrada, the front door to sherry. This one blends both pagos. In Sanlúcar, on the Atlantic coast, the bodega makes manzanilla, which ages in a damper, cooler climate. Part of it travels to the bodega in Jerez and is blended with the fino there. Sanlúcar brings the salinity; the Jerez side is less salty and a little drier. It ages biologically under flor, the layer of yeast that sits on the wine in the cask like a blanket. It draws on five soleras and averages six and a half years, although the label doesn’t say so. It looks light in the glass but has plenty of body. Pablo compares it with champagne, where the complexity also comes from blending different years and wines.

Oloroso Leaena. The opposite of the fino: oxidative ageing, no flor, just contact with air. That’s where the mahogany colour comes from. The solera averages 16 years. Pablo: “Don’t be afraid because it’s very strong in the nose and the colour looks very strong. But then you have it in the mouth and it’s a very gentle and very silky wine.” He drinks it with red meat, cheese or dark chocolate. Of the four, this was my favourite.

At the time of recording it sold for around 10 to 11 euros in Dutch supermarkets. I think that’s far too little. Put a still wine with 16 years of ageing next to it and you know that price doesn’t exist there. Pablo agrees the wine deserves more, and puts part of the blame on sherry itself: the region needs to explain its heritage much better.

Amontillado Leaena. It starts life as a fino under flor. When the bodeguero decides the moment is right, the wine is fortified with grape spirit, the flor dies off and the wine carries on ageing oxidatively, like an oloroso. It averages seven years and comes from four soleras, Pablo thinks. I get that oxidative note I sometimes find in natural wine, walnut, and the salinity still underneath. For anyone new to sherry I’d say this is the easiest way in, and it can be served a little cooler than the oloroso. Pablo pairs it with jamón ibérico, but also with fish, cured meats or cheese.

Cream Leaena. The same 16-year-old oloroso, with a small amount of Pedro Ximénez added just before bottling. Sweet but not very sweet, with a creamy texture. Pablo serves it with chocolate cake, ice cream, nuts or coffee. I said it in the recording too: I don’t like cream. When I drink sweet wine I want it very sweet, 300 to 400 grams of residual sugar, and this is too dry for me. It is one of the better creams I’ve had, though. Cream sells well, but the quality is often poor. Pablo says they set out to make a cream at the same level as their fino and oloroso.

Where It Still Rubs

Sherry is doing well outside Spain, Pablo says, partly because high-end restaurants are discovering how well it works with food. At home it’s harder: Spain lost a generation of sherry drinkers. Viuda de Manjón therefore focuses on export, working through importers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Ireland and a handful of US states. The company is growing fast, but it is still at the start.

Vino de Pasto

The new project is a still, unfortified white wine made from 100 per cent Palomino. Wines like this were made decades ago and then largely disappeared. Pablo calls it vino de pasto. It’s fermented in stainless steel, sees no barrel and gets about a year in bottle. The idea is to show what Palomino does as a still wine, with the salinity and minerality of the albariza. The first release comes from the Jerez vineyard, with one from Sanlúcar likely to follow next year. For now vino de pasto sits outside the denomination of origin; Pablo thinks that may change in the coming years.

“I think it’s the first step for maybe introducing people to sherry,” Pablo says. I haven’t tasted it yet, so all I can pass on is his plan.

Watch the Full Interview

The conversation runs to just over half an hour. Pablo also talks about the Fino Margarita and why he sees cocktails as a way in for a younger generation.

So, Should You Try These?

I’d point the fino and the oloroso at anyone who thinks sherry is for grandmothers, and the amontillado at anyone tasting sherry for the first time. I’ll pass on the cream, which says more about my taste than about the wine. Bear in mind that I tasted each sherry once, during a video tasting, and that the detail on ageing and blending is the producer’s account.

Find these wines through Anfors Imperial in the Netherlands: https://www.anfors-imperial.com/producenten/spanje/viuda-de-manjon/

For other markets, contact the winery directly: https://www.leonasherry.com/

Sources

• Bodegas Viuda de Manjón (official, Sanlúcar de Barrameda): viudademanjon.com
• Consejo Regulador del Vino de Jerez: sherry.wine