Barbadillo Sábalo: Organic Palomino Without Flor

A watercolour fish swims on the label, with 100% Palomino, Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, Ecológico underneath. You would not guess it comes from Barbadillo, the sherry house in Sanlúcar founded in 1821. Nor is it sherry.

Sábalo is a dry white from organic Palomino, 13.5% ABV, made in stainless steel. No flor, no fortification, filtered only to go into the bottle clean. I tasted it with winemaker Montse Molina in Sparks 41, and it is the bottle I would hand to anyone who says sherry is not for them.

The tasting is on YouTube from 11:06.

What happens in the glass

Montse says it is shy in the first months, with apple and pear. When we recorded, this 2023 harvest had almost two years in bottle, and chamomile and an iodine saltiness had come up. I recognise that. My notes: chamomile, apple, pear, some stone fruit, and a little sea. It is round and light at once, with low acidity. Montse says its freshness comes from salt, not acid. She calls it sapidez, the Spanish word for savouriness, and you notice it in the saliva your mouth makes.

The salt comes from the ground. The Palomino grows on albariza, the chalk-white soil of an old sea, rich in calcium carbonate and silica, in Pago Burujena between Sanlúcar and Trebujena and in a second vineyard closer to the sea. Flor plays no part here. So the salt is already in the young wine, and flor only amplifies it in manzanilla. More in my guide to albariza.

With food

Montse tried it with different cuts of tuna, the fatty ones and the dry ones, and says the same wine adjusts each time. I would put it with fish, and because of that salt I expect it works with meat too.

Two reservations

Some people call it “sherry light”, Montse told me. I understand it as a stepping stone, but the term is wrong. The label says Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz, not the sherry denomination. It is a white wine from sherry soil, and that is the charm. You taste what albariza does without the yeast and ageing that sherry usually carries. Buy it as light sherry and you miss that difference. Montse herself is not sure what “vino de pasto” means beyond a young wine for drinking.

And I cannot taste what organic adds. I asked Montse whether flor behaves differently on organic grapes and she could not say. What I taste is mostly soil and Palomino. And it is for drinking young, not for keeping. Montse said herself that this harvest is for drinking now.

Where to buy

Producer

Bodegas Barbadillo

Wine

Sábalo Organic Palomino

Region

Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz

Grape

100% Palomino

Vintage

2023

Alcohol

13.5%

Ageing

Stainless steel, no flor

Price

€17.95

Importer

Granada Wijnen

Use code SherryGW10 for 10% off in the Granada Wijnen webshop, valid until 1 January 2027. I earn nothing from the code.

Drink it now; Montse says a recent harvest can wait, this one no longer needs to. Next in the series: the Salicornia manzanilla en rama, the same wine taken a step further.

The bottle was sent by the importer, Granada Wijnen. No payment, my judgement is my own.

Sources

• Barbadillo, Sábalo (technical data sheet)
• Sherry Notes on Sábalo
• Granada Wijnen, Sábalo
• Sparks 41, transcript