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OVERVIEW
Since 1991, Sanlúcar de Barrameda "almacenista" Francisco (Paco) Yuste has pursued the objective of producing Manzanilla up to its highest historic standards. Upon rescue and restoration of venerable, endangered "soleras" and bodegas in Sanlúcar's emblematic Barrio Alto and Barrio Bajo districts, classic Manzanillas and Sherries are produced.
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HISTORY
Sanlúcar native Francisco (Paco) Yuste has sold Manzanilla his entire life, building a successful beverage distributorship in the provinces of Cádiz and Córdoba. In 1991 he purchased historic Bodega Santa Ana in Sanlúcar's Barrio Bajo, including its centenerian "solera", and began operation as an "almacenista." In 2001 he added Bodega Los Ángeles in the Barrio Alto, restoring it to Manzanilla production and for refreshing his "criaderas" at Santa Ana. Bodega Miraflores, founded in 1956 by a group of growers in that famous Sanlúcar "pago," was acquired in 2010 to serve as production base.
Yuste quality starts in the vineyard with the fabulous 46-hectare Viña La Alamedilla estate in the Jerez pago of Carrascal. Longterm sources in El Puerto de Santa María’s Balbaína and Sanlúcar’s Miraflores contribute in equal parts to combine freshness and minerality with ample body.
New wines arrive to Bodega Miraflores. Just 800 meters from the Guadalquivir estuary, Miraflores offers ideal conditions for "sobretablas" selection and the first stages of Manzanilla development. After five years, the manzanilla fina passes to Bodega Los Ángeles for aging as Aurora Manzanilla before entering the solera at Bodega Santa Ana in the Barrio Bajo where La Kika ("Manzanilla Pasada en Rama," well over 10 years old: "The Pearl of Sanlúcar" is bottled by hand from selected individual "botas."
In 2015 Yuste’s acquisition of the classic Aurora brand provided impetus for export launch. This was followed in 2016 by purchase of Herederos de Argüeso with its famous Manzanilla, San León.
Yuste’s treasures include the 18th Century "soleras" of the Conde de Aldama, who preserved his prephylloxeric wines by encasing the "botas" in plaster, preventing their admixture with wines from grafted vines during approximately 50 years.
Exceedingly rare bottles of Conde de Aldama Amontillado and Palo Cortado are available.
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PRESS
La Kika Manzanilla Pasada - "Consistent with the style of Yuste wines, this stands out for its clarity of ripe white fruit and salinity. There are also notes of dried fruit, tobacco and spice. It's graceful and generous, with refreshing mineral acidity, a classic Manzanilla Pasada, in this case, with more than ten years under flor (March 2017 bottling)."
93 Points
Wine & Spirits Magazine, Aug 1, 2018
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Aurora Manzanilla - "This Gold medallist was made in a ‘fresh and vibrant' style; praise for its abundance of ‘Bramley apple, citrus, bready yeast and pine flor notes'; ‘light and refreshing, with passion fruit notes and oxidation, and plenty of personality'."
Gold Medal
Sommelier Wine Awards 2018, May 2, 2018
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La Kika Manzanilla Pasada - "When it came to describing this top-class manzanilla as it won a well-deserved Gold: ‘oily texture and smoky intensity, but freshness on the palate and great balance overall'; ‘vibrant and fresh character, revealing subtle notes of banana, nuts and wood'; ‘the oxidative characteristics take a back seat, yet it's brilliant!'"
Gold Medal, Critics' Choice
Sommelier Wine Awards 2018, May 2, 2018
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Conde de Aldama Amontillado - "Appearance:
Bright chestnut-mahogany with copper glints and a hint of green at the rim.
Nose:
Magnificently fragrant and complex, and its age is immediately apparent. There are notes of exotic woods like cedar and sandalwood then toasted nuts like almond and hazelnut along with faint notes of dried fruit like date and apricot and a faint trace of iodine. It is not powerful but rather extremely elegant and all the minute nuances are beautifully harmonised into an exotic bouquet.
Palate:
After a very refined start it opens out revealing intense flavour with lots of charm and a lightness of touch. Tannin is very low for such an old wine and it retains that salty bitterness so characteristic of Sanlúcar along a gentle acidity, a faint balancing hint of caramel and a slight rancio and tobacco note. It is crisp on the palate and very lively with incredible, almost interminable length. Wonderful.
Comments:
This beautiful and venerable old wine is one of the oldest Sherries around. It now has an average age of 100 years."
Paula MacLean, Jerez-Xérèz-Sherry, Feb 1, 2018
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Aurora Oloroso - "Appearance:
Deep mahogany fading to amber with coppery highlights.
Nose:
Attractive fresh Oloroso nose: intense walnuts in syrup, toasted almond and a hint of Oxford marmalade with an attractive savoury salted caramel edge, a turron yema tostada note and a refined trace of oak. There is a real charm to this wine.
Palate:
Full bodied, firm and generous with a reasonably open texture and barely any troublesome tannin, well rounded and dry. It seems just a little more serious than the nose with a very slightly burnt, woody flavour amongst the nuts and hints of leather, but that charm comes through. Good."
Paula MacLean, Jerez-Xérèz-Sherry, Dec 19, 2017
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Conde de Aldama Amontillado - "100 Best Wines of the Year."
97 Points
Wine & Spirits Magazine, Oct 1, 2017
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Aurora Amontillado - "At first sip, this feels buttery, with aromas of toasted nuts and sweet spices. Little by little, the flavors head toward a drier place, the wine becoming less aromatic with air, but more structured. It ends up feeling austere, vertical, powerful, the sort of Sherry to drink with sea urchins."
92 Points
Wine & Spirits Magazine, Oct 1, 2017
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Conde de Aldama Palo Cortado - "At first, seductive notes of candied fruit predominate, but soon an oceanic salinity takes over, opening a door to complex notes of mushroom, chalk and stone. This Palo Cortado comes from one of the oldest soleras in Jerez, with wines that average 100 years old."
92 Points
Wine & Spirits Magazine, Aug 1, 2017
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La Kika Manzanilla Pasada - "Wood resin and green melon comprise the nose on this fresh refined manzanilla. Spiced apple, sea salt and sautéed white mushroom flavors are lasting on a healthy semicomplex finish. "
90 Points
Michael Schachner, Wine Enthusiast, Jul 1, 2017
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Conde de Aldama Palo Cortado - "Toasted sesame, hazelnut husk, singed alder and salted caramel notes are woven together in this alluring and lovely Sherry, which has a tease of sweetness but stays dry overall, backed by a hint of green tea through the finish."
93 Points
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, Jun 15, 2017
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Aurora Amontillado - "This blossoms quickly in the glass, a light toffee note giving way to a dry-edged mix of singed almond, alder and walnut husk flavors, all backed by a bitter orange hint on the finish. Drink now. "
90 Points
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, Jun 15, 2017
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Aurora Pedro Ximénez - "Warmed date, toffee and buckwheat flavors glide along on a viscous, caressing texture, ending with ginger and Christmas pudding notes. Has good freshness in addition to the bass line. Drink now."
91 Points
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, Jun 15, 2017
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Conde de Aldama Amontillado - "Rather bold, with a pronounced walnut-husk thread that cuts through the core of dried orange peel, almond and toasted sesame notes. The long finish is a rapier, with nearly searing acidity and a last whiff of green tea lending a flourish of enticing rusticity. Not for the uninitiated. Drink now. "
93 Points
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, Jun 15, 2017
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Aurora Manzanilla - "This has bracing sea salt and lemon pith notes, along with slightly fuller singed almond and bitter orange hints, drawing this ever so slightly toward the rustic side. Offers a nervy finish. Drink now. "
88 Points
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, Jun 15, 2017
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Aurora Oloroso - "Offers a relatively open-knit feel, with notes of singed orange peel, date and toasted sesame mixed together, backed by a dried-walnut thread on the finish. Drink now."
90 Points
James Molesworth, Wine Spectator, Jun 15, 2017
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Conde de Aldama Amontillado - "Francisco Yuste bought an old Amontillado solera in 1927 that had been established in the Barrio Alto district of Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1740. Today, the Yuste family believes that the average age of the wines in this solera is more than 100 years, making the wine one of the oldest marketed in all of Jerez. This Amontillado, blended from those casks, is a trip. First it evokes the seashore, with its flavors of salt, shells and iodine; then it reveals the lime and mushroom scents the wine developed as it matured under the veil of flor. With air, there are notes of walnuts, smoked almonds and spices. While the aromas are as delicate and nuanced as a perfume, in flavor, with its direction and strength, it is a bullet."
97 Points
Wine & Spirits Magazine, Jun 15, 2017
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Conde de Aldama Amontillado - "Gold and Trophy Winner"
London, International Wine Challenge, Jan 1, 2017
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Aurora Manzanilla - "Gold Medal"
London, International Wine Challenge, Jan 1, 2016
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