FERNANDO ANGULO
Confitero Ancestral + 2014
Andalusia, Spain
This remarkable, genre-busting oxidative sparkling wine is unlike anything we have tried. The base is a sherry of Palomino aged seven years in a large old bota without flor, which is then re-fermented with the juice of Tardana from the 2021 harvest of his friend Mariano of Bodega Cueva, a unique method Fernando refers to as Método Sanluqueño. Here fine bubbles carry complex scents of iodine, almond and spice, washing over the palate with delicate flavours of sea salt, minerals and brine. A wine of uncommon complexity, this is as good as it gets.
Palomino
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
From a tiny bodega in the sunkissed and windswept town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Fernando Angulo produces thoughtful, original wines that redefine the sherry triangle.
Originally from Ronda, Fernando developed a love of wine in his youth and has spent the past few decades exploring it as a scholar, journalist and importer. Long fascinated by the history of sherry and its importance to Andalucía, in 2012 he moved to Sanlúcar to see what might be possible if he were able to harness the potential of a marriage of grape and place lauded for centuries.
In the hills outside of town, Palomino is planted on gentle slopes over the region’s emblematic off-white albariza soils. Made up largely of chalk, they retain water long after the rains have gone, allowing the vines to survive the long, hot summer and imparting the resulting wines with invigorating minerals. Under the brilliance of the Andalusian sun, not so far from where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, this bleached landscape provides a dramatic setting.
Having spent the past decade exploring the region’s pagos, Fernando has settled on a hectare and a half of old vines in ‘La Charanga’, a parcel within Pago Mahina which he believes to be the very best in the region. He not only works organically, but also eschews the use of copper and sulphur entirely.
In the bodega, he is self-taught, following his intuition and convictions to produce genre-defying wines. Exercising great patience, he ages his sparkling wines sur lattes and his sherries in large old botas for many years, disgorging or filling bottles from casks in small lots only when he feels the wine is ready.
Made in tiny quantities with no additions, these are wines of striking purity which show the region in a different guise. Gently saline, luminous and fine, they are unlike any we have tried.