Juan Piñero
The history of Bodegas Juan Piñero started in 1992 with the purchase of a 3000 m² bodega in the Calle Trasbolsa in Sanlúcar, built in the 1920s and previously owned by Bodegas Argüeso. Juan Piñero – a businessman who made his fortune in construction and real estate – rescued and refurbished the building and started his own brand. Instead of buying aged wines from other bodegas like most start-up bodegas, he started from zero by acquiring top quality musts which he put into 1800 relatively new seasoned casks.
Fino Camborio and Manzanilla Maruja
Piñero teamed up with La Gitana to get settled and develop a business as an almacenista, but this partnership stopped some time ago. In 2000 Piñero bought the existing solera Maruja from Pedro Domecq, who in turn acquired it from Terry. In 2007 he also acquired a bodega in the centre of Jerez de la Frontera, alongside the wines of Ángel Zamorano, an old almacenista. He started selling his Fino as the Fino Camborio, a brand from the lost bodegas Fernando A de Terry.
Maruja has been a rather famous brand of Manzanilla, but its history saw many ups and downs. The lesser periods caused to wine to age for many years without refreshments (almost turning into Amontillado), but later it was expanded and rejuvenated (with wines from Barbadillo among others) in times of success. An atypical evolution which supposedly adds to the complexity of the current-day wine.
In 2013 consultant winemaker Ramiro Ibáñez started working for Juan Piñero and the company released the first wines under its own name. For some of its base wines Piñero is working with Callejuela in the Pago del Hornillo, a district in the Jerez Superior area.
In 2021 Juan Piñero fell victim to the Corona virus, just over 70 years of age. The bodega is taken over by his children.
Juan Piñero sherry range
This is an overview of the wines available from Juan Piñero:
- Manzanilla Jarona, the entry-level Manzanilla, bottled after 3 criaderas. Around 3-4 years old.
- Manzanilla Maruja, from a solera of ten stages, but bottled from the second criadera. Around 8-9 years old.
- Manzanilla Pasada Maruja, basically from the same solera system but this time from the first row (only 2 sacas per year). Around 12 years old.
- Fino Camborio, an old Fino of around 9-10 years old. From a 400-cask solera of 3 criaderas, stored in the Calle San Francisco Javier in Jerez. One saca per year.
- Amontillado Great Duke 12 Years, derived from Manzanilla Pasada
- Amontillado Piñero V.O.R.S., an older version of around 35-40 years. First released in 2016.
- Palo Cortado Great Duke 12 Years, from selected barrels of the top criaderas of Manzanilla. Just 1-2 years of biological ageing, then 10+ years of oxidative ageing.
- Oloroso Great Duke 12 Years
- Oloroso Piñero V.O.R.S., an older version of around 40 years, made with grapes from the pagos Añina and Macharnudo. First released in 2016.
- Cream Piñero, moderately sweet, made with Oloroso and 25% of PX. Around 12 years old.
- Moscatel Piñero, around 7 years old.
- Pedro Ximénez Piñero, around 7 years old.
Visiting Juan Piñero
Bodega Juan Piñero
Calle Trasbolsa 35
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Visits possible by appointment.
About the Author
Ruben is a Certified Sherry Educator who fell in love with sherry some 25 years ago, but switched to a higher gear in 2013 and started writing about it. Lived in Madrid for a couple of years, now back in Belgium. I also run a whisky blog over at www.whiskynotes.be
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