Manzanilla La Cigarrera

We head over to Sanlúcar de Barrameda with this Manzanilla La Cigarrera, the flagship product of the small family-owned Bodega La Cigarrera. It is aged between four and five years in a solera system with eight scales.

La Cigarrera has a prima location in the barrio bajo, the lower quarter of Sanlúcar. As a former almacenista their wines were previously sold to other houses including Lustau, but La Cigarrera started bottling their own Manzanilla in 1997.

La Cigarrera Manzanilla (15%, La Cigarrera)

Nose: quite a high intensity nose, full of brine, chalky notes and almonds. Typical chamomile. Freshness of citrus zest and light whiffs of herbs.

Mouth: smooth with decent complexity, still on salty notes, seaweed, peanuts and bitter almonds. Citric notes but overall the acidity is quite low. Soft fennel notes and green olives. Medium finish.

Availability: around € 7 ex-bodega or € 9 in shops. In Belgium we could get it from Xpertvinum although it seems out of stock at the moment.

Summary: Quite an accurate example of this fresh, young style of Manzanilla with decent complexity. Good value for money and a perfect match for oysters, shrimp or clams.

3.5

Good

Tags: 15%, La Cigarrera, Manzanilla, Sanlúcar de Barrameda

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