MONTILLA AND MORILES
The wines of Montilla and Moriles
Many years ago these wines were known as the Sherries of Córdoba and, although they can no longer use the title of sherry, it is pretty apt.
In fact, the story is typical of all Spanish wine regions and wine regions universally. Local vines produced an undistinguished but palatable wine, which for centuries was hardly ever sold outside the immediate area. In common with 90% of such regions, the vines struggled to survive in a hostile climate, and no-one ever gave a thought to improving the production methods in order to make the wine more acceptable further afield.
Usually the story ends with some visionary making a quantum leap in production methods that results in the wines becoming world-famous and making him a fortune, for as long as he can dominate the market. Examples abound. However the case of Montilla and Moriles is slightly different.
In the bad old days before the Consejo Regulador de los Vinos de Jerez had teeth or even existed, these Córdoban wines were sent just down the road in vast quantities to one of the few regions which at the time had no trouble selling its production. Jerez, Xéres, or Sherry was selling as much as it could produce – and more, so it was logical to bring in wine from a region where there was, and still is, a close similarity in the finished product – and pass it off as sherry.
Certainly, in the 50s and 60s, vast quantities of wine came from outside the Jeréz region, although this was not necessarily a bad thing. Montilla is an excellent dry aperitif when made properly, and in any case its use was limited to ‘sherry’ for export, shipped by the less reputable bodegas. Now, of course, such ‘transplantation’ is impossible. Sherry producers are strictly controlled and can never sell more wine than their vineyards produce or the grapes they buy in allows for. More realistically, the fact is that sherry sales are declining, so there is no need for such manipulation.
Obviously when this market dried up Montilla bodegas had to look around for some other way to sell their products – and, at this point, the story does become characteristic of the ‘poor cousin’ wine-growing regions.
However, don’t let me give you the wrong impression: Montilla and Moriles wines were sold on their own merit for as long as they have been produced, and amphoras containing the wine have been excavated in Italy. Independently of this a small bin of montilla bought in the 60s at the Ashburnham House sale in England had lain in its cellar since 1875!
Anyway, credit must be given where credit is due. The Pedro Jiménez grape is indigenous throughout the region, and is best known for producing sweet, sticky wines with the colour of treacle. In spite of this the dry wines are very dry indeed, because fermentation is allowed to run its full course and the grapes are not sun-dried after picking. The sugar is thus converted into alcohol without retaining any of its sweetness. Not a million years ago the must was left in clay pots holding up to 7,000 litres while it fermented, and was later transferred to wooden butts for ageing, where the drier wines grew a ‘flor’ as in Jérez. These days the butt-ageing is reserved for the sherry-type wines, the olorosos and the amontillados, and the dry table wines which form the bulk of the production and never see anything but stainless steel.
Alvear is the largest bodega in the Montilla region, with a capacity of 20 million litres, and their CB Fino is known everywhere that wine is drunk. In more recent years they have produced a dry table wine, Marqués de la Sierra, which has the double advantage of being well-priced and most drinkable. Their Pedro Jiménez dessert wine, PX 1830, got the prize as Best Wine of the Year recently in the Cata del Año organised by the Oficina Internacional de la Viña y del Vino. Compare the size of this giant with the Cruz Conde bodega, having a capacity of just 1.3 million litres, although it is much more typical of the bodegas of the zone as they all used to be.
Delgado Hermanos has made a considerable effort to get into the first league, and produces some very fine wines indeed. The table wine, Lagar de San Antonio, is a light 10º, and for everyday drinking quite acceptable. The Lagar de Benazola is less dry, and would not shame any table. Then we move on to the sherry-type wines, of which the Segunda Bota fino is outstanding. It has none of the slightly oily taste that many dry montillas have and can be compared with the best of dry finos anywhere. Moving up the scale (or down – whichever way one looks at it), the Feo (ugly name – nice wine) is described as Fino Extra Oloroso (geddit?), and is more typical of Montilla wines than anything mentioned so far. It is a long way from being a Jeréz-style oloroso, and is the colour of a fino, but is a most interesting wine. There is also a pale cream, Creamdel, and a PX sweet wine, as well as an amontillado (Faraón).
If you drink a lot of sherry it may be worthwhile looking at Montilla and Moriles as an alternative. The region can certainly stand on its own and, unlike previously, need not be compared with other regions in order to find its own place in the wine hierarchy.
