DIATOMISTS SINGULAR BOTAS FINO
We three friends - The Diatomists - have always held Fino as the pinnacle of Jerez styles. The name itself denotes quality, class and timelessness; Fino = fine, good, beautiful, subtle, pure, elegant, delicate, distinguished. The wine is synonymous with Jerezanos themselves. At the Feria de Jerez, this is evident for all to see: mounted on horseback in traje de corto or traje de gitana, the locals are the embodiment of the word “Fino”.
For Jerezanos Fino is their house-wine, the bottle reached for at celebrations, hard-times and everything in between. Again, at the Feria, Fino is everywhere. Usually served in Catafinos (small wine glasses usually seen at WSET tastings), the thin glass stem held carefully between 2 fingers to keep the wine cool. A bone-dry white wine which refreshes the pallet and raise one’s spirits.
When we started Diatomists back in 2019, it seemed inconceivable not to ship a Fino. Although we had nothing lined-up, we were sure we would find a grower making a Fino worthy of the name.
After exhaustive searches, we discovered the hard-reality that Fino was probably no longer the best biological wine in the Appellation. Sanlúcar de Barrameda had recovered better following the crash of the 70s and 80s with smaller bodegas maintaining more control and quality. Bodegas in Jerez had fallen like a pack of cards and a handful of bodegas had picked up the pieces to plug the vastly diminished international volume-market.
Fino in Jerez had become largely a Gonzalez Byass monopoly with their famous bottle – Tio Pepe. Good value for the money and a correct style of Fino, the standard was alright but not truly “Fino”. Other smaller bodegas have gone-down the age route to fill the premium space. This has its charms, but takes the white-wine to a more solemn space and a wine less versatile and gastronomic. We wanted a Fino that could live up to the name and have complexity of fruit, flor and integrated acidity.
It became clear that either a third-party would fill this gap or we’d have to make our own. This is not to say we were the only ones to recognise Fino’s fall-from-grace. One of Spain’s best wine-makers had put his hat in the ring with Corrales, a project lead by Peter Sisseck of Pingus fame. He had entered the Jerez scene with the famous and undeniable statement “the greatest white wine in Spain is Jerez”. And he intended to convince the world the only way possible – by making his own expression of the famous wine. Corrales is an exceptional Fino, and a marker in the renaissance of Fino.
With the same passion and excitement Tommy de Wangen, one of our co-founders has bought an 18 hectare pago in Balbaina called Domino de las Animas which set to the task of creating a new Fino solera. The solera, base-wine, was bought from a superb grower with full provenance from Balbaina. Quite unheard of today, we were to make a pago defined wine from one of the great terroirs of Jerez.
Domino de las Animas is Westerly facing rising from around 60-80 meters above sea-level with brilliant albariza soil, mostly Tosca Cerrada. The Palomino Fino vines are around 30 years old, on average, and produce excellent fruit. With a vigneron approach the grapes are picked at night to avoid derogation and then pressed and fermented in the bodega itself, a stone through away from the vines themselves (this is unusual, practically all Fino’s are pressed in the city of Jerez and the fruit is driven to the town from the vineyard). The Solera, now within the bodega at las Animas, has been topped up with the pristine mosto from these well-tended vines (Organically certified as of last year).
From the off, we have been firm in the belief that quality wine starts in the vineyard. Exceptional soil, vine-management and low yields result in exceptional, complex and delicious wine. These are standard-bearers throughout the wine-making world, but have been overlooked somewhat in Jerez as the solera has increasing been relied upon to create the “house-style”. Younger vines and high-yielding clones have been favoured to drive volume and the fruit has taken a noticeable back-seat.
We are therefore thrilled to be introducing an outstanding and premium expression of the Fino to the UK market. From the first pour this is clearly a different liquid to most Finos, the colour is golden with a hint of pink-gold on the borders. On the nose there is baked bread, almonds, golden apple, as you would expect, but the flavours don’t stop there – apricot comes on the scene, stone-fruit, hay and grapefruit peel. The first sip is bright and textured. The albariza soil comes through beautifully with a layered feel and good acidity bring freshness. Beautifully balanced and round, the finish is long, clean and pure.