Delgado Zuleta presents The Original Sherry Company, its most unique collection of high-end sherries

Delgado Zuleta is celebrating its 280th anniversary, and for this occasion, a few months ago it launched the Manzanilla Carmen Viejo, 58, a tribute to its foundational winery building. Following this novelty, which is practically already sold out, we present The Original Sherry Company, an exclusive collection of unique high-end sherries. The first edition of this series includes an amontillado, an oloroso, and a palo cortado in a three-bottle box as a complete sales unit, of which only 1,500 numbered units will be released onto the market.

This singular project was born almost a decade ago, when at Delgado Zuleta we decided to create a collection of wines pushed to the extreme of each category. A very specific wine profile was sought; for example, for the amontillado, the cellarmasters tried to locate especially pungent, vertical, and sharp wines; the oloroso was desired to be powerful, deep, complex, and intense, while the series was to be completed with an enigmatic, mystical, and complete palo cortado.

The presentation of the project is in keeping with the level of the wines. The sales unit is an indivisible box of three bottles, each presided over by a pictogram that conceptually represents each wine. Thus, the amontillado is identified with a knife, the oloroso with a nose with a mustache, and the palo cortado is a question mark. The original idea and direction of the project were handled by the gastronomic communication agency Probando Probando, while the graphic design and packaging are the work of the artist Hugo Zapata.

Regarding the organoleptic characteristics of each wine, José Antonio Sánchez Pazo, oenologist and technical director of Delgado Zuleta, defines the amontillado as “pure essence of Sanlúcar. A flavorful compendium of three centuries making wines with soul and heart. With reminiscences of the manzanilla it once was, but matured to reach fullness. It is an amber-colored amontillado, with greenish reflections and rim; on the nose, it is intense, clean, and deep, with aromas typical of evolved biological aging and certain notes of citrus and noble woods, while in the mouth, it is dry, with a fine initial entry, leading to a long finish in which oxidative notes are present.” As for the oloroso, for its creator Sánchez Pazo, it is “elegance in the form of wine. It has an attractive color that ranges between amber and mahogany, with warm, round, complex, and powerful aromas, reminiscent of dried fruits like walnut, toasted notes, and balsamic nuances that recall noble wood. In the mouth, it is flavorful, structured, powerful, enveloping, and full-bodied.” Finally, the oenologist José Antonio Sánchez Pazo defines his palo cortado as “a hidden treasure. A complex sequence that combines wisdom with chance and time with mystery. It has a dark chestnut color, almost mahogany, with golden and bright touches. On the nose, the richness of nuances stands out with aromas of dried fruits, sweet spices, toasted and roasted notes along with balsamic and saline touches, while in the mouth, it is dry, complex, elegant, broad, and persistent.”

A key contribution to this selection of wines has been a carefully chosen selection of casks recovered from old winery buildings, from the era before Delgado Zuleta’s current location in the Dehesilla pago, at the exit of Sanlúcar towards Chipiona. In the last century, the winery had multiple aging warehouses scattered throughout both the Barrio Alto and Barrio Bajo of Sanlúcar. Specifically, in The Original Sherry Company, the Amontillado Santiago and the Oloroso Asesoría are protagonists, belonging to soleras recovered from these buildings. According to Sánchez Pazo, these casks contained wines “that due to the very dynamics of our aging were diminishing and were condemned to disappear, so with this project we have been able to recover them in our 280th anniversary and give them the place they deserve as the legendary wines they are in the history of Sanlúcar