Alexander Jules - Sanlúcar de Barrameda & Jerez de la Frontera
Alexander Jules sherries are barrel selected bottlings by Alex Russan. Alex searches the Sherry Triangle for exceptional soleras of unique composition or circumstance, tasting each barrel in the solera, marking with chalk those he feels to be the most complex and elegant, or those that reflect the profile he would like to bring out from within that solera. All bottlings are en rama, being only gently filtered or entirely unfiltered, with no other treatments or additions.
Alexander Jules Manzanilla 8/41
100% Palomino Fino from Tosca Cerrada Albariza soils adjacent to the Guadalquivir river, with an especially cool, humid climate for the region.
Winemaking: Selected from 8 barrels on the top row of the solera where there is less humidity and more heat, resulting in a thinner layer of flor, and less prominent flor character, relative to the lower barrels—this allows the underlying wine and vineyard character to show through more. Spontaneous fermentation and flor. Bottled "en rama" with a gentle 0.65 filtration to preclude flor development in bottle. No SO2, fining or cold stabilization.
Production: 1,600 bottles
Alexander Jules Fino 9/65
100% Palomino Fino from the Pago Macharnudo and Pago Añina vineyards.
Winemaking: Selected from 9 barrels, dominated by one of two different flor yeast strains. Rarer Saccharomyces montuliensis, leads to full, pungent (high acetaldehyde), saline Finos, and some by the more common S. beticus, which creates more delicate, floral and elegant Finos. One saca per year, all fruit from Jerezano vineyards. Spontaneous fermentation and flor. Bottled "en rama" with a gentle 0.65 filtration to preclude flor development in bottle. No SO2, fining or cold stabilization.
Production: 1,600 bottles
Alexander Jules Amontillado 3/10
100% Palomino Fino from Tosca Cerrada Albariza soils adjacent to the Guadalquivir river, with an especially cool, humid climate for the region.
Winemaking: Aged 18 years (9 under flor) and a continuation of the solera utilized for the Alexander Jules Manzanilla 8/41—thus the same wine, but with an additional 9 years of oxidative aging. What historically would have been called an Amontillado Fino (a young Amontillado), it has one foot in its Manzanilla upbringing, the other in early oxidative character. This is the most food friendly style of sherry. Spontaneous fermentation and flor. Bottled "en rama" with a gentle 0.65 filtration to preclude flor development in bottle. No SO2, fining or cold stabilization.
Production: 1,000 1/2 bottles
Alexander Jules Amontillado "Sin Prisa" 1/42
100% Palomino Fino from Tosca Cerrada Albariza soils: ~50% chalk, holds water well and encourages elegant wines. The vineyards are adjacent to the Guadalquivir river, with an especially cool, humid climate for the region.
Winemaking: Selected from a single barrel of this very old, historic solera. Started around 1820, the solera has passed through many important winery's hands (including Argüeso and most recently, Valdespino). The barrel was a bota punta (end barrel, often considered the most complex in a solera). Francisco Yuste purchased the solera in 2001, and cared for it, not bottling from it until 2016, when we both did our first bottlings from it. It is named “Sin Prisa” (“without rush”) as he took his time to bottle it, and it is a wine to be slowly sipped and enjoyed, sin prisa. Spontaneous fermentation and flor. No SO2, filtration, fining or cold stabilization.
Production: 440 1/2 bottles.
Professional Reviews
RP91+ - Alexander Jules Manzanilla 8/41
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
Issue Date: December 29, 2017
The June 2017 bottling of the NV Manzanilla 8/41 was firing on all cylinders when I tasted it. It's a nine-year-old Manzanilla from the Pago del Hornillo with pungent aromas and flavors with very Sanlúcar character, a faintly reductive personality and lots of soil influence. It's tasty, dry, long and saline. Simply delicious. This was bottled "en rama" into 1,600 half-liter bottles.
RP92+ - Alexander Jules Fino 9/65
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
Issue Date: December 29, 2017
Showing as well or even better than the first bottling, the June 2017 version of the NV Fino 9/65 had more marked Fino character, having been selected from specific barrels of the soleras and criaderas of Fino Camborio from Juan Piñero, which contain wine from Macharnudo and Añina (some 30%). It's a textbook old Fino, pungent, saline and intense, with a powerful palate and great persistence. 1,600 50-milliliter bottles were filled in late June 2017. I'd love to see how this wine develops in bottle.
RP91 - Alexander Jules Amontillado 3/10
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
Issue Date: December 29, 2017
I tasted two bottlings of the same NV Amontillado 3/10, one from June and the second from November 2016, a wine of youth to middle age that shows the transition between biological and oxidative phases in a slightly disjointed way. It has a Manzanilla origin and that sharp palate and verticality. The different bottlings are from some 1,000 half-liters produced.
RP95 - Alexander Jules Amontillado Sin Prisa 1/42
Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez
Issue Date: December 29, 2017
There is a new and exceptional bottle of very old Amontillado, of which I tasted the November 2016 bottling—the first "saca"—the NV Amontillado Sin Prisa 1/42 (sin prisa means "no rush"). It's sourced from the "bota punta" of a solera of 42 butts that contains wine that easily exceeds 50 years of age. It's a sharp and vertical Amontillado of Sanlúcar character: like a razor, pungent, saline and marine, with notes of low tide, saltpeter, iodine and rusty iron. This is truly exceptional and I would say a very good value. Only 440 half bottles were filled in September 2016.
