Meet the Sherry Masters

Originally published in Unfiltered #98
Words: Richard Goslan

Tevasa Cooperage

The team at Tevasa is led by Narciso Fernández, who oversees every part of operations from the felling of trees in Galicia in the northwest corner of Spain to the creation and seasoning of casks in Andalucía in the south.  

“At Tevasa cooperage we build 92 cask per day, and when they leave here they are totally ready,” says Narciso. “But they aren’t sherry casks yet, they’re only casks. Next, we need to send them to the bodegas in and around Jerez, where they will start the process to be seasoned with the sherry wine that the customer prefers – normally oloroso, or Pedro Ximénez, or it could be amontillado or manzanilla – it depends on the customer. And that part of th e process could last from a year and a half to more than two years, also depending on their preference.” 

The entire process, from cutting down the tree to sending the cask between the cooperage and the distillery, takes a minimum of five and more often up to six years, he says.

Ximénez-Spínola Bodega

The older ex-bodega cask is still a treasure to be sought out and cherished for what it can bring to a whisky. It’s just a little harder to track down, and that aspect of quality control is all important. There’s no better place to seek out some beautiful old bodega casks than at the Ximénez–Spínola winery at Las Tablas on the outskirts of Jerez. 

This is the domain of husband-and-wife team José Antonio Zarzana and Laura Murphy. Sherry is in their blood and José Antonio is a ninth-generation winemaker, with a heritage at Ximénez–Spínola dating back to 1729. The bodega produces premium wines with a specialisation in the Pedro Ximénez grape – but everything about their production is a challenge to any preconceptions you might hold about what PX sherry has to be.

José Antonio and Laura also want to showcase the diversity of wines that can come from the PX grape, from a dry ‘fino’ style through to the sweet PX we usually associate with the grape variety.  

That diversity is apparent when we enter the Ximénez–Spínola bodega, which is home to solera systems dating back to 1918 and 1964.  

“The casks that we source from Ximénez-Spínola are very high quality,” says SMWS head of whisky creation, Euan Campbell. “They offer a more subtle impact than sherry-seasoned casks, and match particularly well with an unpeated, fruity distillate styles.”

José Y Miguel Martin Cooperage

“We source our Spanish oak from the north of the country,” explains Miguel Martin of Bodegas José y Miguel Martin. “It is a hybrid of quercus petraea and robur. It’s very difficult to work with and around 20 per cent is immediately unsuitable for use in coopering due to defects in the grain. Sometimes up to 50 per cent.”  

Despite the inefficient processing, Spanish oak is highly prized for its unique flavour contribution. The wood is air seasoned in the yard at the cooperage near Huelva to the west of Seville. This process lasts for around 12 to 18 months but never more than two summers, as this would warp the wood beyond use.  

The freshly coopered casks are filled with sherry wine sourced from a Jerez co-operative. The casks are then stored for a period of one to three years, during which time tannins are extracted and the interaction between wood and wine elevates these vessels to something highly sought after in the whisky industry.  

The type of oak and the length of seasoning depends on the location where the casks will be maturing whisky and the desired end result. A one-year seasoned Spanish oak cask, for example, might work very well in the colder Scottish climate but would likely result in a highly tannic whisky in a hot and humid country with more intense extraction.  

Comparing seasoned casks to ex-bodega, Miguel asserts: “It really depends on what you’re looking for, there’s no right or wrong, no better or worse. They are just different.”  

Fernández-Gao Bodega

Fernández-Gao dates back to 1750 and was acquired by brothers Antonio and Juan Carlos Sánchez Gago in 2014, who began small scale production of a range of sherries in 2016. 

The casks they have supplied to the SMWS are ex-wine barriques that have typically been used for between three and five years in wine production, which have then been rejuvenated by the STR (shave, toast, re-char) process. The casks are then seasoned with wines from the bodega for a minimum of 12 months.

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