La Panesa Fino

Bodegas Hidalgo is one of the oldest producers in the D.O. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry. Tradition and ancient expertise are still alive in Clavel Street, in the heart of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), where the family are still making their wines today. In charge now is the fifth generation, faithful guardians of some of the house’s gems, like La Panesa Fino.

With so much tradition and so many years behind them, almost two centuries, the wines of this house ooze history. The story of La Panesa Fino began in 1962, in the La Panesa solera (named after the vineyard), which was launched to celebrate the birth of Alfonso Hidalgo. In these oak barrels, the yeast cap, which can reach up to two centimetres thick, has been working the magic of biological aging for 60 years, giving La Panesa Fino a very unique life. This length of time is not common in the Marco del Jerez, where the wines, always aged for a minimum of two years, undergo much shorter biological aging periods.

The persistence of the yeast cap in La Panesa Fino (caused by the humidity and temperature of the cellar) is unusual. In other places it is likely that this yeast cap disappears sooner; but this has not happened at Bodegas Hidalgo, where their care and maintenance are key tasks and include less frequent additions (where an amount of the same type of wine but younger is added to a criadera or solera), very small sacas (the amount of wine extracted from the solera for consumption) and constant monitoring.

Finally La Panesa Fino is not filtered, instead it is simply clarified after a long rest before bottling. Undoubtedly, the best way to understand the D.O. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry.