sumariosummary - Bodegas Williams & Humbert

R E P O R T
6 GLOBAL DECEMBER
In 2004, Williams & Humbert
added the ‘Vintage Hall’ to their
magnifi cent facilities. In addition
to the vintage wines that its name
indicates, the room houses their
oldest wines, classifi ed by the Regulatory
Council as 12, 15, 20 or 30
years old.
The vintage wines, unlike the blended
sherries made under the Criaderas
y Soleras system typical in
Jerez, are young musts with alcohol
added. They are put in a cask
and then never touched again,
except to extract small samples
and check on their progress over
time. This must, which has been
“alcoholized” to 18º and can already
be called wine, is chosen from
amongst the best harvests each
year in order to evolve into highquality
wines, normally Olorosos,
Amontillados or Palo Cortados.
The history of vintage wines in
Williams dates back to 1920. That
year the Williams & Humbert family
set aside a cask of must, already
with enough alcohol to be wine, to
celebrate a birth in the family. In
the years following they set aside
additional casks for the same purpose
and in 1924 they decided to
make it a tradition. The grapes are
always from the same vineyard,
Balbaína, one of the most renowned
vineyards due to its excellent
quality. In addition to Balbaína, there
are another 280 vineyards in the
Jerez quality demarcation. Some of
the most famous ones are: Carrascal,
Añina, Macharnudo, Miraflores
(Sanlúcar) and Tizón. These vineyards,
called pagos, are areas of
land with characteristics – terrain,
type of soil and its composition, rainfall,
etc – that differentiate them
from each other.
Williams & Humbert’s vintages include
every year from 1920 to present,
except for a few years kept
in bottles owing to the constant
evaporation, as the wine is never
refilled nor “refreshed” with other
sherries. If the development is normal,
approximately every 15 years
the wine is transferred to smaller
containers in order to keep it in
optimum conditions. The casks
that are ageing are generally filled
to 80% of their capacity to ensure
that enough surface is exposed
to the air. According to some calculations,
a cask from which no
wine has been extracted can take
up to 70 years to completely evaporate,
although it depends on
many factors – how many samples
have been taken out or the
level of evaporation (not all casks
are the same) Some of these factors
cannot be predicted; e.g., in
1992 no wine was made as there
was a strike in the sector and the
harvest was not collected. After a
long period of time, when there
is little wine left in the casks, it is
transferred to bottles especially labelled
and sealed for these wines;
the wine will remain in them for
the rest of its days. In the hall’s
display case they already have bottles
from 1926, 1930, 1933, 1938
and 1939, as well as a bottle commemorating
the winery’s first 100
years of existence.
It is very interesting to observe the
evolution and improvement seen in
the wines of different ages. As the
wines age, they tend to get darker,
their taste is accentuated, the organoleptic
characteristics vary and the
alcohol contest gradually rises until it
reaches the suitable level – the maximum
for generosos such as Olorosos
and Amontillados is 22º. To illustrate
this, the 1930 vintage was classified
as acceptable in 1957 and in 1965
it reached the category of very old
wine. However, the vintage wines
never stop developing in the bottle.
The complete collection of Williams
& Humbert is unique within the
Jerez wineries; it has been studied
by the University of Cádiz to find
a model with which they can certify
the age of the vintages while
also determining the age of other
old sherry wines. The results have
been quite satisfactory.
Samples of these wines were rarely
taken out nor did they often bottle
them, until in 1999 representatives
from Christie’s auction house
came and carried out painstaking
tastings of the different vintages.
They were bottled and auctioned at
an average price of €250 per bottle.
An additional two auctions of these
sherry treasures have since taken
place – one in New York and another
in Los Angeles. The next will
take place in London.
Categorized wines
There are two types of categorized
wines: those categorized by age
(12 or 15 years old) and those qualified
as aged over 20 years or over