Palo Cortado De La Cruz

Luis Arroyo Felices, owner of the winery decided to start from scratch in his winery, Arfe, initials of his two last names. He did not want to buy good and old soleras, which were abundant in the year 2000 in consecrated wineries in Jerez, as the small and new wineries that happily begin to emerge do. He chose to make an authentic signature wine from the beginning, a detail that in itself, and in Jerez, constitutes a great novelty. He selected the best 'musts', all from the 2000 vintage of a Chipiona cooperative.

Actually, they were not musts in the true sense of the word, but rather over-table wines already headed to 18º. The amount needed to fill his 216 boots, not one more, not one less. The boots he bought on average 40–50 years old, empty and cheap. The truth is that in those years many boots were sold because unfortunately many wineries were dismantled in the area, in the 'framework'.

He acquired exactly 108,000 liters. And subsequently, each year he went and selects and buys 3,500-4,000 liters of 'must' (not suitable for minors) to spray the second hatchery.

Luis Arroyo does not vinify or head. He only grows and directs his wines towards what he wants, Palo Cortado. Which somehow comes to create a new concept of the Palo Cortado, a clear Palo Cortado design.

In his words, his Palo Cortado De La Cruz 1767, "have very little biological aging. Scarce. At most, maximum, one year. This is the time we call over-tables and it is the only time they normally spend as vintage wines. One Once these over-tables are classified by the venencia foreman, it is when the wines with the most structure are marked as 'rayas' and are headed for oxidative aging. They never really become part of a Solera of Fino. Among those wines marked as 'rayas', already in their boots, and in later veneered, is when in some of these boots a special finesse is appreciated by the foreman of venencia, and they are marked by crossing the vertical line that they already had in the boot with another horizontal one, of this is where its name Palo Cortado (cut stick) comes from. If the wine had been breeding for a time as Fino under velo de flor, the explanation for a subsequent increase in alcohol content to 17-18% would lead to an Amontillado, not a Palo Cortado."

Luis Arroyo decidedly defines the Palo Cortado as "a distinguished fragrant, fine and very chic". It is an excellent description that although it subtracts mystery and magic from the Palo Cortado, it gives it a certain nature card.

De la Cruz 1767 is a new author's Palo Cortado, which could well have been a vintage, but he has chosen to follow the traditional system with a very defined base, a very precise vintage, that of the year 2000. It is the confirmation in the 21st century of a very precise origin.

The bottles it bottles needless to say are raw, directly from the boot, but it is clear that it does not appear in the bottle because for Luis Arroyo, using the expression "en rama" would be almost a disrepute in the case of Palo Cortado. Even if they are Olorosoa or Amontillados, which are not their creatures in this case, but they could really be their first cousins.

You can tell this when serving it: The "casco de la Bodega" acquired by Luis Arroyo, in addition to having that privileged situation, has more added values. It was at the time part of the oldest firm in Jerez, Cabeza y Zarco, which although it was officially founded in 1750, in its archive there are documents that prove its greater antiquity, dating back to 1653.

In one of the old stone columns that supports the semicircular arches of the secluded cellar of two streets, there is a shield carved in the stone itself and an inscription on a tombstone. On the shield, a cross on some waves, the cross of the sea, and in the inscription it is perfectly read that it was rebuilt - therefore, it had to exist before - in the year 1767, being the administrator of Olbaneja (Orbaneja), another Jerez winery family from The time. This date and that cross on waves defined the name of their wine: De la Cruz 1767.

It is necessary to emphasize the clear symbolism of the label of your only product. A different design that combines modernity with atavisms. A cross, the cross of the sea, which is engraved on one of the columns of the small cellar, and which is also a clear reference to the cross of the foreman's chalk when he marks the boot. A Palo Cortado (stick crossed) by a line. An author's Palo Cortado.