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Buy Wine from Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo
Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo is not one of those firms that seek easy applause or passing fads. Nor does it need to recall its legacy on every label. Those who are familiar with its wines know that there is no improvisation here. Founded in 1874 and still in the hands of the same family, this Jerez house represents one of the purest, most intimate and quietly revolutionary versions of the Marco de Jerez. Its headquarters, an old cellar house in the centre of Jerez de la Frontera, today houses around twenty oak casks that contain a history of more than five generations and a very precise way of understanding wine.
Albariza soils, real vineyards
The vineyard is not huge, but it is relevant: classic vineyards such as Balbaína or Macharnudo, with their pure albariza soils, chalky and spongy like a dry sponge cake, which retains winter water and regulates water stress with an elegance that is only seen in very specific areas of the world. Unlike other larger-scale producers who have outsourced part of their sourcing, Hidalgo continues to work directly with local winegrowers with whom they have decades, if not centuries, of relationships. There is no industrial formula here. Nor is there any need for it.
La Panesa - The fino that plays in a different league
Their Fino La Panesa -almost a secret of sommeliers and wine lovers- is perhaps the best example of the house style. A wine that breaks the mould with its silence. Compared to the standard finos on the market, bottled after just 4 or 5 years under velo de flor, La Panesa is kept for more than 15 years in criaderas and soleras, preserving a surprising liveliness, an electric tension and an almost contradictory aromatic complexity. Baked apple, brine, raw almonds, notes of old bakery and a sharp reminder of wet chalk. All in perfect balance, without fuss.
It is not a wine for beginners, but it is not inaccessible either: its power is gentle and its depth, serene. The key is how the wine ages: very slowly, without touching too much, allowing the flor to do its work and weaken at its own pace, letting oxygen in only when it should. It is, in a way, a fino that already wants to be amontillado, but stays on that border. There is a beautiful melancholy in that.
El Tresillo - Amontillado with memory and character
The Amontillado El Tresillo is another story. It is named after the card game played by the family's grandparents between butts and tabancos. This wine, which spends decades under biological and oxidative ageing, has reached 50 years of ageing in its V.O.R.S. versions. However, what is really surprising is its aromatic precision, its ability to express layers without exhausting the palate. It's like reading a classic author who, for some reason, still sounds modern. Notes of blond tobacco, antique woodwork, bitter orange peel and a saline background reminiscent of saltpetre clinging to the skin after an afternoon on the coast of Cádiz.
Here, time rules, not haste
Beyond wine, Emilio Hidalgo's philosophy is based on absolute respect for time. In an area that has historically abused blending and large scales, this house works as if each butt were a novel written by hand. "Every time you taste a sachet of La Panesa, you are tasting a fragment of who we are", said Juan Manuel Hidalgo, the current head of the winery, in a recent interview. There is no urgency, no hollow storytelling. There is content. There is depth.
Pedro Ximénez without cloying - Sweetness with nerve
The house Pedro Ximénez, for example, does not pretend to be a sugar bomb, as is often the case. There is concentration, of course, but also unusual finesse, with notes of dried figs, black tea and roasted coffee, balanced with cleansing acidity and structure. Nothing cloying. Everything flows.
In a world of labels, Hidalgo goes its own way
In a Jerez that seeks to reinvent itself, Emilio Hidalgo does not need to reinvent itself. His apparent immobility is, in reality, a form of lucid resistance. While others seek notoriety in flashy labels or experimental editions, this bodega continues to rely on the power of time, invisible work and accumulated knowledge.
Anyone who wants to understand why the Marco de Jerez is experiencing a second golden age should start here. Because behind every glass of Hidalgo there is more than wine: there is a way of being in the world. And that, today, is no small thing.
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Buy Wine from Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo
Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo is not one of those firms that seek easy applause or passing fads. Nor does it need to recall its legacy on every label. Those who are familiar with its wines know that there is no improvisation here. Founded in 1874 and still in the hands of the same family, this Jerez house represents one of the purest, most intimate and quietly revolutionary versions of the Marco de Jerez. Its headquarters, an old cellar house in the centre of Jerez de la Frontera, today houses around twenty oak casks that contain a history of more than five generations and a very precise way of understanding wine.
Albariza soils, real vineyards
The vineyard is not huge, but it is relevant: classic vineyards such as Balbaína or Macharnudo, with their pure albariza soils, chalky and spongy like a dry sponge cake, which retains winter water and regulates water stress with an elegance that is only seen in very specific areas of the world. Unlike other larger-scale producers who have outsourced part of their sourcing, Hidalgo continues to work directly with local winegrowers with whom they have decades, if not centuries, of relationships. There is no industrial formula here. Nor is there any need for it.
La Panesa - The fino that plays in a different league
Their Fino La Panesa -almost a secret of sommeliers and wine lovers- is perhaps the best example of the house style. A wine that breaks the mould with its silence. Compared to the standard finos on the market, bottled after just 4 or 5 years under velo de flor, La Panesa is kept for more than 15 years in criaderas and soleras, preserving a surprising liveliness, an electric tension and an almost contradictory aromatic complexity. Baked apple, brine, raw almonds, notes of old bakery and a sharp reminder of wet chalk. All in perfect balance, without fuss.
It is not a wine for beginners, but it is not inaccessible either: its power is gentle and its depth, serene. The key is how the wine ages: very slowly, without touching too much, allowing the flor to do its work and weaken at its own pace, letting oxygen in only when it should. It is, in a way, a fino that already wants to be amontillado, but stays on that border. There is a beautiful melancholy in that.
El Tresillo - Amontillado with memory and character
The Amontillado El Tresillo is another story. It is named after the card game played by the family's grandparents between butts and tabancos. This wine, which spends decades under biological and oxidative ageing, has reached 50 years of ageing in its V.O.R.S. versions. However, what is really surprising is its aromatic precision, its ability to express layers without exhausting the palate. It's like reading a classic author who, for some reason, still sounds modern. Notes of blond tobacco, antique woodwork, bitter orange peel and a saline background reminiscent of saltpetre clinging to the skin after an afternoon on the coast of Cádiz.
Here, time rules, not haste
Beyond wine, Emilio Hidalgo's philosophy is based on absolute respect for time. In an area that has historically abused blending and large scales, this house works as if each butt were a novel written by hand. "Every time you taste a sachet of La Panesa, you are tasting a fragment of who we are", said Juan Manuel Hidalgo, the current head of the winery, in a recent interview. There is no urgency, no hollow storytelling. There is content. There is depth.
Pedro Ximénez without cloying - Sweetness with nerve
The house Pedro Ximénez, for example, does not pretend to be a sugar bomb, as is often the case. There is concentration, of course, but also unusual finesse, with notes of dried figs, black tea and roasted coffee, balanced with cleansing acidity and structure. Nothing cloying. Everything flows.
In a world of labels, Hidalgo goes its own way
In a Jerez that seeks to reinvent itself, Emilio Hidalgo does not need to reinvent itself. His apparent immobility is, in reality, a form of lucid resistance. While others seek notoriety in flashy labels or experimental editions, this bodega continues to rely on the power of time, invisible work and accumulated knowledge.
Anyone who wants to understand why the Marco de Jerez is experiencing a second golden age should start here. Because behind every glass of Hidalgo there is more than wine: there is a way of being in the world. And that, today, is no small thing.