Source: Classical Wines of Spain

Source: Classical Wines of Spain

AURORA | BODEGAS YUSTE

Sherry, Spain

Sanlucar native Francisco (Paco) Yuste has sold Manzanilla his entire life, building a successful beverage distributorship in the provinces of Cadiz and Cordoba. In 1991, he purchased historic Bodega Santa Ana in Sanlucar's Barrio Bajo, including its centenerian solera, and began operation as an almacenista. In 2001, he added Bodega Los Angeles in the Barrio Alto, restoring it to Manzanilla production and for refreshing his criaderas at Santa Ana. Bodega Miraflores, founded in 1956 by a group of growers in that famous Sanlucar pago, was acquired in 2010 to serve as production base.

Yuste quality starts in the vineyards with the fabulous 46 hectare Vina La Alamedilla estate in the Jerez pago of Carrascal. Longterm sources in El Puerto de Santa Maraia's Balbaina and Sanlucar's Miraflores contribute in equal parts to combine freshness and minerality with ample body.

New wines arrive to Bodega Miraflores. Just 800 meters from the Guadalquivir estuary, Miraflores offers ideal conditions for sobretablas selection and the first stages of Manzanilla development. After five years, the manzanilla fina passes to Bodega Los Angeles for aging as Aurora Manzanilla before entering the solera at Bodega Santa Ana in the Barrio Bajo, where La Kika is bottled by hand from selected individual botas.

In 2015, Yuste's acquisition of the classic Aurora brand provided impetus for export launch. This was followed in 2016 by purchasing Herederos de Argueso with its famous Manzanilla, San Leon. Yuste's treasures include the 18th century soleras of hte Conde de Aldama, who preserved his prephylloxeric wines by encasing the botas in plaster, preventing their admidxture with wines from grafted vines during approximately 50 years.

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