Manuel Lozano: helping nature

16/06/2012

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When it comes to making still wines the grapes used in the winemaking process are a key factor and one of the elements which carries the most weight in the final result. In fact, winemakers generally say, off the record, that the best winemaker among them is he or she who manages to spoil the grapes the least. However, this is not the case with Sherry; not that the raw material is not important but in general Palomino Finograpes grow perfectly well unaided, both in quantity and quality, in the ‘albariza’ soils of Cádiz, as does the Moscatel (Muscat) and Pedro Ximénezvarieties in the sandy soils nearer the sea.

In contrast, the unique approach to winemaking in the Sherry Triangle means that the complex ageing techniques and the art of ‘cabeceo’ (the coupage of various wines) are this region’s overriding key factors; factors which allow an impressively wide range of wines to be made from the musts of only a few grape varieties. In addition, the fact that Sherry is not usually a ‘single-vintage’ wine, but the result of a coupage of wines from various vintages, seems to confirm that the role played by the region’s winemakers is quite different from that usually associated with the role, and could even be considered as more important than that usually played in other regions.

Curiously, Spain boasts a number of ‘celebrity winemakers’ from its many wine regions, all of whom are very much in the media, with the exception of Jerez. There are also a number of great bodegas making great wines, whose technical directors are not particularly well-known by consumers or within the sector itself. But in a region such as Jerez, where many world famous wines are made – authentic gems of the wine world –, the winemakers behind them are hardly ever spoken about, not even by trade press. One of the reasons behind this might be because of the long ageing process associated with the wines, as both Sherry and Manzanilla are aged for three years in wine butts, old 550-litre American oak barrels, before being released on the market. And many ‘soleras’ (a group of butts containing the same wine) are easily over 30 years old. This is usually the reason why the content of the wine butts is not just the work of one single winemaker, but that of many professionals who over the years have taken part in its development.

At Bodegas Emilio Lustau, the team headed by Manuel Lozano Salado – ‘general foreman’ for more than a decade — is responsible for ensuring that respect for the tradition of their predecessors and the character of the wine, which has won worldwide recognition, is maintained throughout the process. As the saying goes at the bodega: “The wine is created by nature: the work of the foreman is to make sure nature gets all the help it needs”.