Bodegas César Florido was founded in 1887 and is currently maintained by César Florido, a descendant of the founder. The winery is the oldest bodega in the town of Chipiona, located near Sanlúcar within the Jerez denomination of origin. As one of the oldest bodegas in Chipiona, a town that was once home to 83 wineries, César Florido is one of two bodegas that is producing and bottling its own sherries. With three wineries in Chipiona, one of which is just 40m from the Atlantic Ocean, César Florido also buys grapes directly from vineyards, as opposed to buying must, like a majority of the region’s other bodegas. Vineyards that are planted to Pedro Ximenez (Sherry’s other sticky) are located in Montilla-Moriles, which is one of the six D.O.s in Andalusia that is approximately 225km from Jerez. And though Chipiona is dedicated to growing Moscatel, most of its wines are sold in bulk to the region’s sherry houses. As one of the only producers of Moscatel to bottle his own wines, César lobbied the Consejo Regulador to no avail, to allow all six of his wines to be labelled as sherry. With three Moscatel cuvées that include Moscatel Dorado, Especial and Pasas, César Florido has single-handedly rescued the latter from extinction. They ferment with indigenous yeasts, the Moscatel Dorado is from grpaes that are crushed and fermented to approximately 15% abv without any drying, before spending one year in the solera. Moscatel Pasas is made from grapes that are hand-selected on the vine and then dried on fields of sand for two to three weeks to better concentrate the sugars in the berry. Once the fermentation is halted by the addition of neutral grape spirits, the wine is then aged in the solera for five to nine years before bottling. These are intense yet very drinkable sweet sherries. They are perfect for all manor of desserts and strong blue cheeses and served chilled in the summer, also make a very different but delicious apero.
