Cultivo "La Santa" Palomino 2023

Direct Press Selection | April 2025

[PRESS 4 MIX • PRESS 4 WHITE]

Vanderbilt Ave seems to have an unusually high number of winemakers among its former staff. Kirk Sutherland has his Erde Wines, Matthew Hawkins is working at Brick House, and even Fifi, the former owner of this space, is making wine with his wife Jeanne in the Tarn region under their Domaine Josette et Michel label. Monica Palenzuela left us in 2019 to pursue winemaking and she has since started her own label “Cultivo.” We featured a previous release in our April 2022 Direct Press, a Montepulciano/Nero d’Avola blend made in California when she was working with Sam Bilbro and Evan Lewandowski in Mendocino. This release is from Jerez in Spain, which was her ultimate goal. “Since I began making my own wine in 2019, I always wanted to work with Spanish varieties,” she says. “It was my dream to make wine in Spain, given my family history (Cuban, by way of Spain) and my own connection to the country developed during my extensive travel there.” 

Her decision to work with Palomino Fino comes with serious baggage, as it is mostly associated with Sherry — one of the most polarizing and misunderstood wine styles. Most are familiar with the boozy, rich wines that had come to dominate Sherry beginning in the late 19th century with the so-called solera style. Monica, however, joins a small but growing contingent making unfortified Palomino that puts the focus on albariza: the chalky soil that coats everything in Jerez — from vineyards to cars to suit jackets — with a fine layer of white dust. 

The Cultivo “La Santa” is from dense albariza soil destemmed and spends two days on the skins and is aged under the flor, a naturally-occurring layer of yeast that gives Sherry and Jura wines their signature flavors and protects them from oxidation. Here it presents as notes of subtle sheep’s milk cheese rind, maybe Manchego or Pecorino. There are also notes of marzipan and wheat beer along with white pepper and crisp pear. It’s elegant and salty on the palate, complex and pretty. Though Monica picked these earlier to retain acidity, Palomino is not a high acid grape but this retains a bright clarity that adds to the tension and layers at play. Overall the wine has a unique personality but you’re able to pick out details without the idiosyncrasies hitting you over the head. It’s one of the most exciting expressions of dry, unfortified Palomino Fino I’ve come across. Among wine cognoscenti, Ramiro Ibanez of Cota 45 is perhaps the most celebrated of the unfortified Palomino movement, but for me, Monica’s entry into this field easily ranks up with Ramiro’s in terms of creating an exciting new path for Jerez Palomino. Jonathan Kemp