September 2025 Mariner's Society
This month’s Mariner’s Club is a journey across Iberian coastlines and timelines. We are tasting the intermingling of terroir and time in three different ways. We begin in Sanlúcar de Barrameda with the bright, saline rush of Barbadillo’s Manzanilla en Rama Salicornia, a wine that feels like the ocean breeze bottled at high tide. From there, we glide deeper into the mysteries of age with Barbadillo’s Obispo Gascón Palo Cortado VORS, a sherry that has spent decades evolving in cask, marrying finesse and power in one of the rarest expressions of the region. And finally, we cross to Portugal’s Lisbon coast to taste Carcavelos, once nearly extinct, now a resurrected luxury—an oxidative fortified wine with centuries of history and a profile all its own. Together, these three bottles form a neat trio: the fresh, the aged, and the almost lost, each telling its story of place, patience, and persistence along different shores of the Atlantic.
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Quinta dos Pesos 1996 Carcavelos Regular Price: $54.99
Club Price: $46.74
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What more interesting opener to introducing a wine than the fact that its maker is no longer alive and, seeing he was one of the few to make wine in this style, this wine may well be the last of its kind. As if the passing of the maker wasn't enough, the area in which the grapes for this wine were grown has rapidly changed and vineyard land is heavily encroached on by real estate. With land and winemaker lost, this wine represents a bygone era in a bottle that's well worth uncorking. Let's do so figuratively now and literally later.
Carcavelos is one of Portugal's traditional and historic wine styles, and it has become quite rare. Carcavelos is part of the Lisbon wine region and has a Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC), which is the Portuguese equivalent of the French Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), ensuring its quality and authenticity. As importer Haus Alpenz explains in more detail: "Carcavelos is the smallest wine appellation in Portugal. Lying west of Lisbon as it stretches along the Targus estuary in search of the Atlantic, its vineyards were nearly consumed by expansion and development during the last quarter of the 20th century, until just 25 hectares—now protected—remained. It first came to prominence in the 18th century under the Marquis de Pombal, who possessed significant vineyard holdings in the hills surrounding Oeiras and Cascais. Carcavelos quickly gained renown, when it was gifted by King Jose I of Portugal to the court of Beijing in 1752 and later was featured in Christie’s first-ever London wine auction, appearing alongside Hock, Burgundy and Malaga. Yet production remained small (relative to that of Port and Madeira), and the arrival of phylloxera in the late 19th century began Carcavelos' slow fade—even as it was officially demarcated in 1908 and recognized with Port, Moscatel de Setúbal and Madeira as one of four traditional Portuguese Vinhos Generosos. Carcavelos wine is typically made from a blend of white grape varieties, including Arinto, Galego Dourado, and Ratinho, among others. It is a fortified wine, which means that it has had a distilled grape spirit added to it, increasing its alcohol content. This process also preserves some of the grape's natural sugars, giving the wine a characteristic sweetness."
Carcavelos is a vinho generoso, or strong fortified wine, produced from a blend of up to nine different white and red varieties (for the whites: Arinto, Gallego Dourado and Ratinho are most common; for the reds: Trincadeira, Negra Mole and Castelão). The fermentation can be arrested via mutage, or the wine can be fermented dry and subsequently fortified with vinho abafado (a fermented grape must, preserved by the addition of neutral alcohol), bringing it to 18-20% abv, typically with 80-95 g/l of residual sugar, similar to the sweetness level of Boal Madeira. The wine must then be aged a minimum of three years in cask, but elevage can range from five to 20 years, the wine becoming oxidative in character, with barrels more or less topped-up, depending on the style of the producer. In this case, the producer is Quinta dos Pesos's Manoel de Boullosa who is sadly no longer alive: :-(
As importer Haus Alpenz (the only US expert on this rare gem) details in their trade materials:
"The wines of Quinta dos Pesos offer a glimpse into the long history of Carcavelos, one of Portugal's great Vinhos Generosos and perhaps its rarest wine. Situated in the village of Caparide, west of Lisbon, the estate was acquired by Manoel de Boullosa in 1963 and its vineyards were painstakingly restored over the course of the next twenty years.
Base map data ©2017 Google, Inst. Geogr. NacionalIn keeping with ancient tradition, a mixture of white (Arinto, Gallego Dourado, Ratinho, Rabo do Ovelha) and red grapes (João Santarem, Espadeiro Tinto) from its 3.5 hectares were co-fermented and aged in cask for many years. Winemaking operations ceased in 2005 as a result of M. Bullosa's untimely passing, and only a few vintages had been commercialized in limited quantities."
Carcavelos is often quoted as delivering the freshness of a good Madeira with the long, fruity, caramel finish of port. Carcavelos exhibits notes of caramel, dried fruits, and nuts, often with a hint of spice and orange pith. It is characterized by a honeyed, topaz hue and a sweetness balanced by a bright, fresh acidity and a salty, mineral tang from the coastal terroir. The finish is typically nutty, elegant, and surprisingly fresh, preventing it from being overly viscous or heavy like some other dessert wines.
We chose this 1996 because next year will be The Spanish Table's 25th anniversary, so choosing a vintage ending in a 6 seemed appropriate. It also seems appropriate because Carcavelos seems to be as rare as our shop - amazing, maybe a sign of a bygone era, and well worth enjoying.
We recommend taking a good long time to enjoy this amazingly unique desert wine. It is a wine on the brink of extinction and should be savored, slowly, and with good company. Once opened, it will last, but you won't be able to resists its historic gravitational pull.
- BMS
 
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Barbadillo Regular Price: $26.99
Club Price: $22.94
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Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a place where the ocean is never far away, and you can taste it in the wines. This is the home of Manzanilla, the lightest and freshest expression of sherry, shaped by the humid sea breezes that allow a thick veil of flor to thrive. That protective layer of yeast is what gives Manzanilla its signature briny edge, a whisper of the Atlantic in every sip. For over two hundred years, no one has been more central to this story than Barbadillo, the family-run house that quite literally put Manzanilla in the bottle for the first time. They remain the largest and most important producer in Sanlúcar, but what’s most impressive is how they’ve never stopped finding new ways to express their home turf.
“Salicornia” is one of those fresh expressions, and one we’re thrilled to share. It’s part of Barbadillo’s organic project, the fruit of vineyards that have been farmed without chemicals for more than fifteen years. The name itself nods to the wild sea asparagus that grows in the marshes around Sanlúcar, a perfect symbol of the way this wine seems to channel the salt air. Drawn straight from the cask and bottled en rama — unfiltered, unpolished, alive — it captures the essence of Sanlúcar at a particular moment, like bottling the tide. And when you have the first sip, the characters on this page will simply reduce to two words: "#%^& yeah!"
In the glass it’s electric: green apple and lemon peel, a splash of olive brine, a breeze of sea spray. It’s bracing and mouthwatering, with an energy that makes you want to reach for another sip (and probably a plate of boquerones or Marcona almonds). Critics have already called it “dangerously drinkable,” and we totally agree. Again, it elicits two words: "#%^& yeah!" But beyond its sheer deliciousness, it’s also one of the very few certified organic sherries on the market today, proof that tradition and sustainability don’t have to be at odds.
For our club this month, Salicornia plays the perfect counterpoint to the Carcavelos. Where Carcavelos offers richness, nuts, and oxidative depth, this Manzanilla is all about brightness and sea-spray freshness. Put together, the two wines let us taste the Atlantic from opposite shores: Portugal’s Lisbon coast on one side, Andalucía’s Cádiz coast on the other. Both steeped in history, both fortified, both coastal, but so strikingly different in personality. That’s the beauty of Iberian wine, and why we can’t wait for you to discover them side by side. Or simply by the side of a small paper cone of freshly deep-fried sardines or anchovy turned in flour and salt? "#%^& yeah!" - BMS
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Barbadillo Regular Price: $26.99
Club Price: $22.94
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If Manzanilla is Sanlúcar’s sea breeze in a glass, then Palo Cortado is its mystery. This is the rarest style in the sherry family, the wine that refuses to be neatly categorized. It begins its life like a Fino or a Manzanilla, under a protective layer of flor, but somewhere along the way the flor falters, the casks are marked with a “cut stick” (palo cortado), and the wine takes a new path. It turns oxidative, like an Amontillado or Oloroso, but carries a finesse and aromatic lift that is uniquely its own. The best examples combine the elegance of Amontillado with the richness of Oloroso, and that balancing act has made Palo Cortado the most elusive and intriguing of all sherries. You geeks know it well, the rest of it still marvel at understanding its power and finesse.
Barbadillo’s Obispo Gascón is a benchmark for the style, drawn from some of their oldest and most treasured soleras. This is a VORS bottling, meaning the wines in the blend average at least 30 years of age. The initials stand for Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum — “selected as the finest and rarest wines.” It’s not just a label flourish but a guarantee, backed by tasting panels and audits, that what’s in the bottle has truly seen decades of quiet evolution in cask. Few wines in the world carry such patience in their DNA.
What emerges is astonishing. The wine pours a deep mahogany, and the nose is immediately captivating: orange peel, roasted hazelnuts, toffee, and polished wood, with a savory undertone that hints at leather and spice. On the palate it is powerful yet precise, silky at first and then spreading out with endless layers of nuts, citrus oil, dried fruit, and salty tang. The finish doesn’t so much end as fade away slowly, like the last notes of a cathedral organ. This is sherry at its most contemplative, a wine to sip slowly and let unfurl.
For a house as large and historic as Barbadillo, Obispo Gascón is a reminder that scale doesn’t preclude intimacy. This is a wine made in tiny quantities from a handful of ancient casks, a treasure passed down from one generation of cellar masters to the next. It connects us directly to the long tradition of Palo Cortado in Sanlúcar — a style born of chance, but refined into one of the great, deliberate luxuries of the wine world.
In the club this month, it also serves as a counter-balance to the breezy, sea-spray freshness of Salicornia. Where Salicornia is all salt and air, Obispo Gascón is depth and time. Put them side by side and you see the full spectrum of what sherry can be — from the most ephemeral, bracing sip to the most profound and enduring. That range is exactly why we keep coming back to this corner of Spain: there’s no other place on earth where wine tells of time, place, and patience so eloquently. - BMS
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