Elías González Gúzman
Bodegas Elías González (sometimes Elías González Gúzman) is a small family bodega in Sanlúcar de Barrameda that has been running for three generations. It has a history mostly as a bodega de crianza: they focused on producing grapes from their own vineyards and maturing wines, which were sold in bulk to other bodegas or to tabancos around town. Nowadays they also have a license to sell bottled products but it’s still mostly a local business, with just 2000 bottles sold each year.
Not a lot of information is available about this bodega, except that they seem to have an entire range of wines. Their best known product is the Manzanilla Elías. They also have a Manzanilla Pasada, Amontillado, Oloroso, Oloroso Cream, Moscatel and Pedro Ximénez, although it remains unclear whether they are all produced in-house.
Manzanilla Elías and Macarena
Manzanilla Macarena is also taken care of by Bodegas Elías González, although I must say it is a slightly confusing story. This 100 years old brand was owned by Luis Caballero, the company who also owns Bodegas Lustau. In 2008, after the acquisition of the former Domecq brands (La Ina, Botaina, etc.) Macarena was made part of the Lustau portfolio. However this decision seems to have been reversed recently. Since 2014, Macarena returned to the historic presentation and now the label says ‘elaborated by Elías González – distributed by LCCD’ (Luis Caballero).
The bodegas are quite a nice setting, so their premises are popular for weddings and presentations. They also have a small wine store in the Avenida V Centenario in Sanlúcar.
Bag in box sherry
Elías González is one of the bodegas that is currently defending alternative ways of packaging (instead of bottles), in particular the bag in box for Manzanilla and other wines. While other wine regions have already embraced these 5-litre plastic/cardboard containers for (cheap) wines, it is currently forbidden by the D.O. to sell Manzanilla or Sherry this way.
It is a highly polemic (and increasingly political) subject, with part of the producers firmly against this new type of packaging (claiming it would lower the image of the wines, which aren’t very expensive anyway) and other producers (mainly in Sanlúcar, where Manzanilla is seen as a low-profile wine already) highly in favour, and even demanding the resignation of the president of Fedejerez for not allowing further discussion on this.
Mind that a lot of Manzanilla producers are already selling ‘bag in box’ wines, including Elías González. It’s simply sold outside of the D.O. Manzanilla as a de-classified Manzanilla-type wine, with names like ‘Fina’ or ‘Fina en Rama’ without mentioning the name ‘Manzanilla’. It is quite popular, with a total sales volume of around 5 million litres – a strong argument in favour of this packaging.
Elías González sherry range
- Elías Manzanilla, the most important Manzanilla Fina of the house
- Manzanilla Macarena, which they maintain for Luis Caballero
- Manzanilla de la casa, around 7 years old, a Mazanilla Pasada in typical black bottles with white print
- Amontillado
- Oloroso
- Oloroso Cream
- Moscatel
- Pedro Ximénez
Contact
Calle Banda Playa, 66
11540 Sanlúcar de Barrameda
About the Author
Ruben is a Certified Sherry Educator who fell in love with sherry some 25 years ago, but switched to a higher gear in 2013 and started writing about it. Lived in Madrid for a couple of years, now back in Belgium. I also run a whisky blog over at www.whiskynotes.be
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