Emilio Hidalgo is our leading sherry producer, a family-owned company based in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain. The company was established in 1874, with wines from a family member (legend has it that a few 1860 and 1861 wines still exist in the Hidalgo cellars). Their reputation for elegant, fine sherries is now managed by the fifth generation of the family. Their cellar master (capataz) Manuel Nieves has worked with the family for five decades. The capataz oversees the solera system of fractional blending, the key to complexity and character in fine Sherries. Using smell and taste, not a schedule, to monitor development and create Hidalgo’s famously complex Sherries, Manuel has honed the art of learning what the house styles “should” smell and taste like from his father, who also was a capataz. Manuel’s son is slated to replace him when it is time to retire. The bodega produces a fine line of highly regarded Sherries.