Ramiro Ibanez / Cota 45

Thank you to importer José Pastor Selections for this estate profile.

To revive tradition and fully express the unique terroir of Jerez are the goals of Ramiro Ibáñez, the talented mind behind Cota 45. Ramiro is one of the most knowledgeable winemakers in Jerez, the storied region in southern Spain. A Jerez native, he graduated with a degree in enology and spent 3 years working around the world before returning home in 2009. Since then, he has been consulting for three different bodegas, and in 2012 was able to start his own project. He lovingly refers to his bodega as his “albarizatorio,” or a lab for unearthing the best that this legendary, white-chalk soil has to offer. The name is a reference to 45 meters above sea level, the point where he believes the best albariza soils can be found.

Jerez has a complicated and lengthy history. By the late 1800s sherry had gained tremendous popularity in Europe (England in particular) and Spain exported the wines in great quantities, with the bulk being rich, sweet, and not of high quality…and not consumed by the locals. Instead, they were drinking unfortified white table wines made from a wide variety of grapes. However, during this time of extreme growth in the region, most of those varieties were ripped up in favor of the more profitable (i.e. high-yielding) and well-known Palomino and Pedro Ximénez grapes. Ramiro and a few others are determined to resurrect & preserve the old varieties, and he also wanted to make unfortified table wine from old Palomino vines, just like the Jerezanos of the 19th Century favored.