In 1887 the owners of Sánchez Romate Hermanos began to make a unique, different brandy for their own consumption. The quality soon earned increasing fame and the winery decided to market it with the name Cardenal Mendoza.

The brandy Cardenal Mendoza, matured in Sherry casks, has an average age of at least 15 years, much more than the required minimum. All our brandies are Solera Gran Reserva, the highest category within the regulating council of Brandy de Jerez. It is the noble spirit from the area around Jerez de la Frontera in Spain. Cask at the Back refers to those barrels which were stored at the back of the warehouse and were usually there for longer than those at the front since Access was more difficult. The gin they contained thus developed a deeper colour and a slightly different carácter, above all in those barrels which had contained sherry.

In 1981, in celebration of the bi-centenary of the bodega and looking toward the new century, a parcel of Cardenal Mendoza was set aside to commemorate the new millennium. This brandy quietly matured for nearly two decades patiently awaiting its bottling and launch onto the market. We call it Carta Real in memory of a dinner at which wines and brandies from Sánchez Romate were served in the Royal Palace of Madrid on the 2nd December 1900.

At that time, Juan Manuel Sánchez y Gutiérrez de Castro, the bodega’s proprietor, was a minister to King Alfonso XII, and ennobled by him with the title Duke of Algeciras in recognition of his successful organisation of the International Conference of Algeciras in 1906.