After all the bombo I have been giving the vintages, the terroir and the doing of new things today I had to have another glass of this (I had attached a link here but the first blog post has been mistakenly deleted in what can only be a new personal best in blogging incompetence). This is after all a vintage (MMXII) it is terroir specific (although don’t ask me which) and it has some interesting cepage.

Specifically, it has six different grape varieties: 50% Palomino Fino and 10% each of Beba, Mantúo Pilas (aka “Uva Rey”), Perruno, Cañocazo and Mantúo Castellano, all of them believed to have been used traditionally in the production of the original “cortado wines”. They were hand harvested from plots up and down el marco, fermented in bota and then aged in the same bota for 20 months: 10 months under flor and then 10 months traditional ageing.

As I remarked in my now long lost post, I first read about this on Spanishwinelover and in an article by Paz Ivison on Elmundovino.com and was intrigued enough to pick up a bottle in Reserva y Cata. It is marked with a “cortado” and the name certainly conjures up the idea of palo cortados (as does the combination of biological and oxidative ageing), but this is unlike any palo cortado you would have tried before: it isn’t even old enough to be a fino and the different varietals really bring different characteristics.

In colour it is slightly more garish gold than I remember but it has the same delicate structure and butterscotch nose and flavours. Very fatty in the mouth and the buttery caramel flavours are very gentle but I think the first time around I underestimated the power and persistence of it. It is not a big profile but it is an intense flavour and lasts a long time.

I really like it more and more. Maybe the extra days open have given a touch more oxygen in a good way.