More shocking blogging here – thought I had saved it as a draft and in fact it has been posted for the last two days with nary a word of explanation. I might just bluff it out and claim it was a trailer – might work.

Anyway this is a wine I have been after for a while and was really happy to finally catch up with. Forlong is a class operation down in Puerto de Santa Maria, making table wines with classic local varieties: palomino,  pedro ximenez and tintilla (and some wild cards like a Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé). The name of this one is clearly a reference to the famous Pareto ratio and means that they make 80% of their sales to just 20 really keen bloggers. Alternatively, it could refer to the fact that this wine is 80% palomino and 20%, er, more palomino, from a different pago.

More to the point, although it is 80% palomino and 20% palomino, this has had some contact with the skins of the pedro ximenez, which have been macerated in the wine and give it a rich aroma, buzz and volume – almost tannic. As you can see above it has a deeper colour than you might expect (did I try a rosé before? can’t remember). Then the aromas are of honeysuckle, citrus and salty chalk and the flavours aren’t far away from there, before a long, intense finish.

Really liked this one – as tasty as it is inventive.