The guys at elmundovino unveiled their wines of the year this morning and I am glad to say I have all three (one of them only since this afternoon it must be said).

But I am particularly glad to see that the Oloroso la Barajuela 2013 – my own wine of the year – has at last received the recognition it deserves.

The appreciation of wines is by definition subjective, but even so I cannot understand the treatment that this wine has received in some other rankings and guides this year. What was most surprising was not so much the absolute level of the scores given – although they were unduly mean in my view – but the comparison with scores given to other wines in Jerez and elsewhere. It would be unfair to pick out any one example but you don’t have to look far to find some relative scoring that is borderline absurd.

So it is heartening that it has at least been recognized by the elmundovino panel, which uniquely amongst the leading sources tastes wines blind and which (maybe not coincidentally) I have generally found to be the most reliable measure of the wines of the region (in 2015 they also nailed it in my view).

And there is more good news – first with the 3 Miradas by Alvear and Envinate scooping white wine of the year (not tried it yet) and, among the runners up, in the guise of Cota 45’s Encrucijado 2014. It is almost as if these small production, convention-defying wines show better when tasted blind …