PX

Don PX Convento Selección 1929

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

Final wine of a fantastic lineup at Taberna Palo Cortado was this 1929 Don PX Convento Selección – an 87 year old single vintage wine no less. Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite match the spritely 85 year old that it followed, much less the youthful 61 year old before that.

In colour it was between a brownish black and a blackish brown. On the nose it was much sweeter, and while there were savoury notes they were not as spicey or as defined as on the earlier wines. On the palate it was extremely sweet – maybe the lack of spices made it seem much sweeter than the others – and although there was salinity it didn’t have the same balance.

Still a long, long, leathery, treacly monster, just not quite in the same class as its amazing brothers.

 

Don PX Convento Selección 1931

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

The fourth wine of a quite unbelievable quality tasting at Taberna Palo Cortado was this 1931 Don PX Convento Selección – amazingly, an 85 year old single vintage pedro ximenez. Interestingly, this one was the first one that had the profile I expected – the most stereotypically “super old PX”.

It was black again – maybe a bit blacker than the last one but not that you could tell with the naked eye at that time of night. On the nose though this one was all pepper and spices, raisin of course but now raisin as dry as dust and heading to coffee and leather.

Then on the palate it was no disappointment, all those spices, big sweetness like black treacle, coffee like a coffee liqueur, then those dry wine flavours of wood, tobacco, leather, fading to a black treacle tail for what seems an eternity.

A night of superlatives, what can I say.

 

 

Don PX Convento Selección 1955

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

Wine number 3 of the tasting at the Taberna Palo Cortado was this absolute beauty. Another single vintage wine, now 61 years old, and showing sensational integration.

A deeper black brown in colour, like crude oil, this had the most amazing, surprizing, nose. Yes it had raisins and maybe chocolate, but it was for all the world like an overripe Chateauneuf du Pape with jammy fruit and spices, again oranges, but now mouldy orange peel from the back of the bin.

Then on the palate this came across as lighter, with nice acidity and sweeter spices, no astringency and much less mineral than the 1965. It again had a bittersweetness to it but rather than savoury it was the bitterness of marmalade, with acid and bitter citrus  – your man from Toro Albala came up with a great descriptor: the bitterness of orangey hands after peeling an orange. After that bitterness there was a different kind of sweetness, concentrated and dense, like black treachle and which just seemed to last forever.

Really out of the top drawer – an epic wine.

Don PX Selección 1965

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

Second wine of a fantastic tasting was this 1965 Don PX Selección. Again a single añada wine, again 100% pedro ximenez, but this time a sweet wine with I can’t imagine how much sugar per litre. And of course it was a mere 51 years old (I now realize I didn’t take note of when these were bottled).

I am really going to struggle to describe the colours of these because I can only think of so many words for brown. Anyway, on this occasion there is a pretty good photo. There was a bit of chat about curry but someone called a far better descriptor: the fried tomato preparation they sell around here (with maybe a bit of cloves)and of course raisin. The palate was pretty amazing. The cloves were there again with orange peel, an almost tangible acidity, pepper, and really evident minerals. It also had a fantastic savoury zing and chalkiness to it – real saltiness that made for a refreshing finish.

Another fantastic, memorable wine.

 

 

Marqués de Poley Amontillado Selección 1951 

~ sharquillo ~ 2 Comments

A fantastic night at Taberna Palo Cortado started with this 1951 Marques de Poley Amontillado. All of the wines were single vintage “añada” wines but not “statically” aged – the “merma” or evaporation of the wines had been replaced by wines from the same añada (and it wasn’t clear whether the wines had been “moved” between barrels in addition to that).

Anyway, moved or not, this is a 65 year old dry amontillado (Montilla amontillado, as Antonio Barbadillo pointed out) that is 100 pedro ximenez but unbelievably fine and light. I have written in the past about how elegant single vintage wines seem to remain, but this one was really amazingly excellent given its age and cepage.

You can’t really see the colour above because I didn’t get hold of the bottle until the glass was nearly gone, but it was crystal clear and a really lovely amber colour,  extremely appetising. The nose had a spirit quality that was nearer to brandy than petrol fumes, a really fine nose of caramel and alcohol. Then on the palate it had a combination of acidity and zing, that didn’t so much burn as freshen, followed by notes of caramel then quickly tobacco and leather, before a long, long bitter almond finish.

A really exceptional wine. One of the best 65 year old wines I have drunk, without doubt. (Seriously, one of the wines of an exceptional night – and what a start.)

Cata de Toro Albala in Taberna Palo Cortado

~ sharquillo ~ 10 Comments

It has been quite a week and tonight was special – a chance to try some really great wines from Toro Albala, side by side, in really knowledgeable company and in sherry headquarters here in Madrid. Frankly amazing wines – 1951 Marques de Poley Amontillado, 1965 Don PX Selección, and the Don PX Convento from 1955, 1931 and 1929.

It was an awesome group of wines and the variation was really intriguing. Probably the two most memorable aspects were the minerals and zing of the 1965 – real salt and pepper – and the big contrast with the 1955 that followed it – nose like a jammy Chateauneuf du Pape and a lighter, citrus and sweetness palate.

And I mentioned knowledgeable company – none other than Antonio Barbadillo of Sacristia AB, amongst others. Made for a very entertaining and educational evening – some of the things we discussed are stilling buzzing around in the noggin and may one day appear as blog posts.

There were, however, two jarring notes. First, the central role played by “Parker Points” in much of the commentary. This is a bodega that prints the points on the label, of course, but even so it was very odd to focus on the numerical values so often and to such an extent. Second, there was a bit too much blarney for my tastes: too much of the old “I wear this one as aftershave” and general references to tears and sighs and the like. It is a shame because the technical skill and biological wonder behind wines that have aged between 51 and 87 years got left out somewhat. (Don’t get me wrong, it was very entertaining.)

Once we finished these really big beasts we tucked into some fantastic pintxos, cheese plates, pates and the like – top drawer – accompanied by the Dos Claveles, an unfortified pedro ximenez white wine from Toro Albala, and the Fino Electrico (named afer the electricity substation net to the bodega, by all accounts). Again very nice stuff – but it was a difficult transition after the wines that had gone before, to say the least (although if we had stayed on the other wines I might have ended up staying all night).

A wonderful night that was over all too quickly.

Exceptional Harvest 2014 – revisited 

~ sharquillo ~ Leave a comment


Opened this and gave it to my wife – who has started to gripe about the dominance of palomino chez nous, and is known to loudly reminisce in a pointed fashion about her favourite white burgundies and riojas. She immediately smelt a rat (or, in fact, a wine from the marco) “but this is all grapey like a pedro ximenez!” (a nice Rully was opened and peace restored). 

Not the first time I have had this – first tried it in La Chula de Chamberi where it is killer with a foie they have – but after all the thinking about palomino white wine the last couple of days I was intrigued to give it another roll. 

I was in fact pretty impressed at my better half calling pedro ximenez because it is really not the standard px. However now I am tasting it post-Pandorga I think I can see a similar profile emerging: the fruit, sweet notes turning to bitter orange marmalade – here the fruit is not as sweet and the marmalade not as clear or rich but the shape is evident. It is even a similar profile to the very old pedro ximenez’s with their fantastic bittersweet finish. 

Above all this is a very pleasing wine to drink – rich, honeyed and tasty but elegant and even a little bit smokey. 

Moriles Fino TB 

~ sharquillo ~ 2 Comments

Montilla Moriles has some fantastic producers – Perez Barquero, Alvear and Toro Albala – and in addition to the top class sweet wines some of the dry wines can be really good too (like this Fino Capataz and this Amontillado Marques de Poley – among many others, as This blog  will tell you). However more often than not I tend to find them a bit heavy in texture (like this Fino los Amigos) although that is not always a bad thing – I remember the texture working really well in an oloroso release by Equipo Navazos.

This is definitely in the heavy going category – it was a gift and a nice surprise but even the giver told me they used it to cook with. The colour is very very pale and the nose is very pungent with ozone and nutty and yeasty aromas (I will say that for them – they tend to be good on the nose). Then on the palate it is a bit of a brute – the heavy texture, pronounced bitterness and alcohol – a bit disjointed.

I wonder what one cooks with this … 

Don PX 2008

~ sharquillo ~ Leave a comment

  

This is the kind of sweet wine that I struggle with – there is fruit there in the nose but on the palate it is sugar heavy and sticky. Above all heavy – just seems to have a syrupy profile and texture that I find hard to deal with. It is incredibly rich stuff, no doubt, and maybe it just isn’t a good fit for a man of my ascetic tastes. 

Oloroso Solera BC 200

~ sharquillo ~ 1 Comment

This was a fantastic bottle of wine. The highlight of a brilliant dinner at El Faro del Puerto courtesy of Don Fernando – a prince among hosts.

Not literally from 200 BC but pretty old nonetheless – has a pretty good ficha which explains that it is from a Solera founded in 1864 and would have an average age of 40 years or so. Fernando told us that these were the “Botas de los Consejeros” reserved for the executives with the biggest hats and also that it was the favourite wine of the Tsars (although it wasn’t clear whether the Tsars were executives of Osborne themselves).

As the ficha says, there is a a 1/8th share of PX in here but it is perfectly integrated and, even better, there is none of the excessive astringency or concentration of some really old wines. It is full in flavour – some very pleasant spices and black treacle that really repays swishing around the tongue – but also has a nice acidic entry and an equally pleasant sweet tail to it.

A really silky smooth wine all around in fact and a privilege to have tasted it.