At a work conference far from home but among friends with this very decent 100% pedro ximenez fino from Perez Barquero. It is 3-4 years under flor and very pleasant.
Yellow-green in colour, rich colour too. Nice punchy almond nose, slightly heavy bodied but nice nutty, herbal flavours.
Not bad at all.
What an absolute beast of a wine this is. Magnificent stuff.
And how poor a blogger am I? I was convinced I had written a long post about all the spicey herbs and menthol aromas at the back end of this wine but when I come to update it nowhere to be seen.
So here I am to try again. The scents have that eucalyptus tree freshness over a heavy, sugary, black treacle burntness, then white pepper. The initial taste is sweetness, then black treacle, which lingers a good long while, really long, and at the end those woody, cedar, menthol notes. It is an amazing combination of the viscous sweetness of the PX and the bitter severity of barrel ageing – it is an incredibly piercing nose then a sticky mouthfull that burns where it lingers.
This is awesome.
By Toro Albala, the top men when it comes to PX, and a vintage too. Has a cracking Ficha.
Anyway, this is late night material. Dark black brown, gloopy, nose of black raisins and spices.
On the palate it is sweet and concentrated, grapey raisins. Concentrated raisin – lightly spicey, sugary. It is a full flavour alright. Still juicy raisins though, california raisins from a little red box.
Luxurious and not OTT – really good.
Here’s another interesting wine from Ramiro Ibañez at Cota 45, the “Pandorga” (meaning kite, hence the label), a 100% pedro ximenez, this one from 2014 and a much anticipated purchase from the Cuatrogatos Wine Club.
Interestingly, according to a note I just read this comes from PX grown on a vineyard you may have heard of: La Panesa, in Carrascal (which I think I am right in saying used to be the property of Emilio Hidalgo, and inspired the name of their famous fino). Harvested slightly late, the fruit is left in the sun in the traditional way (although I would guess slightly less than is usual), fermented and spends a year in bota – I believe this has literally just been bottled.
As with other wines by Cota 45, there seems to be a deliberate intention to allow the characteristics of the fruit to shine through: it is only 12% proof so you know it is going to be sweet and it doesn’t disappoint on that score, but it is relatively fresh and light by comparison to the heavier, darker styles of PX you may be accustomed to (not unlike the Ximenez Spinola Vintage 2014, although I think I remember that one as more raisiny).
As I have often said, I struggle to pick out the structure and features of sweeter wines, and on first tasting this it was no different, but a day later I am getting more from it. It is a honey-like amber in colour and not as cloudy as the picture above suggests (not sure what has happened there) – maybe just a little short of crystal clear. On the nose it is more grapey than raisiny – with a suggestion of that marmalade, old fruit aroma you get in the more intense champagnes.
On the tongue it is sugary rich like a fruit juice first up, very nicely integrated acidity, and now I am getting a real marmalade/intense apricot jam vibe at the back -bittersweet fruit. The finish isn’t sticky at all, but those fruit flavours hang around.
This is wine that you could drink gallons of without realizing (probably a good thing it comes in slightly smaller 50cl bottles) but also merits some study.
I tried this in the summer and am now drinking up the remains.
It has all that raisin and sugar on the nose and the palate but I am finding it a bit more acidic and peppery than I remember (white pepper – remember seeing it in the note by Luis Gutierrez and it is bang on the money).
I like it all the better for that spice but I still find it a bit too sweet and sticky.
Wine number three in the PX Party and this is a lovely thing. No mixtures here, a single añada pedro ximenez that is as fresh as a daisy.
It seems to me that so many of the PX wines that you get are aged and transmit so much barrel (and don’t get me wrong, I love it) that it is really refreshing to have one so full of young life. This reminded me of a lovely Donnhoff that I had once – pure juice. In this case raisin juice.
You can see the colour, light and fine for a PX, and the nose is a fresh box of California raisins. It is sweet and fruity, syrupy in the mouth, with just a little spicey alcohol kick at the back – enough so that it doesn’t seem sticky.
Really different than the other PX wines so far but a lovely wine.
Second in the lineup in yesterday’s Ximenez Spinola party in the Chula, this is a “Medium” this one didn’t have quite as much info on the label. Apparently a blend of mainly dry pedro ximenez oloroso with some proportion of the really seeet stuff – probably all really old if the name is anything to go by.
The colour is a nice toffee – looks for all the world like an amontillado fino or so. The nose is very interesting – a sweet smell of dried figs, nuts and noticeable alcohol, in fact it reminded me of Malibu or a piña colada or something.
On the palate it has that big volume of a pedro ximenez and, again, a sweet figgy fruit flavour at the front and alcohol at the back. Nice length and very nice overall but as with many blends I found it a bit disjointed.
Final wine from the PXalooza – now the old Pedro Ximenez. Love the label above, which explains that this wine “whose selection and ageing is the work of the successors of Don Phelipe Antonio Zarzana Spinola according to the traditional method initiated by the right Don “Peter Siemens” whowas also known by the name “Pedro Ximenez””. This is either a new high watermark on the blarney scale or a fantastic little factoid – who knows.
Anyway, the wine itself is a nice, appetising, rich brown in colour (but not the coalpit black brown of some). The nose is full of raisins but has a much more pronounced brown sugar, golden syrup to it – takes it clear of the figgyness of the earlier wines.
The texture in the mouth is semi-syrupy but despite all the sugar it is very fresh and light up front, grows to a massive mouthful of raisins in the middle, and then there is a nice spicey bite back – concentrated raisin skin maybe – albeit not quite the dark chocolate of black coffee of some of the real old PXs. I am a little surprised because I had associated that style with Jerez and this is the Jerez PX par excellence, but this is more in keeping with the fruity fresh vintage than some of the old dogs I have tasted.
A very nice example of a PX and very drinkable.
This was the first of the lineup in today’s Ximenez Spinola in the Chula. Having tried so much unfortified palomino lately (the Tosca Cerrada, the Pitijopos, the Viña Matalian) I was really interest to try this unfortified pedro ximenez. I have to say I enjoyed it greatly.
It is a late harvest white table wine – the PX left on the vine for 21 days after it was ready – it is then macerated and fermented with its skins and aged on its lees for four months with light batonnage in old oak barrels (all this info off the impressive labels). It was a brainchild of sherry maverick Ramiro Ibañez (who pretty soon is going to need his own category on here) although I gather he is no longer involved.
It has a sweet nose but not raisin like, more grapey and soft fruit and nice bitter herbs. On the palate it is grapey, honeyed and herbal, nice and compact and the serious, herby bitterness almost balances the residual sweetness. Not as long as you expect but even that seems right in context. A nice, full bodied and full flavoured wine.
I really like it. Would be fascinating to try this against the Viña Matalian that is on the way.
Going to take a while to write up the notes but couldn’t resist blogging the moment as it were – a whole lot of Jerez Pedro Ximenez here. Four wines from Ximénez Spinola, a really interesting family owned bodega in Jerez that focuses only on PX wines (you should check this fantastic profile by Sherry Notes). They make four such wines: these four. They also make some pretty dangerous brandies: sweet and juicy enough to swig down when you really ought not to.
You have to admit that the packaging is fantastic, the labels have that new-old shtick, there is a lot of information and some nice looking stamps, signatures etc., numbered bottles of limited releases. A slight gripe would be the bottle shapes: all different shapes, perfect for anyone with four different racks for them but not great for anyone else. Another odd feature is the cork: agglomerated, which I didn’t expect in such high end bottles, but literally covered in information, which I haven’t seen before. Just check this out (perfect in case you leave them too long in the ice bucket so the labels come off, and you have already had too many to remember them by bottle shape).
As for the tasting, it was a tricky one – these wines got sweeter as I went along the line, making it near impossible to go back and forth. Nevertheless, it was really interesting to have a look at the different styles made from the PX.
undertheflor.com 