17/20

Palo cortado Tradicion 

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Bumped into the chap from Bodegas Tradicion just the other day and had a nice chat. They have done as much as anyone to reinvent the sherry business around premium wines and this is a high quality wine indeed. As you will see – a bottle with the “old labels” and indeed it is the second saca of 2013. 

I like the dating of the sacas but I like the wine more. It is a beautiful chestnut reddish brown and has a fine sweet, caramel, maybe slightly citrus or resiny nose – some hay bales there. On the palate there is a nice acidic buzz, caramel flavours, maybe burnt orange peel and a little bit of cedar wood at the end. Nice fresh finish but not all that long. 

Quality stuff. 

Fino 3 en rama de el Puerto – spring 2015 

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Second of the 3 en rama of the evening is the fino en rama de el Puerto de Santamaria. (Not sure if this is the right order – although this is a seaside wine like the manzanilla, it is further away in km. In any event, here we go.)

Has a very similar colour – deep gold with that slight green tinge, maybe slightly more yellow. Has an even more expressive nose – again minerals but this one is more yeasty and has some creamy, almond like aromas.

On the palate there are more of those minerals – a salinity that is integrated at the outset but intense and zingy at the end. A nice yeasty mouthful with a little bit more nuttiness that the manzanilla. The salinity slightly overpowers the nuts and leaves you with a bitter almond (think biscotti) taste.

An even nicer bottle and right up my street.

La Bota de Amontillado 58 – a second bottle

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Seen here in the shadow of a delightful floral offering. My third time so I have kept it short (see episodes one and two here and here).

This is top drawer – a really cracking, drinkable but complex amontillado. Honey and hay on the nose (in fact the lilies are an excellent comparison – similar aroma) and a honey style sweetness on the front end but some saline zing, yeast and spice to give it style.

Really approachable and something that any wine lover should try.

La Bota de Pedro Ximenez 36

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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. 

Manzanilla en rama Solear – Saca de Otoño 2015 – again

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Picked up a couple more of these and am glad to report that this one is just as juicy as the first one I opened a few weeks ago.

First, an apology. When I last wrote about this I referred to a “rat” – a reference which was a long way from the mark. The label is in fact a dormouse or “liron careto” aka “dormilon del antifaz” (masked sleepyhead) and a handsome little beast.

More importantly, the wine is a little beauty too. Lovely rich old gold in colour and a big aromatic nose of salty hay bales and sweeter kitchen herbs like oregano. The mouthfeel is fatty and lush and it is really juicy: lovely herbal, yeasty, vegetable flavours – a long toasty taste like a vegetable pastry.

I really like it – will have to hunt out a magnum of this one.

Ximenez Spinola Vintage 2014

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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. 

Ximenez Spinola Exceptional Harvest

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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.

Pedro Ximenez Callejuela  

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Well this is a sad sight – I can’t believe this bottle is over.

The last week or so we have had a glass of this with a chocolate from the Cacao Sampaka complete edition – a collection of 64 different pieces of high-end high-cocoa chocolate from one of my favourite stores in Madrid. The chocolates are great, the wine is really great and together just another level altogether.

It is a dark, not black brown, has a thick, syrupy consistency and a raisin and yeast, uncooked Christmas pudding aroma. It is sweet and sticky with lots of raisin flavour then burnt sugar and sweet, black coffee bitterness. Lovely, serious flavour to it.

Really superb wine by any standards.

Solear en rama – Saca de Otoño 2015

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Manzanilla monday and the rat’s days are numbered. This looks, smells and feels richer and more potent than other sacas I have tasted recently. 

The colour is slightly dark old gold – certainly half a shade darker than I remember. On the nose there is a lot of yeast – big salty hay bales – very aromatic, with a suggestion of sweeter herbs. 

The mouthfeel is fatty and lush as always, and on the palate it is just as rich as it looks and smells – massive herbal, vegetable flavours and salinity and maybe just a little bit bitter as it fades away. Really juicy rather than zingy but a powerful mouthfull either way. 

Fantastic, the week is now under weigh and I need to get some more of these little rodents. 

Blanquito manzanilla pasada  

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Another day another lovely bottle of sherry from Callejuela – this time a manzanilla pasada. 

Serious looking dark straw colour but a lively green apple nose like a much younger wine. 

On the palate it has that oily feel and salty intensity – the salty sting on the surface of your mouth followed by apple and yeast flavours. 

Very nice and very drinkable indeed.