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La Bota de Palo Cortado 41 – Bota NO

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First sherry in a week so I thought I deserved something a little bit special and this is special.

It is a Sanlucar palo cortado from the now extinct bodega of Gaspar Florido – initially acquired by Pedro Romero before Pedro Romero itself collapsed in tragic circumstances in 2014. This was bottled in February 2013 and I refer you to the excellent Equipo Navazos website for an account of that and their explanation of what it is all about.

In colour it is a gorgeous crystal clear, sparkling, rich chestnut. (Whatever else may be true I find it hard to believe there are more visually appealing wines than these.) On the nose it starts with the dry salty, woody air of the cellar, but maybe not the full ozone of a Sanlucar amontillado. Then give it a swirl and there are rich nutty, spicey and slightly black treacle flavours underneath.

Then on the palate it is stickier and broader than the sleek nose leads you to expect. The same saline power but heavier, black treacle and bitter burnt wood flavours take over, a suggestion of smoked meats on the aftertaste and then flavours fading to a tails of burnt black treacle, with a moody bitterness but also a higher register sweetness. The salinity of these wines gives them incredible length and those the flavours stay with you right to the end.

A really exceptional wine.

Oloroso Extra Viejo 1/7 El Maestro Sierra

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If for any reason you are averse to late night liquids then look away now because this juice is fully nocturnal. It is absolutely a vampire-like, bitter brooding negative version of your day wines, with its furniture polish, sawdust and burnt caramel aroma, bitter bite and walnut wood and tobacco flavours.

I opened this and wrote about it way back in April and have been back to the well several times since. It is intense, and bitter, and there is no doubt you have to be in the right frame of mind (don’t try this lad as an aperitif), but for those moments of silence when everyone else is in bed and the only sound is the sporadic hammering of the laptop keyboard what a wine it is.

Amontillado Sacristia AB 

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Another of these special bottlings by Antonio Barbadillo – one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable blokes you could hope to meet. I bumped into him yesterday, that gave me a hankering to try one of these wines again and, as luck would have it, they happen to have this bottle in Territorio Era.

These releases are all elegant and flavourful in my experience – and this is an absolute beauty. A gold amber/chestnut in colour, with salty caramel on the nose and salinity and acidity on the tongue. A hint of gingery, dusty age at the finish.

Top class, and even better news is that 2016 is on the way …

Oloroso Muy Viejo Tradición

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A second, even more majestic wine from a lunch with Bodegas Tradicion this week. This is the oloroso from the solera fundacional of the bodega. The bodega itself was founded in 1996 but the solera was older and would have been static for some time when this was bottled. 

It took a little time to open up. At first it was heavy and robust – reminded me of a very old almacenista style oloroso or one of these extreme releases that get a lot of praise, but as it started to stretch its legs it became more and more impressive. By the end it was, as I said at the top, majestic. 

Powerful and rich in aromas and flavours but dry and increasingly elegant in profile: nuts and polished hardwood rather than sawdust. Acid bite first up, a big palate of flavour and then stinging salinity that makes for just an immense, mouth watering finish. 

Really top class wine and an excellent foundation for any bodega.

La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 70 – “Magnum”

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I wish I had a magnum all for me and all afternoon to drink it. Enjoyed by the glass in Madrid Angelita – a haven in a sea of sherryless torment.

Another from the solera of Hijos de Rainera Perez Marin (from a long line of masterpieces including the 60, 50, 40, and 20 – probably the best manzanilla pasada I have had) and this hits all my buttons. Yeasty, haystack, roasted apple nose, buttery texture, sweet/savoury roasted apple palate and bittersweet mouthwatering finish.

What a wine, ladies and gentlemen. Absolute belter.

Manzanilla de Añada 2012 Callejuela 2/11

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I have been mulling in my head a post on the effects of bottle ageing for a while now and have even sneakily created a related category, but I am still not really sure what to talk about. And maybe because those thoughts were already in the old noggin over the last couple of days I have been struck by how different two wines have seemed thanks to, or at least so I imagine, the time they have had in the bottle.

The first was a little bottle of Pastora that I opened on Friday – a little gem that seemed to have gone from green apple to golden apple and to have gained as a result (and indeed was gone in 60 seconds).

The second was this little bottle above – an absolute star of a wine that I thought was good before – as recently as a month ago – but seems way better now. More potent on the nose and palate, sharper, a little bit spicier.  I am looking back at my notes of other tastings (here and here) and I am convinced it has really come of age only now – just more of that awesome sapidity.

 

 

La Bota de Palo Cortado 34  

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This was not the first sherry I ever had but it was the first to make me sit up and really take notice. I am spoiling myself after a few days of rustic holiday with the family, during which sherry was notable by its absence. Besides, I see from the blog that I last opened a bottle way back in February!

This wonderful palo cortado was released back in February 2012 and you will struggle to find any nowadays (I reimported a half case from the UK last year) although you can find wines from the same solera if you know where to look (there are clues on this blog).  It was sourced by Equipo Navazos from selected botas in a solera held by the almacenista Garcia Jarana and then finished in their instalation in Bodegas Fernando de Castilla before bottling. Since then it has had four and a half years in the bottle and half my excuse for opening it was to see what difference that time might have made. 

The colour is as lovely as I remember, and it has a fantastic nose of sweet brandy and nuts – maybe not quite as explosive a nose as I remember. Then a nice cool entry, zing and burn of salinity with nutty toffee and then some slightly more bitter,  tobacco and woody notes and that long, mouth watering finish. 

Maybe, maybe a touch less explosiveness and sweetness, a touch more tobacco, but a lovely wine in the prime of its life – terrific.

Fino La Barajuela 2013 again

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Have been writing a piece on what to look for on a sherry label, which is just another way of saying what to look for in a sherry bottle and apart from working up a thirst it dawned on me that what I am looking for is this. A vintage, terroir specific fino built to express both dimensions, and more importantly, a cracking wine.

I have written about it several times already – the first time I really tried it in June it was superb, so much so that I felt the need to taste it against a Chassagne Montrachet, and then in August I was lucky enough to take part in a fantastic tasting with the maker himself.

This time what strikes me is the potency of the fruit – a kind of super intense melon flavour, and how it complements the zingy salinity and crisp minerals to make a potent wine that is piercing, sleek and elegant at the same time.

Really top class.

 

 

 

 

UBE 2014

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The epitome of a Sanlucar palomino. I have written all about this wine (and its 2013 predecessor) on numerous occasions – for background look here and also here on the 2013 and here and here for the 2014. Nevertheless, I had another chance to drink it this weekend at a dinner in Territorio Era (formerly known as Era Espacio Gastronomico) and couldn’t resist sharing my thoughts.

Compared to other unfortified palominos this has a different profile and it seems like a couple of additional dimensions. First, it has a rich gold colour – on other occasions I remember more of a green tinge but here not. Then it has a tremendous nose of herbs tending to stewed herbs as it opens – like a stockpot bubbling away in the corner of the kitchen. Finally, on the palate it is tightly flavoured, vertical and direct (or, to use the maker’s own word, “fluid”), with salinity and acidity in line giving it a clean, fine feel, and an effervescent, fresh finish.

It is a fascinating wine (and I mean that in a good way).

Amontillado viejisimo Conde de Aldama

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The star wine of my brief visit to the Salon de Vinos de Terruño yesterday was this very special old Sanlucar amontillado. It is by Bodegas Yuste and we were told that it comes from a solera based around four botas that were untouched for a full 120 years before being put back into action relatively recently.

I had nearly finished before I remembered to take a photo but as you can see it is a chestnut brown in colour and was ice water clear. Had a fantasticly expressive nose of brandy, nuts, cigar box and sawdust. On the palate too it had all the qualities of a majestic old Sanlucar amontillado, with a piercing saline freshness to it despite the intense nuts and cigar box flavours. The word here is dry and then some.

The only problem was that it seemed to disappear all too quickly: will have to get myself a bottle for further study.