Deep walnut mahogany with slight reddy tints fading through amber to a hint of green at the rim, legs.
Nose
Quite generous and serious, lovely fresh old Oloroso (really expresses the meaning of the word - fragrant), hints of old barrels, walnuts in syrup, marzipan, then the figgy, raisiny PX appears, but without dominating the Oloroso and the two work together in perfect harmony, a delight just to sit and sniff!
Palate
Quite intensely flavoured, the perfect balance of Oloroso and PX, definitely quite sweet (quite sweet enough) and you can taste those PX raisins. Generous, tangy and textured with some slightly phenolic notes of chocolate and tannin from the barrels balancing the sweetness. A real winter warmer with terrific length.
Comments
Made from grapes from the Pagos Balbaina and Carrascal, this wine is a sweetened Oloroso, but not as sweet as a Cream. Its sugar content (from the admixture of PX) is 82 grams per litre (g/l), a little over half that of the average Cream, making it a Medium-sweet Sherry. The normal Dry Sack contains 28 g/l and is classified as medium-dry. The Oloroso and PX are blended at the sobretablas stage and the blend then goes to solera. Pre- rather than post- blending makes all the difference.
Sherry with a statement of minimum age on the label is strictly controlled by the Consejo, and a sales quota is fixed of 1/15th (in the case of a 15 year old) of the entire solera content. So for every litre sold, there must remain in the system 15 litres. Samples drawn for the Consejo will be tasted and analysed before permission is granted to bottle and label the wine. The process will be repeated for each saca.
Price
Around £ 15.00 per half bottle. UK Importers Ehrmanns
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