Bright gold-tinted amber, is that a trace of green at the rim? Legs.
Nose
Huge full and expressive, impressively fresh and laden with charm. Very fragrant and complex. Some American oak and a trace of exotic wood like cedar gives a slight edge to the sweeter side with its toasted hazelnut and pistachio praline and honey, as does a decent acidity and a mere trace of its Fino past. There are hints of cinnamon, cooked orange peel, caramel, beeswaxed antique furniture, all beautifully nuanced and integrated. It just keeps on opening out in the glass.
Palate
Sweetness: caramel and creamy nuts at first, which then disperses into lots of tangy nuttiness, traces of walnut, oak tannin - not much given the age, but along with that lovely tang it balances things and makes for terrific length. Super smooth, voluptuous, perfectly balanced and so, so good.
Comments
This wine comes from a solera dated 1874, roughly the foundation date of the bodega, and averages somewhere around 50 years of age. Only about 3,000 bottles are released annually. A younger wine called El Tresillo is extracted from the same solera at about 15 years old. The young wine entering the solera has already had extensive biological ageing which gives it suitable complexity to develop into one of the finest Amontillados in Jerez. It combines concentration and finesse, complexity and character. It is intensely beautiful! Wine like this requires to be drunk slowly on its own with no distractions while you commune with it, watch it open out and out...
Price
About 60-70 Euros in Spain, probably @ £80 in UK, agents are Caves de la Pyrene
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