Pedro Ximenez Viejisimo VORS10.5%, El Maestro Sierra

Appearance
Intense burnt umber-black fading through various shades of brown to yellow, looks very old, long, thick, slow legs.
Nose
Huge intense nose, tons of pasa and wood, date, coffee, fig, rum and raisin and all beautifully integrated. Only age can do that. It is voluptuous, super-sweet almost honeyed, and very complex, bursting with raisiny fruit and there's an extraordinary freshness despite its great age.
Palate
Rich, intense, very sweet and velvety smooth, like chocolate, mouthfilling with all sorts of interesting toffee-like nuances. There's something new in every sip, and you can't stop sipping! Balancing some of that intense sweetness is a decent tangy raisiny acidity which helps give the wine incredible length. This is stunningly good.
Comments
An outstanding wine from an outstanding bodega. This is from a very old and tiny 14 butt solera and only 400 bottles are released annually. Interestingly, unlike the bodega's younger PX, this wine only contains 10.5% alcohol. The must is allowed to ferment a little and alcohol is added to bring it up to 10%, and no more is added. The extra half percent is achieved by transpiration. The younger wine by contrast has more alcohol added later on to bring it up to 15%. The VORS then ages for over 50 years through the solera to produce this superbly smooth, rare and characterful wine. It is bottled and labelled by hand.
Price
Somewhere around £125 per bottle - though halves are available. UK agents Indigo Wine

(foto Migue Zayas/Maestro Sierra)