Bright amber to mahogany fading through yellow to a hint of green at the rim, legs.
Nose
Forthcoming and beautiful, stunningly fragrant with a real texture, archetypal Oloroso. Lots of nuts: toasted almonds, traces of turron yema tostada and walnuts, walnut shells too with a trace of bitterness, old polished furniture then walnuts in syrup, lots of implied sweetness for a dry wine, rich and appetising and quite concentrated. What a start!
Palate
Huge flavour explodes on the palate, big, dry and old yet in perfect shape, starts intensely then gets drier with hints of austerity from the American oak and those walnut husks, even hints of tannin, but that leanness is balanced out by glycerol giving not only texture but a certain implied sweetness that helps carry the flavour through. Everything is in balance and it has terrific length, this is a wine in its moment. Utterly delicious!
Comments
There are a lot of superlatives here, but they are more than deserved. Aged statically - no solera - and from a single butt, this is a vintage wine which has a precise age: 32 years. Every drop is 32 years old, not an average age. Bodegas Tradicion produce a few vintage wines, but they are made in very limited quantities and are really hard to find. Vintage Sherries are rare generally and there are rules and regulations. They tend to come from the best vintages and the best butts thereof. They can only be be topped-up with other wines of the same type and of the same vintage and must be sealed with wax and ribbon and can only be broached under the supervision of a representative of the Consejo Regulador. Without the normal topping-up offered by a solera, the losses in liquid quantity are quite something (around 4% per annum), and this barrel could have lost about 30% of its volume, luckily mostly water thus concentrating the wine. The 1970 and 1975, bought from Croft, are already gone, and this one, also Croft is all but gone too. These wines are very rare and expensive, and are absolute treasures. So not available in your corner shop then.
Price
Not even Wine Searcher can find a price as it has probably all gone. It was a single cask. I got to taste it at Vinoble. I reckon it would have cost a bit over £100
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| Anadas stored at Tradicion |
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