Thursday 3 March 2016

Fino Barajuela 2013 Saca 2016 15.3%, Luís Pérez

Appearance
Mid depth strawy gold, legs.
Nose
There is a fresh and lively wine with depth and an attractive mix of flor with hints of crystallised fruit, melon, apple, a trace of minerality and a gentle nutty note of oxidation, all perfectly homogenised and with a sophisticated air.
Palate
Full of flavour, there is lots of flor bitterness balanced by glycerine not yet consumed by yeast as the wine is only about 2 1/2 years old. There is a fair amount of texture, fruit and nuttiness and a decent level of acidity which helps keep things fresh and gives excellent length.
Comments
This seriously interesting wine is the work of Guillermo (Willy) Pérez, son of Luis. The project was to make an unfortified Fino made from grapes from the El Corregidor vineyard (once owned by Sandeman) in the Pago Carrascal at the family bodega Finca Vistahermosa. Since Sherry grapes are normally harvested nowadays with a potential alcohol of about 12ᴼ and the wines must have a minimum of 15ᴼ (both for practical and legal reasons) they need to be fortified. In the old days, however, the grapes were subjected to brief sunning to bring them up to strength. What Willy Pérez has done is use careful pruning and later harvesting and sunned the grapes for 3-4 days. The result is excellent. The name of the wine derives from a thin laminated feature of the soil which looks a bit like looking at the side of a pack of cards (baraja). Unfortunately there is not much of this available...
Price
Around 30 euros


No comments:

Post a Comment