Saturday 11 May 2019

Amontillado Delicado 12 Years Old 17%, González Byass

Appearance
Light to mid amber with old gold highlights.
Nose
Quite light, and very attractive and refined with lots of toasted hazelnuts and almonds and distinct notes of acetaldehyde from the Fino it once was. The oxidation is gentle and beautifully clean and there are faint American oak notes giving the wine a gentle complexity and harmony. It is at at a delightful stage of its development: almost past the Fino stage and into that of a fairly young Amontillado. Extremely elegant.
Palate
Light and clean yet tasty, still with traces of bitterness and a certain salinity from the flor and a slight dry chalkiness from the albariza, meaning that while it hasn´t lost its Fino roots, it has been gaining complexity from the slow oxidation with traces of caramel and the characteristic nuttiness.
Comments
The Delicado range, which consists of this Amo, a Fino and a PX, is exclusive to the UK supermarket Waitrose who offer a better range of Sherries than most. It is a lovely wine; light, elegant, flavourful and not too strong. While it is definitely Amontillado, it retains many Fino characteristics, which tempt one to think that it might just be a natural Amontillado, one without further fortification to kill off the flor. GB already market Viña AB which is very much of the same type and quality but not the same. Nonetheless, both wines could be reasonably accurately described by the old term Fino-Amontillado, a style I wish there were more examples of as it is perfect with jamón or caña de lomo.
Price

14.99 per 50cl., Waitrose

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