Appearance
Mid depth old gold with golden highlights.
Nose
Full, fresh, ripe and quite fruity with traces of quince jelly, stewed apple, perhaps a trace of apricot and a faint almond paste note along with a hint of sweetness from the sunned grapes. Very aromatic, most attractive, and quite different from the normal thinner more bitter flor driven wines, yet there is a faint mineral, chalky, marine note in the background and just a trace of flor.
Palate
Fairly intense and well rounded with a light grape skin texture, and a suspicion of residual sugar. There is an attractive gentle acidity with just a trace of flor to balance that hint of sweetness and all that fruit. You can see at once that flor really does obscure fruit and vineyard and vintage characteristics, and it is a joy to taste such beautifully made proof of this. The finish is long, clean and dry with a hint of that albariza chalky texture.
Comments
This is a special and unusual wine. It is a single vineyard, old vine, unfortified, vintage, Fino. The grapes come from the barajuela type of albariza soil in the historic El Corregidor vineyard in the pago Carrascal with vines of over 40 years of age. They are picked slightly later than most so that they have a higher sugar content which will result in the desired 15% alcohol content after 6 or 7 hours of sunning. They are pressed very lightly in a vertical press, giving a very low yield (35%) but much greater quality, and the must is transferred to butts where it ferments without temperature control until it is ready. Care is taken to minimise the influence of flor by keeping the butts topped up as the intention is to demonstrate the style of the vineyard. "Menos velo y más suelo" as Willy Pérez puts it (less flor and more soil). The result is amazing, especially when one takes into account its youth at only about 2½ years old, and that´s why it is already sold out. It has become almost a cult wine.
Price
75 euros, Licores Corredera
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