Appearance
Mid depth yellowy gold fading to pale rim, legs.
Nose
Full and very briny, pronounced dry bitter flor then a real doughy humidity and a faint oxidative note and a minerally salinity, the smell you get from rope on a fishing boat, slightest traces of oak, old straw, seaweed on a beach, tight, complex and interesting with a flourish of flor at the end.
Palate
Tangy with a decent acidity, full-flavoured with distant Amontillado notes, but definitely still not. A classic example of Manzanilla Pasada - in between but still racy, the balance is still definitely on the Manzanilla side and has really rewarded the work which went into it. This is lovely, there is a tension between flor trying to hold out against the inevitable oxidation. It has terrific length too.
Comments
This beauty is from a saca drawn in June 2015 and comes from La Guita. It is somewhere around 15 years old and comes from butts which had to be filled almost full (instead of the usual 5/6) in order that the very thin layer of flor had a chance to cover the wine's surface, especially at a strength of 16% and with infrequent sacas and rocios. Rafael Rivas was for many years the capataz at La Guita and in 1986 he began building a 15 butt solera selecting the finest old Manzanillas with the intention of using it to give a boost if necessary to the standard La Guita. This was never deemed necessary, so to maintain its character and to avoid it turning into an Amontillado he took out tiny occasional sacas - only 4 or 5 arrobas - and topped it up with wine from the best butts in the La Guita solera.
Price
31 Euros in Spain (Coalla Gourmet). Try Alliance Wine in the UK
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