Appearance
Some depth to the colour: amber to golden straw with a suggestion of green at rim, legs.
Nose
Character-laden and saline, olive brine in a storm at the fishing harbour, there is still a wild feel but it is evolving some gentility and certainly plenty of depth. Still plenty of flor bitterness, a hint of bread and a very slight seaweed note with oxidative nutty buttery traces reminding one of Amontillado but it's not there yet - certainly in Sanlucar terms - you can even smell some texture.
Palate
Full, intense, but still very much Manzanilla. Super complex wine which can't let go of its youth. There is age, concentration and oxidation there yet it is as fresh and clean as a daisy. Slightly salty and perfectly balanced with terrific length, this is a very serious wine yet still exciting to drink.
Comments
This outstanding wine comes from a 15 butt solera set up by the then capataz Rafael Rivas at the La Guita bodega in Calle Misericordia. Two of those butts showed even more intense character than the rest, one of them being the bota punta, from which this wine comes. (La Bota numbers 10, 20, 30, 39 also come from it) Interestingly the butts are filled to "tocadedos" (almost full) which is very unusual. It means that the surface area of this very old Manzanilla is much smaller and therefore there is much less flor. This flor is just kept alive by small sacas and rocios but has less resistance to the oxidation and rising alcoholic strength which are apparent in this bottling. After wine was drawn from the bota punta for La Bota 10 in January 2008 the butt was refreshed not with wine from the first criadera, but wine from the other solera butts. They were then refreshed by wine from the first criadera. This enhanced the intensity of the wine in the bota punta and the routine has been followed since. The wine now has over 40 months in bottle and is showing no sign of tiring.
Price
49.65 euros for 50cl bottle at Vilaviniteca
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