Tuesday 5 June 2018

La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 80 16.5%, Equipo Navazos

Appearance
Bright old gold verging on light amber with golden glints.
Nose
This wine is at a fascinating stage of development. Fragrant and super complex, at 15 years of age it could be an Amontillado but the flor has been protected as long as humanly possible. There are aromas of straw, briny seaweed, flor, almond and acetaldehyde along with traces of oak and gentle oxidative notes. While definitely still a Manzanilla Pasada it is close to the limit and not so far from Amontillado. The pinnacle of biological ageing.
Palate
Full, intense, concentrated and clean with perfect tangy acidity and a salty note along with traces of butter, toast, nuts like almond and hazelnut and a faint salted caramel hint. It is teetering on the brink, but still Manzanilla (not that it changes overnight). There is a slightly dry chalky feel and it leaves a long clean finish and a sense of deep satisfaction.
Comments
This outstanding and very interesting wine was bottled in December 2017 in a saca of 1,000 bottles (500 litres) from a single butt in the La Guita solera at the Miericordia bodega. This same butt supplied the wine for La Bota nos. 20, 40, 50 and 60. It is a bota punta, so called because it at one end of the solera. I have a feeling this butt is really a tonel (which is a bit bigger) or nearly all of its wine would have been bottled. It was filled almost to tocadedos however, to protect what little flor remains at around 15 years of age. The bitter flor notes are therefore slightly muted and there are distinct notes of oxidation as well as a higher alcohol level. Two and a half years have elapsed since the last saca from this butt, after which, as is not uncommon for a bota punta, it was replenished with wine from the same solera rather than the 1st criadera. The result is absolutely delicious, grab it!
Price
50 euros per 50cl, Guerrita


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