Almost pure amber with brassy golden highlights.
Nose
Full, expressive and extremely complex. This is very pasada Manzanilla. It has lots of grassy strawy esparto, dried flowers, faint hints of almond, flor and apple, seaweed, olive brine, and certain buttery oxidative notes along with a sort of doughy humid character. The more you sniff, the more you get.
Palate
Still very much Manzanilla, but wants to be an Amontillado - only they do all they can to preserve the flor. It is intense with a crisp edge and super clean with a salty feel and perfect acidity. Hints of apple and caramel give away a little oxidation, but the biological side is still in charge. The crisp side balances nicely with the buttery oxidative/cabezuela notes giving poise and huge flavour which lingers on the palate for ages. Quite delicious.
Comments
This incredibly good and fascinating wine comes from a bota punta in the solera of La Guita and was bottled in December 2017. This same butt supplied La Bota 20, 40, 50 and most recently 60, two and a half years ago, and had regained all its glory. The saca totalled 500 litres (1,000 x 50cl bottles) and the butt was immediately refilled with wine from the other solera butts. At the time of the saca the wine had an approximate average age of an impressive 15 years. What has kept it so biological with a steely salty edge is that the butt was filled almost to the brim giving a smaller surface area and thus allowing some rather debilitated flor to survive, thanks to occasional refreshment, and protect the wine - at least partly - from oxidation. At the same time the flor can no longer consume much if any alcohol allowing the wine to gain alcoholic strength. This is the extreme limit of flor, and an exquisite and gratifying experience which shows why Sherry is by far the most interesting wine on the planet.
Price
50 euros per 50cl, Er Guerrita
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