Mid depth slightly strawy and brassy gold with golden highlights.
Nose
The nose is pure Argüeso which, to me at least, has a unique and delightful slightly dank character and the flor is really yeasty and doesn´t smell excessively bitter. You can even make out the yeast on the walls of the old bodegas. There are notes of salted bitter almond, brine and humidity all kept in check by a crisp flor edge. This is lovely.
Palate
Bone dry, slightly crisp, briny, saline and savoury, clean and intense, with bitter almond notes, there are gently buttery, very slightly autolytic nuances of cabezuela and the whole is beautifully harmonious and super fresh. For a wine of this age, oxidation is remarkably light and rather than being an overt Pasada, which it is really, the wine retains its Manzanilla character, albeit with great complexity and style. Excellent.
Comments
For the 2018 (3rd) saca of Manzanilla Apartada Raul Villabrille of Balandro Vinos has returned to Bodegas Argüeso in Calle Mar in Sanlúcar, as well he might since their wines are excellent. He has naturally returned to their best solera as well, selecting 10.3 arrobas of wine from butts 1 and 2, and 8.3 arrobas from butts 15 and 35. (an arroba is 16.66 litres so he selected about 482 litres in total meaning nearly 1,000 x 50cl bottles, filled with no clarification or filtration whatever. The solera dates back to the very early XIX century and is supported on rough limestone full of oyster shells, so typical of Sanlúcar. The selection was made on three criteria: flor influence and the levels of salinity and bitter almond (acetaldehyde) and the result is, perhaps inevitably, excellent, and this classic Manzanilla has an average age of about 12 years.
Price
15.60 per 50cl, Licores Corredera
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