Palo Cortado 1730 VORS 18%, Alvaro Domecq

Appearance

Bright copper-hued amber-mahogany, slight trace green at rim, legs.

Nose

Very elegant and complex, slightly phenolic wood notes are subordinated by a hint of glyceric sweetness with an almond and hazelnut character. Beautiful balance and all sorts of subtleties with traces of polished furniture, tobacco, honey, nuts and those wood notes but all in perfect harmony. An object lesson in balance, and most attractive.

Palate

Full and quite intense, dry and concentrated, it is fuller on the palate than one might have imagined from the nose. This is an old wine and it inevitably has a certain astringency from the wood, but it is not excessive, and there is no sign of any PX having been added, it seems totally natural, and one is distracted by the pronounced almond and walnut flavours. Most of the bitterness is balanced out by glycerol, leaving an almost interminable finish. Classic Palo Cortado.

Comments

This wine is very hard to find, but I tasted it at Vinoble in 2014. Both the AD Amontillado VORS and this Palo Cortado have been unavailable for a while but are being re-introduced - in very limited quantities. It is made from the old Pilar Aranda solera, bought with the entire bodega in 1999. Doña Pilar was an almacenista with a fine reputation and this small solera is well over a hundred years old. In 2007 the firm was acquired by Avanteselecta who have continued with Álvaro's dream. The oenologist is Ana Real, and she has done a really good job. Production is only 3,600 bottles. After all, the bodega's slogan is "Maximum quality, minimum quantity".

Price

About 35.00 euros in Spain

Bodegas: Alvaro Domecq

In 1999 Alvaro Domecq Romero bought the oldest surviving (1800) almacenista bodega, that of Pilar Aranda y Latorre. The bodega supplied large quantities of wine to Gonzalez Byass for blending and also supplied Emilio Lustau who bottled the wines unblended for their Almacenista range. He began to put  the wines on the market under the name Alvaro Domecq, the byword being quality. There were initial problems with Allied Domecq's new owners, Pernod Ricard, over the use of the name Domecq, so Pilar Aranda was used for a while, until the problems  were overcome.

Many in the Domecq family thought that "Alvarito" as he was known was mad, after all he was a famous rejoneador (mounted bullfighter) and breeder, but sales slowly grew from fewer than 1,000 cases a month to over 15,000. Now the bodega has a fine reputation. Alvaro always dressed as an English gentleman, wearing tweed and silk ties, like many a Sherry grandee. An outstanding horseman, he was a founder of the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre and also served as mayor of Jerez.

The bodega, constructed in the early XVIII century and consisting of 5 warehouses, sits in the south of the city on a slight hill and is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the west wind which brings moisture to the flor. The warehouses, are built over 3 levels for the same reason, and unique in Jerez. Nowadays the 2,500sq/m bodega is surrounded by housing in the Barrio San Miguel.

The firm picks the best available young wines from the best bodegas and rears them in an artisanal manner. The oenologist, Ana Real, cares for the 1,500 butts of old wine, and knows every one personally. Such that she found a few exceptional butts of oloroso Alburejo , and we can look forward to a limited VORS release of this. Exports amount to about 60% of sales, particularly in Europe and Latin America, where the name Domecq is well known thanks to their subsidiary in Mexico.

Alvaro passed away in 2005, and in 2007 the investment company Inveravante bought a sizeable stake bringing the firm into a group with other wines from 10 areas such as Rueda and Rioja among others. They also produce very fine brandy and vinegar. There is a shop which sells not only the Alvaro Domecq products, but also those of Inveravante (or Avante Selecta), being wines from all over Spain.

The Domecq name is famous in Jerez and beyond, and Alvaro and the other family members did not want to lose its connection to the wines of Jerez. The date 1730 used on labels relates to the founding of the bodegas which eventually became Pedro Domecq, not that of Pilar Aranda.

Old Vinegar solera, venencias and scales at Alvaro Domecq

The range consists of:

Fino La Janda (over 7 years old)

Manzanilla La Jaca

Oloroso Alburejo (over 7 years old)

Aranda Cream

And the old wines: These have been a bit unreliable in terms of availablity in recent times (there are limited quantities), but efforts have been made to re-introduce the Amontillado and Palo Cortado, as well as the new Oloroso Alburejo:

Oloroso VORS 1730

Palo Cortado VORS 1730

Amontillado VORS 1730

PX VORS 1730

Vinegar:
Some of the finest vinegar in Jerez, the oldest being from 1846!

Address: Calle Madre de Dios S/N, 11401 Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz

Tel:  (+34) 956 339 634

Web: www.alvarodomecq.com

Visits: yes, with prior arrangement. Various events can be held in the bodegas eg weddings