Palo Cortado Horizontal 2018 20%, Las Botas

Appearance

Mid to deep patinated mahogany fading through copper glinted amber to a trace of green at the rim.

Nose

Impressive, crisp and finely honed as only an old wine can be, yet it is amazingly lively and fresh, and extremely expressive. It is very complex yet still allows one to pick up on some of those nuances which have combined to form its beautiful bouquet. There are toasted almonds and hazelnuts, traces of tangy dried fruits and American oak, noticeable volatile acidity-yet it balances well, and a certain slightly fruity element which gives it immense charm.

Palate

Full and delightfully crisp and focused on entry, it gradually opens out and softens on the palate giving off a cornucopia of subtleties. There is a trace of glyceric sweetness which is balanced out by that volatile acidity, and there is very little aggressive tannin for a wine of this age, giving it a most delightful crisp smoothness. It is classic Palo Cortado: neither Amontillado nor Oloroso yet with properties of both. It is complex yet friendly with terrific length. A real beauty.

Comments

This is the second Palo Cortado release from Las Botas, a brand belonging to wine merchants Balandro Vinos in Sevilla who seek out the very best and bottle small parcels under their own label. They were only established in 2015 but have already made quite an impact by selecting some outstanding wines. This beauty comes from the bodegas of Manuel Aragón, based in Chiclana in the production zone. 12 arrobas each (not an insignificant quantity) were drawn from 2 selected "bocoyes", numbers 2 and 9, of the 12 in the bodega Los Toreros (bocoyes are barrels which are slightly larger and fatter than the normal butt) and blended together. The wine is somewhere between 35 and 50 years old and was classified as Palo Cortado in its first year of life. 768 x 50cl bottles were filled, en rama, naturally. Wine bottled by Equipo Navazos from the same solera scored 98 Parker points (La Bota 62), so there can be no doubting the wine's outstanding quality.

Price

31.50 per 50cl, Licores Corredera

16.4.16 Equipo Navazos 10th Anniversary Releases; Barbadillo Sells Ham Interests

In celebration of a decade of restoring the image and credibility of Sherry, Eduardo Ojeda and Jesús Barquín have released two new wines from a bodega they have not used before: Manuel Aragón (also known as Bodega Sanatorio) in Chiclana. La Bota de Palo Cortado 62 “10 Años” represents the entire content of a single butt in Aragón’s Campano bodega which contained only some 300 litres after decades without refreshment. A very small amount of this wine will be released in 50cl bottles. According to Equipo Navazos the wine, which is somewhere approaching 60 years old has considerable elegance despite its concentration and complexity.

The other wine, La Bota de Oloroso 63 “Bota No” comes from Aragón’s other bodega in the Calle Olivo and is a blend of two butts, the bota punta and number 5 from a very old solera which has seen  very little refreshment. The wine from the bota punta is reckoned to be easily 80-90 years old. This is a release of barely 900 half bottles, both releases being bottled by Manuel Aragón, whose boss, Chano Aragón, who expressed his delight that the prestigious EquipoNavazos should choose wines from his bodega to celebrate their anniversary, and for the first time wine from Chiclana. Both wines are available at Coalla at 95 euros each.

Bodegas Barbadillo has sold its Ibérico ham company Sierra de Sevilla after ten years of losses. The purchaser is a meat products company called Montesano which needs more production capacity and feels it could restore the brand. The sale includes the brand name, the slaughterhouse and the curing house located in El Pedroso (Sevilla).

Hams curing

Moscatel Gloria 15%, Manuel Aragón

Appearance
Pale but quite rich lemony gold, viscous.
Nose
Azahar (orange blossom), super-ripe grape pulp, strong aromas of Moscatel de Alejandria: grapey, musky, lush and very fruity. Not over complex but a young wine and none the worse for that, fresh with vineyard aromas and a noticeable hint of alcohol. Sweet and desirable.
Palate
Light in weight but full of flavour, a little rustic, but that is what it is, sweet and nicely textured with that almost addictive Moscatel flavour which has a gentle tang and a real feel for the grape itself without secondary and tertiary flavours of fermentation and ageing. Luscious refreshing, persistent and delightful.
Comments
While not technically/legally Sherry, this is nonetheless a quality wine produced in the Sherry zone, and so I include it here because it should be DO Jerez and because it's good! To be a DO Jerez a Moscatel (which will have been bought in from Chiclana or Chipiona) must be aged (however briefly) at a bodega registered as a shipper in Jerez, El Puerto or Sanlúcar and bottled by them under their own brand name. So producers of Moscatel in the sandy coastal areas of Chipiona and Chiclana cannot sell wine they have bottled as Sherry. Their labels can only state their origin (eg Chiclana). This still needs to be sorted out.

There are two types of Moscatel: that made from super-ripe grapes or that made from sun-dried grapes. Both are fortified with next to no fermentation, and the former is sold young, like this Moscatel Gloria.The latter is usually aged in soleras and sold at a greater age. Luckily for Manuel Aragón, the bodega has a long history and good reputation, so they can manage without DO Jerez.

23.8.13 Limited Sherry to Toast the Poet

Bodegas Manuel Aragon in Chiclana is raising a glass of something special to toast the bicentenary of locally born romantic poet and dramatist, Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, who wrote El Trovador, which became Verdi’s Il Trovatore, among other important works.

A toast to the Poet at Manuel Aragon

The bodega El Sanatorio in the C/ El Olivo, which houses the firm’s oldest wines, has produced a very old Cream Sherry based on the old oloroso stored in an area known as the Nave de los Poetas. Enologist Sebastian Aragon explained that the wine is a blend of very old oloroso with moscatel at 18% which could easily age in bottle for a further 50 years. It is, however a limited release of only 1,000 bottles.