Oloroso del Puerto 1/110 20% Lustau Almacenista

Appearance
Bright polished mahogany with copper highlights and the faintest tinge of green at the amber rim.

Nose

Fragrant and full showing lots of the subtle nuances of maturity: hints of oak, cigar box, pipe tobacco, walnut, salted caramel, toasted nuts and a trace of Seville orange marmalade. It is stylish, elegant and homogeneous, a great example of what the word Oloroso means.

Palate

Full, almost rich and very well rounded. There are gentle hints of tannin, a very slight salinity and a certain glyceric sweetness which give an attractive texture and all is nicely balanced. The faintest hint of spice like cinnamon joins flavours of tobacco and nuts with traces of oak. it is quite a big wine yet quite subtle at the same time and has terrific length.

Comments

The almacenista in this case is José Luis González Obregón in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a highly respectable firm founded in 1935 which also has a superb bodega/wine bar in the town´s Calle Zarza and the Taberna La Draga in Plaza Bizcocheros. They are almacenistas but also sell good wine and Sherry under their own brand. This solera contains 110 butts and the wine was bottled by Lustau. It must be all of 20 years old.

Price
16 euros per 50cl, ex bodega

Amontillado del Castillo 1/38 21.5%, Lustau Almacenista

Appearance
Deep amber, polished chestnut with copper tinted highlights.
Nose

Full, almost powerful, the alcohol is noticeable, with lots of hazelnut and toasted almond, traces of exotic woods, old polished furniture and old Sherry butts along with a faint notes of orange peel and linseed oil. It has a certain salty maritime air and a distant bitterness as well.

Palate

Big at first then subsides a little allowing all that flavour to flood out. Apparently it contains 5.5g/l residual sugar, but it tastes drier than that, though it is certainly well rounded and smooth with plenty of glycerine to round off trace notes of tannin. It is very slightly on the strong side, but has all that lovely Amontillado nuttiness with woody hints ending in a dry-textured finish.

Comments

This wine is comparatively new to the Almacenista range, as is the name of its producer: Antonio Caballero y Sobrinos, about whom few people know much. Really, it is a solera owned by the family of Luis Caballero, owners of Lustau. It is kept in the bodega of the castle of El Puerto de Santa Maria, hence the name. The Castillo San Marcos, as it is properly called, was built on the orders of king Alfonso X "The Wise" in the XIII century on the site of a X century Moorish mosque very close to the Guadalete, and is owned by Caballero, who have other bodegas in the vicinity. The solera consists of 38 butts and the wine has an average age of 18 years. It won gold at both the IWC and IWSC in 2018 and scored 93 Parker points. It comes in a bottle which looks similar to the rest of the range, but is a good inch taller due to a deep punt.

Price
22.85 per 50cl Licores Corredera

Amontillado El Carro Single Cask 18.5%, Lustau

Appearance
Quite deep browny amber with coppery highlights fading to gold with a slight trace of green at the rim, legs.
Nose
Rich and full and complex with notes of honey glazed toasted almond, turrón yema tostada and slightly spicy notes of cinnamon, vanilla pod, oak and cedar. There are all sorts of nuances both sweet and phenolic such as burnt wood, bitter orange peel and caramel, and to round it off there is a noticeable glyceric sweetness which gives a winning charm.

Palate
Full bodied and opening out to a very toasted almond/hazelnut in fruitcake with caramel character. It has a lot of texture and the sweet glyceric side of the wine almost obscures its more phenolic side, where there is a little tannin. A very long dry finish  never loses that balance and charm. A Serious wine yet a charming one, for sipping of an evening.
Comments
Using the word "cask" rather than "butt" could Lustau be taking a cue from the Whisky industry? Probably not, but it doesn't matter as this is still a really good idea, and extremely good wine. Starting in 1995 Lustau, who have long bottled and marketed Almacenista wines, decided to bottle the wine of exceptionally fine individual butts of Almacenista Sherry which would otherwise have been lost in the final blend. Being a single butt from a small solera, each release is limited to 600 bottles, and there can be no more of that particular wine.

As to age it is hard to say but this is not a young wine, maybe around 20 years. From time to time the bodega offers a range of these single cask wines: Fino Amontillado, Amontillado Fino, Manzanilla Amontillada, Amontillado Viejo, Palo Cortado, Oloroso Seco, Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez, but they are not always available. El Carro, by the way, means the cart, the sort of ox cart used formerly to transport butts - or perhaps casks - of mosto or Sherry.
Price

€ 51.85 per 75cl bottle in Spain. Limited availability obviously. Try the internet.

Manzanilla Amontillada 1/21 17.5% Lustau Almacenista

Appearance
Bright golden amber with slightest trace of green at rim, legs.
Nose
Full and super-complex with pronounced flor characteristics such as bitter salinity, tarry rope and traces of Marmite from autolysis, but the bitterness is tempered by the softening effect of oxidation and sweeter aromas of hazelnut and almond. Truly in between Manzanilla and Amontillado, and quite lovely.
Palate
Mid weight, the half-way-house theme continues, intensely flavoured and quite tangy with those autolytic and oxidative notes. There is a slight feeling of fleeting sweetness from the small amount of glycerol from ageing, yet it is bone dry. Amazing intensity and length, it just goes on and on developing. Beautiful.
Comments
From Lustau's Almacenista range, this is an absolute gem made by the Almacenista Manuel Cuevas Jurado, who also makes the Manzanilla Pasada which Lustau bottle. It comes from a tiny solera of only 21 butts, and is quite a rare style of wine. Its age of about 15 years is quite sufficient for it to be a full-blown Amontillado, yet it retains a great deal of Manzanilla characteristics. The grapes come from the Pago Miraflores. Highly recommended!
Price
Expect to pay over £20 (50cl) but expect to be amazed! UK agents Fields, Morris & Verdin.

Oloroso Pata de Gallina 20%, Lustau Almacenista

Appearance
Deep, dark amber, mahogany through yellow to a hint of green at the rim, legs.
Nose
Delightful, complex and fresh with quite sweet aromas of walnut in syrup which neatly balance with toasted almond, hints of wood, autumn leaf litter. There are traces of spiced orange, cinnamon, garrapiñadas, nut oil and turron de yema tostada.

Palate
Beautifully rounded, just off dry with mostly implied sweetness, gentle, fairly nutty and quite light. Supremely elegant and deeply flavoured with all the above and a gentle tang, and a very long clean finish.
Comments
Another excellent wine from Lustau's Almacenista range, scoring 91 Parker points. This wine comes from the almacenista Juan Garcia Jarana, a bodega established over 100 years ago. This is his oldest solera, and contains 100 butts. In his spare time he imports Japanese motorcycles! The term Pata de Gallina (hen's foot) comes from a cask marking of that description, and means an oloroso which is especially smooth and glyceric on the palate.
Price
Around £21.00 (50cl) in the UK. Available in many fine wine shops or imported by Fields, Morris & Verdin. For other countries try winesearcher.com.

Palo Cortado Vides19%, Lustau Almacenista

Appearance
Deep amber fading through amber to a yellow rim with a trace of green, legs.
Nose
Very well rounded, harmonious, forthcoming, quite amontillado in style with traces fresh tobacco, toasted hazelnut, and a hint of toasted oak, complex and graceful.
Palate
Tangy - more so than expected, nutty- but more in the Amo. hazelnut style, lighter than the Oloroso weight expected, dry but with that implied sweetness, beautifully poised and rounded, long and refined.
Comments
Quite delicious. From the small Almacenista bodega Vides in Jerez. This wine is from a solera of only 50 butts, bottled by Lustau.

Price

£20.50 (50cl) from Drinkmonger