Equipo Navazos La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada Bota "NO"

Manzanilla Pasada - occupying that important phase of maturity between Fino and Amontillada (not Amontillado, which comes after Amontillada. I think.). I didn't drink this with Broomie, I drank it with Andy. And then I saved a bit which I meant to bring into work, but then got greedy and finished before that could happen. Because it was very, very tasty.

Quite light, but with beginnings of brass.

Sea salt and hay with smoked nuts and toffee. There's some citrus there as well as butterscotch and dough.

The palate starts off quite invigorating. Fresh salt spray, citrus tang and the dust from the bottom of a bowl of dust. Then it softens, becomes quite velvety and textured. Melts on the mouth sort of like dried bits of seaweed with sushi. Fresh notes of mint, some other herby notes. Complex. Nuanced. Yet more amazing sherry from these folks.

*****

Tasted 8 & 11 January 2013 at Millers Court

Buy My Book. Please.

Equipo Navazos La Bota de Palo Cortado 34

I opened this and the Amontillado with my mate, Broomie. He and I went to Jerez together 8 years ago (seems like yesterday) and share a love and nerdery for sherry such that we occasionally get a bit lost. His fiancé was with us and thought we were a combination of amusing, boring and ridiculous. We waxed lyrical and philosophical for over an hour about this, pouring forth praise and pondering nuances. 

I have one more bottle of this left in the cellar. I'm trying to forget it's there; to leave it as a sort of surprise to myself, but it keeps calling to me.

Darker, like Greek honey and brass.

Deep, rich and inviting nose. Roasted oranges and maple-glazed walnuts. A touch of amaretto. Occasionally there's a bit of spearmint, often there's deeply varnished mahogany, leather and a bit of cured meat. Dust. Toffee. Pecan pie. Bonfire smoke. It's all there.

I don't think I've ever had sherry so red-fruit like. It bursts right out with roasted and raisined strawberries, plums and raspberries, all with baked orange rind acidity to lift them. Proper waxy honeycomb, with those hardened clumps of honey sugar. Bone dry but rich and leading you along that path to thinking there must be sweetness there somewhere. But there isn't, and it's better for it. This is incredibly complex - again, every sip is different. It draws the tongue right up to the roof of the mouth and makes you tug as much as you can from every sip. Nutty, intricate, powerful, delicate, and seemingly endless - the finish is hard to determine as you want another sip before it goes away. There isn't anything out of place with this. If this isn't the best sherry I've ever drunk, it's pretty bloody close.

*****

Tasted 26 & 28 December 2012 at Miller's Court

Equipo Navazos La Bota de Amontillado 37 'Navazos'

I secured a parcel of these as a sort of Christmas present to myself. It's expensive for sherry, but for what other wine can you secure some of the absolute best available for about £50 a bottle? We all have different priorities of course. I spent most of January living on muesli as a result, but there you go. 

Pale brass, with a bit of a honey hue to it.

Pecans and almonds on the the nose, with a hint of brûlée. There's smokiness there too, depending on the whiff. It changes with every sniff. Sometimes a bit of dusty, woody varnish comes out. Sometimes it's quite orange-y.

It clenches around the tongue, permeating the channels between tasted buds. It gets in there. Like drinking polished mahogany. Those nuts from the nose are roasted more on the palate. It's surprisingly elegant, delicate, with the structure somewhat like delicately spun sugar around the edges, but at it's core is beautifully rich, dry, salted caramel. There's something different with every taste. Long; incredible.

*****
Tasted 26 & 28 December 2012 at Miller's Court

d' Oliveira Boal 1908

We had been planning something like this for awhile. My mates and I wanted to drink old Madeira, and our suppliers were letting us down. We reserved bottles and they were sold to others. We ordered online and were told they were out of stock. We were beginning to suspect some sort of conspiracy. There must have been some plot to prevent us from buying old Madeira. It wouldn't surprise me. True Madeira fans are maniacal in their passion. 

I did some research and we secured this bottle from a merchant who, and I am not making this up, questioned our love of Madeira before letting us buy it. I fucking love the wine trade.

Dark, treacle. 

Dark moscavado sugar with balsamic vinegar, coffee grounds, pata negra. Very savoury. It starts off with an edge of varnish that gradually dissipates. 

Gripping, tight, viscous espresso/ristretto. Intense, savoury with salted caramel sweetness following only at the very end of the palate, though as the finish lingers it very much goes back to coffee. It's quite a simple note, really, but it's not a simple wine. All the flavours work like a fractal, as they follow a similar pattern/flavour profile that echoes on grander and lesser levels as they go on. Every sip it hits you differently. You clasp your lips close and press your tongue to your mouth as though you're sucking on a boiled sweet, trying to squeeze more and more out of it, even though as your mouth waters, your eyes tear up a bit. It lasts for five or ten minutes, but it's sad that I know that, because it means that I finished my glass.

***** wow

Tasted at Naughton, 29 April 2012

Taylor's 2009 Tasting (with some 1985s and other odds and ends as well - woohoo!)

Nobody's talking about Port at the moment. The immense non-event of Bordeaux 2011 teeters above all of us in the trade like the sword of someone far more boring than Damocles and so most vinous thoughts are focused on the Gironde and not the Douro.

Pity, that. Port's awesome. I tasted some last summer and they were rather nice. I'm not sure why I've taken so long to post this, but there you go. With everyone dropping heaps of cash on re-scored Bordeaux, the savvy might find a bargain here.

Adrian Bridge, the Managing Director of Taylor Fladgate, was our host. Informed and charming, he explained that 2009 was special enough a vintage for the group to break with the '3 Declarations per Decade' tradition and declare a fourth vintage. I bit my pedantic tongue with regards to 2000 technically belonging to the previous decade due to there never having been a year '0'. Apparently, 2009 was a hot summer and harvest but never excessively so. It was also very dry, with low-yields and high concentration. Which is perfect for Port, as during ferment you have a very small amount of time to get maximum extraction.

There are no scores here - I rarely use them for a tasting like this. Also, there's no mention of colour for the 2009s, because they were all crazy dark.

Taylor's Skeffington 2009

Nose of plum and spiced apple with a nice mealy-fleshiness. Very apple-y.

Fleshy fruit but with a touch of bitterness that starts at the end of the mid-palate. Simple, pleasant, but probably wouldn't lay it down for more than 20 years.

Croft Vintage 2009

Dark and sweet on the nose, quite brooding. Hint of varnish. With air there's more apple and less varnish.

Big purity of fruit burst on the start, with all the secondaries and tannins coming through from that ripe, brash dark bramble and cassis. Intense and structured. 20-30 years before I'd really start enjoying it.

Fonseca Vintage 2009

Glazed meat with black cherries and plums. Quite stony. Floral notes as well- apple blossom on a warm, spring day.

Utterly delicious. Rich, layered fruits with superb purity that just flows from juicy to floral to rustic and back again. And then there's this awesome, bracing grip. The tannins lock down on the tongue, reminding you of its youth and that it's going to take time to come round. The first half of the palate is decadently drinkable. The second half reminds you that patience will be a virtue.

Taylor's Vintage 2009

Brighter fruit. More flower petals.

The palate is so elegant. Light, crunchy dark fruit crushed with violet and apple blossom petals. Superb structure and poise. The tannins kick in a touch earlier but they're sweeter than the Fonseca.

Taylor's Vargellas Vinha Velha 2009

Not a lot coming through on the nose. Bit of apple, bit of stoniness, bit of meat.

Um. Wow. Quite enormous. The grip jumps in from the start. The fruit and savoury just match each other step for step. Flower petals, cassis, pata negra, ground cloves and anise and all the bits and pieces are kind of turned up to 11. Depth, complexity and great stoniness. Incredibly intense, but also brilliant.

 

We then moved onto some older vintages, starting with a couple from my favourite vintage harvested in my lifetime, 1985.

Very large harvest in 1985 - 25,000 cases of Taylor's - as the weather was hot and the fruit abundant.

Interestingly, Taylor's still source from small holders who tread themselves. Fladgate still foot tread 2000 tons a year themselves - just for vintage though, not for 'wood ports'. There is three and a half days between picking and fermentation and all extraction has to come in that period.

Taylor's Vintage 1985

Slightly lighter than the Fonseca, but still intense and bright.

Quite hot on the nose, surrounded by glacé cherries and plums with red apple peel.

Creamy on the palate. Very luscious, with nice softness of the fruit. Cherries and strawberries with clotted cream surrounded by wood spice and cloves. A bit of tobacco leaf, touch of leather. The booze pops up on the finish, but a bit of cheese would sort that out no problem. Delicious.

Fonseca Vintage 1985

Lovely colour of ruby and translucent purple. It's lightened, but not rusted. Intense.

More perfumed, soft on the nose with a soothing spiciness to it. Still cherry-like.

There's such beautiful harmony and integration. Candied cherries, roast plums and toffee apples, coated with cinnamon and spearmint. There is still that lovely creaminess and again a hit of booze on the finish, but it's softer and more liqueur-y. I think this pips the Taylor's to the post.

Croft 1991

Still deep colour, though a bit stewed looking (no bits or anything, just a bit)

Like a massive slab of cured ham or beef glazed with a cherry jam.

Nice, fleshy palate. Dark cocoa and plums, with quite soft tannins and really nicely integrated fruit. There are some bitter tones that come out with coaxing, but not unpleasantly. Minty. Quite charming.

Croft Roeda 1997

Dark. Ruby edges.

Black fruits and caramel on the nose.

Quite simple, dark and pleasant. Doesn't go anywhere in particular, but it's nice.

Fonseca Panascal 1998

Nice maturity on the colour.

Hot and savoury nose. Hot salt beef and roasted red apples, laden with plums.

Very much follows through from the palate. Savoury, meaty with stewed fruit. Not a huge amount of structure. Small hit of mint on the finish.

Fonseca Guimarens 1996

Youthful colour.

Bit mute on the nose. Touch of mothball.

Soft and light on the palate, relatively speaking. There's a lot of secondary mint and mothball and a bit of heat too. It's also a bit drier than expected. Not in a bad way, but all of it results in being a touch thin.

Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas 2001

Young and dark.

Quite serious on the nose. Young, dark and a bit broody. Dark fruits.

Palate is superb, bright but dark fruit integrated with youthful but curbed tannins. The structure is table wine like. Good length and spectacular purity. Nice one.

Taylor's Quinta de Terra Feita 1999

Quite earthy and rustic on the nose. Berries and brush, forest floor.

Nice dominance of sweet secondaries surrounding the fruit, giving it structure and providing a nice elegance. 

Tasted at The Bonham in Edinburgh, 14/6/2011