Palo Cortados

Wanted to share some posts on the above and thought I would start with a post about a brilliant event organized by Ruben at SherryNotes during sherry week. A tasting of five excellent palo cortados: Viejo CP from Valdespino, Antique from Rey Fernando de Castilla, Tradicion, Emilio Hidalgo Privilegio, and Apostoles. We tasted them as a group but a group all over the place – London, Madrid, Paris, Belgium, amongst others – using twitter (you can see the comments in real time by looking at the tag #sherryTT).

It was a great event – great wines, a nice group with some excellent thoughts, and even contributions from luminariea such as Edouardo Ojeda, Jan Pettersen, Fernando Martin Hidalgo, Jose from GB, Beltran Domecq and Cesar Saldaña (with Antonio Flores chipping in on Twitter from elsewhere). Most of all it was a feat of organization by Ruben – a great effort.

All the wines really were good. The Viejo CP was a lovely elegant, light butterscotch wine, the Fernando de Castilla has a light touch but some heavy notes, the Tradicion had a super structure, the Privilegio was just awesome and the Apostoles was a balance of contrasts like a hot, sweet espresso.

Really excellent event and a great opportunity to taste a range of palo cortados together.

And the tweets with tasting notes are summarized here: #sherryTT: palo cortados – my tweets | undertheflor.com

This week I was having lunch in Taberna Palo Cortado, one of Madrid’s new sherry temples, drinking a nice palo cortado from the Lusta Almacenista range when I bumped into the guy from Bodegas Tradicion, who sells a mean palo cortado himself. The last time I had seen him, in fact, was at a cracking tasting organized by Enoteca Barolo here in Madrid.
It was really interesting for a number of reasons, chief among them for me being the way that an Equipo Navazos wine I had previously had trouble with stood out from amongst the crowd. Anyway, here are the notes if anyone is interested.

Thanks Andrew, and underthflor is a great resource.

is Gonzalez-Byass still desecrating their Apostoles bottling with PX?

The Antique bottling from Rey Fernando de Castilla is one I’ve enjoyed greatly — too bad it’ll set you back $60+ in the States, which makes it a poor value in my opinion.

As to the Apostoles and PX, the answer is yes as far as I know. I do not know if they plan to eliminate it at some point, but I am not sure how they would eliminate it. It is blended when the wines go into the solera and not added later. I have no problem with the Apostoles style, which is actually fairly traditional, although I also like the totally dry style. I think the trend towards more totally dry very old sherries is fairly new which I believe is pointed out in the excellent book by Peter Liem and Jesus Barquin. Osborne’s PAP is another example of the tradition of adding a bit of sweeter wine to the blend, but they may use arrope as in their Solera India Oloroso. Interestingly, Osborne bought the Domecq VORS soleras, which I believe are dry, so they now offer two distinct lines with different styles.

Yep I don’t imagine Apostoles will be changing any time soon. In its defense I think it is the best blend style wine I have tasted - I find it better integrated than many. (Very similar in profile to the Noe in some ways - maybe it is the quality of the PX going into it.) In terms of totally dry wines GB have played around with the “vintage” palo cortados and in show tastings produce their “dos” or “tres” cortados. They also have their Palmas so to be fair they are doing plenty.

In terms of pricing, I hear that but when you think of the age of the wines and the work that goes into the solera and everything around it I still think it is comparatively good value.

Without wanting to harp on this here is my note on the Apostoles - Apostoles palo cortado muy viejo  | undertheflor.com

I heard in fact that they were going to be required to stop calling it palo cortado (there was some chat at some point anyway).

David - you’re right and FWIW the “tradition” of fino is also pretty new, at least relatively speaking.

It’s a little weird what’s happening to sherry, kind of like what’s happened in other regions to other things. People are trying to create “traditions” but the real tradition was mostly a little of this and a little of that and whatever worked.

Anyhow it’s good stuff and kudos to Andrew for his enthusiasm.

Yes, it’s nice to read somewhat regular write-ups on Sherry. Thank you!

We were recently in London and had a wonderful dinner at Le Gavroche. One of their signature dishes is a cheese soufflé. The somm paired it with a Palo Cortado which would not have been my first thought. The pairing was spot on and the cheese soufflé spectacular. I have several chef friends and they have not been able to duplicate the dish even with Le Gavroche’s recipe. We will try again tonight.

Thanks a lot guys it is great to know others find it interesting. That does sound a superb pairing - easier to get a palo cortado than a cheese souffle these days!

It’s also the only truly inspired match I’ve found for Peking Duck. Oloroso also works.

Andrew, thanks for this thread. Jay, thanks for the peking duck pairing idea, that sounds enticing. I’ll be having peking duck before long, so I think I’ll get some PC to try with it.

A local store has the Antique from Rey Fernando de Castilla for $42, so quite a bit less than the $60 Brian mentioned.

My pleasure, many thanks to you guys and the Peking duck sounds good indeed. The Antique would be perfect. Not too heavy a beast.

It’s also the only truly inspired match I’ve found for Peking Duck. Oloroso also works.

Absolutely. In fact, also for the Chinese BBQ ribs and many other preparations involving fermented soy.

Some recent TNs on Palo Cortados I really enjoyed:
The Antique by Fernando de Castilla - a lovely, elegant and very enjoyable wine Palo Cortado Antique  | undertheflor.com
La Bota de Palo Cortado 52 - Sanlucar - this is another fantastic, enjoyable Palo Cortado - salty honey and nuts La Bota de Palo Cortado 52, Sanlucar | undertheflor.com
The Vides - from the Lustau Almacenista range - a spicey wine and good example of the style
Palo cortado Vides | undertheflor.com
and my favourite - la Bota de Palo Cortado 34 - La Bota de Palo Cortado 34 – Pata de Gallina  | undertheflor.com

Was inspired to update the thread with some more recent palo cortados.

Specifically, was inspired by the Palo Cortado de la Cruz de 1767 - Palo Cortado De la Cruz de 1767 | undertheflor.com Which strikes me as a little unusual in a lot of ways. One of the wines on the market which seems to take a lot of its character from the barrels - flavouring by soaking rather than concentration.

But then realized that I hadn’t posted any of this year’s palo cortados.

The most recent Equipo Navazos I have tried - the Number 62 - La Bota de Palo Cortado 62 “Diez años despues” | undertheflor.com is another wine that like the Arfe, seems to have absorbed flavour rather than been concentrated. A lot of flavour in this case - and maybe I am being harsh on it. Have another bottle and will give it another go at some point.

Before that I had a very promising effort by Mons Urium as part of a tasting there (although not much chance to really study it)- Mons Urium in Taberna Palo Cortado | undertheflor.com

Before that was a Barbadillo Reliquia - Palo Cortado Reliquia  | undertheflor.com - a wine that has been given no less than 100 points by Luis G but I think he must have caught it on a good day. I find it a little bit short of that, even if very good.

One of the best palo cortados of the year was the 1975 Vintage by Tradicíón, which was a superb advert for vintage wines Palo Cortado Añada 1975, Bodegas Tradicion  | undertheflor.com

Before that was one that was a little disappointing - the Marques de Rodil by Emilio Hidalgo. I may have been unlucky with the bottle - Palo cortado Marques de Rodil  | undertheflor.com

Then the Antique Palo Cortado from Fernando de Castilla - very nice but I think I prefer the oloroso - Palo Cortado Antique  | undertheflor.com

Another palo cortado at a tasting: the Vides from the Almacenista range by Lustau. Very racy stuff - Palo cortado Vides | undertheflor.com

Before that one of my all time favourites - inspired by those same Lustau almacenista wines. This is the Equipo Navazos version of the pata de gallina oloroso, their Number 34

Also from Equipo Navazos, their Number 52 was an absolute classic from Sanlucar and one of my favourite wines of recent years.

Finally, or first, another absolute classic. This time the Tradicion (and an old bottle too) Palo cortado Tradicion  | undertheflor.com

Would be interested to hear if anyone else has any experiences to share.