TN: two old solera sherries

WINE TALK
1

I’m in a little group that is dedicated to tasting old and rare under-appreciated fortified wines such as Sherries, Madeiras, Malaga, etc. We got together to taste a couple of old solera sherries, one produced by Pedro Romero that is 60-70 years old and another produced by Gaspar Florido that is 110-120 years old. The soleras are currently owned by Bodegas Alonso and is being bottled in a set with a maximum of 500 sets.

The wines were very interesting, and really good. The notes are below. One thing our group has seen in tasting very old solera sherries is that they are at their best when first popped and poured. Time and air is not kind to the really old soleras. Their palate becomes dull and uninteresting.

Upon opening, the nose is nutty, with a decent amount of acetone. Really nice acidity that doesn’t slap you in the face. Very smooth and balanced. Some salinity showing. A slight green rim.

This wine is very approachable from the beginning. It was great with the fatty charcuterie that was served with it.

After two hours, a toffee nose has emerged. Still very smooth. This wine paired well with the double cream cow’s cheese and the ripened goat cheese. It was better upon opening, but still drinking very well. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Upon opening, a huge nose of acetone. Intense acidity, but comes across pretty smooth. The mouthfeel is dense, almost thick. Strong salinity. A bit of a green rim. After about 20 minutes, orange peel started to emerge on the nose and palate.

This is a big and bold wine that’s very demanding on the palate. The solera is 110-120 years old. Served with charcuterie, where the fat helped to balance the acid.

After two hours, the acetone nose is greatly reduced. There’s some toffee on the nose now, but not on the palate. The palate is getting really dry, and not as dense as earlier. The palate has gotten much less interesting, with reduced intensity.

Our experience with very old soleras is that they need to be drunk right after opening. Time and air does not help these wines. They get dull and lifeless after an hour or two. (95 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

2

Thanks for sharing, John. Interesting notes about the flattening over a couple hours - it seems counterintuitive and not my experience with VORS sherries, which are admittedly youngsters compared to these two.

3

Hi Vince,

Agreed that is seems counterintuitive. But it’s a phenomenon that my group has seen a couple of times before.

Last year we tasted an Amontillado bottled by La Riva from a solera that was begun in 1770. There was no information on what the average age of the wine was in the solera, but based on the look I believe the wine had been bottled back in the 1950s. It was spectacular upon opening. But when we went back to it two hours later, the nose was an amazing fragrance of butterscotch but the palate was completely dead. No flavor whatsoever. It was like drinking acidic water.

4

Small technical note: the aroma is probably acetaldehyde, or ethyl acetate, or both, not acetone.

P Hickner

5

Thanks for the notes, John. Are these soleras still being maintained (refreshed)? Or are they in stasis and just bottled periodically?

6

BTW, the reason why I was asking was with respect to the wines being used to refresh the solera. Maintaining that average age would be incredibly difficult, especially when the solera has likely changed hands a couple times over the years.

7

It’s also something I’ve observed with the Gonzalez Byass Anadas. When we have our Sherry dinners most leftovers will last (and in some cases improve) with months in the fridge. But the Anadas open brilliantly, develop still more complexity with air, and then begin falling apart, though flattening is perhaps a still more accurate word.

8

Hi Jay,

My understanding is that these are in stasis and are not being maintained. Bodegas Alonso bought the wines and bottled them in 500 sets of four bottles, selling them as a set. In addition to these two bottles, the other two in the set is a similarly very old Oloroso and Amontillado, one from Pedro Romero and one from Gaspar Florido.

9

Cool, thanks for the info!

10

Any thoughts on how these compare to the many sherries bottled by Equipo Navazos from very old stocks of Romero and Florido, both from a quality/enjoyment standpoint, and regarding the “flattening” observation? These I have had many times and they certainly did not seem particularly sensitive to air exposure (other than sometimes being simply overwhelmingly concentrated when first open).

Thanks!

11

I’ve never experienced this with any ENs I’ve held for any period of time. Do you know the specific numbers?

12

I have enjoyed the EN 41, 47, and 48, all Palo Cortados from (I believe) this same collection of butts. EN refers to them as “GF-25” and “GF-30”, if this is useful detail. Each of these wines was extremely concentrated, the .375L bottles are easily 12 “servings”, and I liked them best at cool red-wine temperature, I am going to guess around 62F, and overnight (or several) in the fridge did not damage these wines in my experience.

13

Hi John - fascinating notes and these are indeed very rare and hard to get wines.

They are actually almost the same wines as the palo cortados and amontillados that Equipo Navazos bottled as numbers 41, 47, 48, 49 and 51. Unfortunately after allowing EN to take those bottlings Pedro Romero, who had acquired Gaspar Florido (and Ansar Real) killed himself before his company went into bankruptcy. Yuste purchased the high volume soleras and the oldest Sanlucar soleras in the winding up and Alonso, some really good guys who make wine up in Asturias, picked up the old bodega itself and these old relics.

I haven’t tried the Alonso bottlings but the EN bottlings were spectacular - sometimes a little excessive in some respects.

14

I must admit I am surprised by the flattening observation too. If the thing has been oxidating for the last 90 years you wouldn’t expect a couple of hours to affect it too much. Maybe if the wine has been in the bottle for 50 years - I must admit I find the older bottle aged wines a bit tired at times.

15

And just on the solera point, these wines would really have been static for a long period rather than part of a solera, which is where you get the high level of volatile/acetic from. Again the impact of that is amazing on the first mouthful but you soon get used to the effect - could explain the impression of flattening.

16

I’ve not had any of the Equipo Navazos wines, but it sounds like I need to!

17

I can tell you specifically that after opening the 48, pouring one glass, and putting it in the refrigerator it was singing about 2 weeks later. I haven’t tried the 41 or 47 yet.