Some time ago I had a glass of sherry that was jet-black and very thick, but not syrupy like PX I’ve tasted (primarily Alvear). It was acidic but not overpowering. The oxidative flavors of sherry were muted, and it was more nutty and caramelized—much like a very mature Sauternes—but only slightly sweet.
I have no idea what I was drinking, and I don’t expect to figure it out, but it was delicious so I want to explore similar wines. For the experts, what fits this profile? Any suggestions are welcome.
Could have been a super old oloroso, but this is a bit of a wild goose chase if the OP has no idea about producer or style. Get it together man, stupid questions get stupid answers.
“Stupid” is a funny word to throw around. I wrote that I’m looking for any suggestions of wines that fit the profile, because I enjoyed it—not looking to find whatever the hell I was drinking, which was poured for me from an unknown bottle by someone who left a dinner with it before I could ask about it.
I’m looking for some experts to point me toward some sherries I might like, given the above information. I know very little about sherry, so even basic pointers would be useful.
Kevin,
I don’t know if you are familiar with the spectrum but staying away from anything Fino is a good place to start.
It could be an Oloroso or Amontillado ‘antique’, these often are darker, richer wines without sweetness and minimal ‘fresh’ Sherry oxidative notes and more ‘old’ oxidative notes… more nuttiness, hay, depth and richness, but they still won’t have the same dark color you are looking for. Could also be a VORS, bottling which is a richer fuller style then regular releases.
A very well made cream Sherry could also be your answer.
Well the color does mean something when trying to track down the style in which you are looking.
‘Jet Black’ can only ring true for only a couple of styles of Sherry. Not all PX is sweet and Syrupy as not all of it is made in a sweet style, in fact Toro albala is based solely on PX and makes a Fino.
The hard part is that you are asking for something where there could be 5 different answers, what you described sounds exactly like vintage PX, since you said it is not in that vein it would lead me to cream or a ‘VORS’ Oloroso.
We represent Valdespino, Toro Albala and Fernando De Castilla. All are totally different in style and structure, Fernando De Castilla’s PX is light on it’s feet, jet black but is still a bit sweet as to where Toro Albala is pitch black and like motor oil.
A little snarky of an answer there Kevin, but Brent is right, you more than likely had an older Oloroso. Many producers let them slowly oxidate in old barrels for many, many years, and they get as exotic as hell from the right sources. I really like some of the older Oloroso bottlings from Lustau -
Now wait a minute here, there is no greater wine value on earth than a crisp, fresh Fino. Lightly chilled it is almost orgasmic - and agree it’s not what Kevin is looking for, but Fino Sherry is certainly one of the world’s most underappreciated wines.
Thomas, you misunderstood me, in solving his mystery wine he should stay away from finding a dark, black Fino as they don’t exist.
Personally I love all styles of Sherry so I was not guiding him away from Fino in general.
Hmmm. It’s hard for me to say it was not PX. I’ve only tasted Alvear and a Emilio Hidalgo, so I don’t have much basis for comparison. The main distinction I was trying to convey was slightly sweet rather than syrupy sweet. It was certainly closer to the Hidalgo than the Alvear.
My thoughts exactly, except I’m most tempted to say it actually was a PX. It’s not inconceivable that an extremely old PX would have lost much of its sense of sweetness. After PX, my next guess would be that it was a high quality cream: some producers (much to my chagrin) put a little bit of PX into their Oloroso (e.g.: Gonzalez Byass), so it could be an example of one of those.
Did you have this glass in a restaurant or at someone’s home? If the former, can you recall the $$ spent? Could it have been Montilla Moriles instead of a Sherry?
It was after a private dinner. Somebody referred to it as sherry, but none of us would have known if that was inaccurate. I didn’t see the bottle, and this wasn’t a group of wine geeks. That’s why I’ve given up the search and am looking more generally at exploring wines that fit a similar profile.
Kevin - there are several threads on sherry but basically something like a fino or manzanilla will be made under flor, it’s called “biological” and you would treat those like you would any white wine. In other words, don’t keep open bottles too long and drink them cool.
The oxidized sherries, like the olorosos referred to, are made, as you would expect, in the presence of air. It’s true that you could have had an old oloroso or something of that nature, but my suspicion is that you didn’t, at least from the way you described it. Older oxidized sherries can be quite delicious and yes, depending on the producer, some have varying amounts of PX blended in and that makes the wine slightly sweet. Those are called things like “cream” or such. There’s nothing at all wrong with them.
For me, for the most part, PX is often too sweet and cloying. It can seem like molasses. But sometimes it’s not overly sweet, although it’s almost always thick, except for some of the Toro Albala wines as mentioned, because they use it for all their wine instead of Palomino.
Most likely is that you had a PX. If you don’t like the sweetness of most, then dial back and get something less sweet. You kind of have to know the producer to figure out what you’ll like, but there’s a lot of good wine to be tasted while you’re figuring it all out.
The current vintage releases are 10’ and 83’.
The 10’ is showing fairly lighter in style than the 83’, the 83’ is more intense and viscous.
They make an excellent cream as well as an Amontillado ‘viejisimo’ that you may find interesting.
Remember that Toro Albala is not technically ‘Sherry’ as it comes from the village next door as is based mainly on PX which leads to a darker style in general. Amontillado is actually named for the town of Montilla (where Toro Albala is located) as Sherry winemakers were emulating the style of their neighbors.