From the label, it looks as if only 600 half bottles of that particular Barbadillo were produced, so no surprise there!
oh, dang! Yeah, that explains that alright! Fun find!!
Somewhat related, I’ll be in Santa Fe next week and our hotel has a sherry hour: Tea & Sherry Hour | Hotels Santa Fe | Inn of the Governors
Which la bota manzanilla is simultaneously critically important and irrelevant since they are all great
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Crap. Sorry to have missed this post — you gotta @ us, man!
So, what did you try?
Ended up with a BTG garnacha, skipped sherry.
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Hoping for some sherry expertise here. I picked up a bottle of 1991 Gonzalez Byass Anada Sherry Palo Cortado Finest Dry at auction as its a birth year for my youngest brother. If Im understanding correctly, this was aged like a colheita port in barrel for 30 years and then released. Generally I assume. Olheita is intended to be drunk on release, though it will definitely last longer. With this release in 2019, can I assume Im good to hang onto this through 2031?
Was your brother born in 2010, by chance? In answer to your question – “Yes.”
Bulletproof is what I was expecting, I read a tasting note that threw me off though…
Look forward to trying it, Gutierrez has a solid review!
No worries at all with holding it for even longer than that. And it is a gorgeous wine.
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Any recommendations for where to learn more about sherry? Just had a (relatively) cheap oloroso yesterday and I’m afraid I’ve been bit by the sherry bug.
Also, specific producers to look at. Do producers regularly make vintage sherry?
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Vintage sherry is relatively uncommon, and I would venture to say that in general, sherry drinkers don’t consider it a higher quality thing, the way I think a lot of people do with NV versus vintage champagne. At least not in my experience. Vintage examples can even be kind of extreme, and hard to get your head around, which makes sense if you think about it. But anyway, kind of the point of sherry is the blending. One of the most impressive things about it as a category is it’s amazing consistency.
Producers to look for are Equippo Navazos, Tradicion, Barbadillo, Valdespino, Hidalgo and of course Gonzalez Byass, which you already mentioned.
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Thanks Sarah! I most often see Lustau and El Maestro Sierra around - are they worth trying?
Lustau for sure. A large, but quality producer. I am not familiar with the other.
El maestro makes some very good sherries which are often excellent values, I find Lustau very uneven, sometimes wonderful, sometime disappointing. And they have so many different bottlings I can’t keep track of which is which. Sarah;s list is great, I’ll clarify though that for my palate I love Bodegas Hidalgo but am not a fan of Emilio Hidalgo.
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Yes and Yes. For Lustau I’d stick with their mid-range and upper range offerings; while none of their lower-end stuff is bad, I also think you can consistently do better elsewhere within that lower price bracket (i.e.: Gonzalez-Byass; Barbadillo; and Valdespino) … quite frankly, now that I think about it more, even as we go up the pricing ladder, I rarely feel Lustau is among the best. Allllll of that having been said, Lustau is definitely worth trying.
… will think more about your original question and reply later.
+1 to every single bit of this.
Btw, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that you should by no means miss Valdespino Inocente Fino. A ridiculous value for the quality and fairly widely available
Regarding vintage Sherries ( known as Anadas) I’m mildly obsessed with them though as Sarah says they are not inherently superior to solera sherries. Gonzalez Byass is the only one who,does regular releases in limited quantities all of which are worth trying though other producers will do one offs.
Williams and Humbert also does regular releases in even smaller quantities but for me the quality is a bit lower than GB
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