Valdespino, Non Vintage Sherry and Montilla-Moriles
Palo Cortado `Viejo C.P.`
Bottle size: 75cl
ABV: 20%
Price:
$55.43 USD
Description
The NV Palo Cortado Viejo C.P. produced from Palomino from the Macharnudo Alto is feed with specific casks of Fino Inocente and Amontillado Tio Diego. It was traditionally aged in the Calle Ponce (Ponce Street), and if has kept the C.P. initials since then. It’s not age-certified, but the average age of the bottled wine is 25 years.
Notes: Pale sandalwood/caramel in hue, with a fresh, brisk, redolently woody aroma. Though appearing to teeter on the verge of volatility by virtue of being so dry and so woody, the blue cheese notes (cachel blue / dolcelatte / cabrales / stilton) lift it into an entirely different level.
Valdespino stakes a claim as the oldest Sherry bodega, and it is hard to argue with six centuries of Sherry production as evidence. The family have been involved in making Sherry for around 700 years; exactly when is not clear, the information lost in the mists of time. But in the late 13th Century, a Spanish knight, Alonso Valdespino, was granted 30 ha of vineyards by his king. From this small beginning the family established a reputation as an excellent source of the wine. The business which operates today, however, was founded as recently as 1875. The family business is located in Jerez, in some of the city’s oldest and most attractive buildings. Unsurprisingly practices here are traditional, most notable is the fermentation, which takes place in cask for the vast majority of the harvest. In addition the business encompasses the bodega Manuel de Argüeso in Sanlúcar de Barrameda which is the source of the firm’s Manzanilla.
Condition
new
Reviews
96 points Wine & Spirits
The wines that make up this Palo Cortado have an average age of more than 25 years. Originally, it was aged in Calle Ponce in the city of Jerez; hence the initials still printed on the label. During aging, the wine is refreshed with Fino Inocente and Amontillado Tío Diego, two other top bottlings in Valdespino’s portfolio. The end result is a wine that smells smoky and rich in caramelized flavor, but tastes dry to the bone; all those ripe flavors become the purest mineral impressions. A sense of chalky albariza soil floods the palate as the acidity tingles along the tongue, leading the way into a vertical wine, intense and vibrant. (10/2015)
93 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The NV Palo Cortado Viejo C.P. produced from Palomino from the Macharnudo Alto is feed with specific casks of Fino Inocente and Amontillado Tio Diego. It was traditionally aged in the Calle Ponce (Ponce Street), and if has kept the C.P. initials since then. It’s not age-certified, but the average age of the bottled wine is 25 years. The color is old gold or light amber, and the nose hints at a relatively old wine, with plenty of lactic notes, sweet vanilla, iodine, bitter oranges and spices. The palate is clean and delineated, subtle and on the elegant side of Palo Cortado, ending very dry. (LG) Inne(8/2013)
Jancis Robinson
Nutty sweetness. Deep and savoury in its yeast and spice flavours. Beautifully bone dry (unlike some palo cortado). So much flavour and texture you want to chew it, finishing with a bitter-orange freshness. (JH) I(4/2016)
