Dessert & Fortified Wine

Founded in 1820, and today housed in cellars that date from 1619, this small jewel of a company is still owned by the same family, its vineyard holdings built up over time through a series of marriages with other wine-producing families. Displaying a nutty, slightly toasty nose, with flavours of hazelnuts, and orange peel. The high acidity makes the wine taste dry on the palate, with a smooth, long, and memorable finish.

94 points Wine Advocate
Barbadillo is somehow a specialist in Palo Cortado, and they now offer a younger, gentler and more straightforward NV Palo Cortado Criadera Selection from the stock in La Cilla, where they keep their Palo Cortado. It's an elegant oxidative wine, with an average age of 14 years, with a peachy nose, gentle and tender, but with a more saline and sharper palate with a bitter twist in the finish. It has an Oloroso nose and an Amontillado palate. 906 bottles were filled in March 2024.
100% Palomino o sourced from particularly fine musts and aged primarily oxidatively for a total average of between 10-15 years in old American-oak botas o sourced from criaderas in the Sacrist??a bodega o bottled en rama (minimal filtration)

What: Pedro Ximenez

Where: Sherry, Spain

Why: Because for the money this is one of the most intense PX?????s we?????ve ever tasted. Why? Lets start with honeyed raisins, oranges and almonds. Then there?????s chocolate and coffee and figs. But that?????s just the sugar talking. After those candied notes hit you they give way to salt, herbs, coffee grounds, tar and licorice. The flavor show does not stop... ever.

"Firm, fresh and complex, with an array of glazed apricot, ginger, maple and cream flavors. Features notes of truffle and mineral on the crisp finish. Drink now. 200 cases imported." Wine Spectator

#66 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2022.

96 points Wine Spectator
This is really vivid, with a beautiful range of cassis, cherry pur??e, boysenberry coulis and plum reduction notes unfurling across the palate while succulent licorice, warm fruitcake and enticing red and black tea notes sing back up. The long, refined finish has plenty in reserve for the long haul. One of the stars of the vintage. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Alicante Bouschet and Tinta Amarela. Best from 2040 through 2060.

94pts Wine Advocate:
The Lot 38 La Bota de Viejo Cream Bota No is the sequel to the sweet oloroso that was Lot 19. It originates from the blending of a Pedro Ximenez over a century ago when the Solera was started. It has a fairly light bouquet that opens with aeration: hazelnut, macadamias, subtle note of caramel and nougat. The palate is medium-bodied with a lovely viscous opening: a touch of spice, eau-de-vie, caramel and cafe latte underpinned by beautifully judged acidity and a sensual harmonious long finish. Superb.

900 bottles produced. La Bota de Viejo Cream 38 "Bota NO" is a new release of edition 19 in the series: a sweet oloroso that has aged as such in a 9-butt solera under the label "Viejo Cream", never before commercially available except for a few exceptional sacas for British customers. This solera has in turn a bota NO as well as a double NO- of notably higher age and character, and which is where this wine has been sourced, again in limited volumes. This sweet oloroso results from a blending process with top-quality pedro xim??nez that was performed early on, when the solera was founded, likely over a century ago. Harmonious integration during these decades has made the wine finer and rounder, thanks to the patience of several generations of winemakers, reaching today a prodigious balance between the raciness of dry oloroso and the mellowness of sweet PX.

What originally started out as a private buying club for an outstanding Amontillado located in the cellar of Miguel S??nchez Ayala, has become one of the most sought after series of bottlings sourced from, and inspired by the wines of Jerez and Montilla-Moriles. Jes??s Barqu??n, a professor of criminal law at the University of Granda and Eduardo Ojeda, the technical director of Grupo Est??vez, guided by their vast knowledge of, and unparalleled access to, the best wines, cellars and soleras of the region, have since 2005 assembled one of the finest offerings of Sherries in the market. When word got out about their project, what was once a hobby became a full-fledged commercial enterprise. Supply remains limited and demand has only increased. Since that first cask of Amontillado, labeled simply Bota de Amontillado no.1 in honor of the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, each successive bottling as been numbered, bottled en rama, limited in release and quick to sell out. Not content with only exploring the possibilities of fortified wines, Equipo has also released brandies, unfortified Palomino Fino aged under flor, and a couple of PX wines, one dry and one made from raisined grapes. They have also partnered with Dirk Niepoort and Quim Vila to make a Vin Jaune styled Palomino Fino and Sergei Colet to produce a Cava utilizing flor in the secondary aging of the wine as well as Sherry and Montilla for the dosage.

Dense ruby/purple-colored, with an exotic, exuberant perfume of black fruits, flowers, incense, and licorice, this unctuously-textured, full-bodied port is one of the most concentrated of the vintage. Sweet, expansive, and succulent, this large-scaled, but remarkably well-balanced effort is surprisingly forward and accessible... - WA95

Organic

Quinta do Infantado Douro Tinto is a bold yet balanced red blend from Portugal??????s Douro Valley, made from traditional native varieties like Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and bottled with minimal intervention, it shows ripe blackberry and plum notes accented by dried herbs, spice, and a touch of schist-driven minerality. Medium-bodied with polished tannins, it??????s a soulful expression of the Douro??????s dry wine potential.

96 pts Wine Advocate
The NV Fino Vina Corrales Pago Balbaina (bottled in 2020, which is also shown on the cork) comes from the old solera of Camborio, and the bottled wine is eight to nine years old on average. This is a single-vineyard Fino from a plot in Balbaina with "tosca de barajuela" albariza soils, a kind of laminated limestone that is highly sought after. The vineyard is currently in the process to become certified organic. They selected the wine in spring, when the flor is working at full capacity and after the "beticus" yeasts (which gives complexity a little a la Meursault) have calmed down a little. That yeast represents some 25% of the solera and the rest is "moltuliensis," a yeast that produces more acetaldehyde. It's a bright golden color, and the nose is textbook old Fino (what in the past could be called Fino Amontillado, a mention that isn't allowed anymore) with notes of dried herbs, wet chalk and some iodine with a twist of volatility. They want a vinous wine, and it's incredibly textured, powerful but with great freshness and very tasty flavors and even some notes of celery on the finish. This is a powerful and fresh Fino, pungent and persistent, long, amazingly elegant, vibrant and alive. I was floored by the complexity and elegance of this wine. It feels light without actually being light, with the finesse of Balbaina starting to show through in the blend. The incredible lightness of Fino! This first saca consisted of 1,200 Burgundy bottles that were filled unfiltered (en rama) in April 2020. Future sacas should be around 8,000 bottles, but this first one is going to be quite scarce."