Other Wines

93pts Wine Advocate:
"The much sweeter, honeyed, syrupy 2008 Pedro Ximenez de Anada exhibits a dark amber color along with notes of roasted nuts, molassas, Chinese black tea and honeysuckle. Rich, unctuous and full, it is best served slightly chilled after dinner."

Alvear was founded in 1729 and remains under the control of the same family. They own 307 acres of vineyards in the Montilla-Moriles appellation. Anyone who visits the area recognizes the incredible white soils "albariza or albero", which are dominated by chalk/limestone and the key to the great acids these products possess.

This is rich on the nose, with candied fruit, fruitcake, toffee and maple syrup. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with a brilliant aftertaste of fruit and caramel. Lasts for minutes on your palate. - WS92

90pts- Wine Enthusiast:
Dry fino sherry imported from Spain. From the eighth largest sherry producer in the world, the Barbadillo family has been producing sherry since 1821. Pale straw color. Fresh, yeasty aroma. Light-bodied, clean and crisp with a zippy acidity. Dry, nutty, yeasty flavors. Serve well chilled as an aperitif or during the meal.

#76 on The Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2023!

93 points Wine Spectator
Lovely, with a mix of persimmon, white peach, hazelnut, green tea and singed alder notes all moving together in streamlined harmony. The long, elegant finish has nice latent energy. Drink now.

Lean and restrained, with focused spicy plum and chocolate flavors, gaining some interest in the tension between sweetness and alcohol. - WS78

Named after a famous samurai of the region nicknamed Suigei because he drank like a whale, this sake has a strong flavor and a crisp, refreshing finish. Its high rice-polishing ratio compares favorably with other Junmai sakes, and this sake is easily paired with a range of dishes. 15% abv

Wine Spectator:
"Plump and on the sweet side, with golden raisin, date, pear eau-de-vie and peach melba notes, backed by a light twinge of bitter almond that keeps this honest. Drink now. 87,000 cases made."

A distinctive blend of Palomino and Pedro Ximenez grapes. Aged in oak casks for 6 years in the traditional Solera method.

For over 130 years, Bodegas Williams & Humbert have been producing the finest sherries and brandies; as well as a diverse portfolio of spirits, utilizing one of the most traditional methods of ageing, the solera method. Founded in 1877 by Sir Alexander Williams and Arthur Humbert, Bodega Williams & Humbert has been considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious wine producers in the world. They were involved in the creation of the Jerez-Xeres-Brandy Quality Demarcation, as well as the criteria for evaluating sherries. Now owned by the Medina family, two generations work side by side in the creation of the wines and spirits. Located in the heart of Jerez de la Frontera, Bodega Williams & Humbert has more than 1,200 acres of vineyards, and the largest wine cellar in Europe. The family owned and operated Bodega has produced a great variety of high quality sherries, while maintaining the traditional methods of solera aging. Solera is a method of producing wines, where small amounts of younger wines are systematically blended with the more mature wines over a period of time. Bodega Williams & Humbert has a variety of sherry lines, most notably the Dry Sack medium created in 1906, a staple sherry among many restaurants around the world. In the US, Bodegas Williams & Humbert has three lines of sherries - Dry Sack, Don Zoilo, and the rare aged. Each tier offers expressions that range from dry to sweet profiles. Bodegas Williams & Humbert has one of the largest and most diverse offerings of 20 and 30 year old Rare and Very Rare age expressions. The Bodegas Williams & Humbert portfolio also includes spirits such as Gran Duque D’Alba Brandies, Crema D’Alba, and Dos Maderas Rums.

Silky and plush, this tawny sees about 3 years of barrel aging in small oak casks, giving it a rich, amber hue and deliciously decadent notes of butterscotch, toffee, vanilla, and dried fig. For port-lovers, this a great every-day sipper for the price -- a little bit of luxury in the middle of the week! -- PJ

Fresh and fruit-centric, the price here may be super accessible for everyday, but its treatment by this famed Douro producer is nothing less than classically old-school. The point in a young, vintage-blended ruby is to keep the fruit lively and juicy, with a texture that feels velvety-luxurious in your mouth and is nothing less than a pleasure on the tongue. Taylor Fladgate's Special Ruby NV port sees up to four years in large, oak casks and when you sip it, you can really feel that intense softness and supple texture from not rushing it through the process. It's got pretty notes of black and red plums and bright cherry, and is oh-so irresistible alongside some pungent, tangy Cashel blue cheese. -- PJ

Spicy cherry, minerals and maple syrup on the nose. At once smooth and structured, with excellent intensity and a firm backbone. Not especially sweet. Long, fairly powerful and slightly harsh on the finish. - IWC

Sunflower yeast is used during brewing.

Young, grapey and robust. Its flavors are dominated by raisin, plum and chocolate. Simple, straightforward and delicious, with a moderate grip. - WS84

96 points Wine Advocate
The NV La Bota de Amontillado Montilla 117 is a new Amontillado from Montilla-Moriles that was never bottled before. Selected from the cellars of P??rez-Barquero, the wine is between 25 to 30 years of average age, not fortified but bottled at 20% alcohol from pure concentration from evaporation, as the Fino that is the base for this wine was never fortified, which is the tradition in Montilla. It's a medium-age Amontillado with textbook characteristics and the evolution of the Fino Amontillado but with some 10 to 12 years more. It's nutty, pungent, intense and sapid, with a saline, iodine twist. This is a bottling from the summer 2022. 3,000 bottles produced. Drink Window 2022 - 2032

Gonzalez Byass is one of the greatest, historical names in Sherry (and Brandy), as well as the largest in Jerez, and the Tio Pepe brand and image one of the icons of Spain, and the best selling Fino in the world stored in an impressive solera of 30,000 botas. Gonzales-Byass was founded in Jerez in 1835 by 23-year-old entrepreneur Manuel Maria Gonzalez, who exported the first cask of Tio Pepe to London in 1844. Gonzalez was advised by an uncle of his, a man called Jose Angel de la Pena. Uncle Jose had a small bodega with his own solera of Fino, which had direct access to the street as he liked to come and go as he fancied. People called Jose are often nicknamed Pepe in Spain, so the solera of uncle Jose (tio means uncle), or uncle Pepe gave name to the famous Tio Pepe brand. The original bodega del Tio Pepe still exists, is in use today, and in fact holds some of the best botas of Tio Pepe Fino. Gonzalez took different partners, and the company changed names a number of times, like Manuel Maria Gonzalez & Cia or Gonzalez & Dubosc. In 1855, the year the people of Bordeaux were really busy making the classification of their chateaux, Gonzalez sold some company shares to his importers and distributors in the UK, Robert Blake Byass. The name of the company was definitely set to Gonzalez Byass & Co., which has been kept till the present day. Today the fifth generation of the Gonzalez family still own and manage the company. Through the years the company and its holdings have been greatly expanded, and the winery today is akin to a small town of 37 hectares, as it has incorporated some of the streets that connected the different bodegas, La Constancia, La Concha (a unique round bodega attributed to Gustav Eiffel), Los Apostoles, La Cuadrada, and the more recent Gran Bodega Tio Pepe, Las Copas or Marques de Bonanza. As a curiosity, if you visit their premises you?????ll be able to see the largest working weathervane on earth, in the shape of a bottle of Tio Pepe!

"The NV Palo Cortado Obispo Gascon, produced from Palomino grapes averaging 20 years old, and shows the telltale nose of Palo Cortado with its lactic touch and an off-dry nose of apricots, blond tobacco and spices. The palate is dominated by the salty notes (common to all Barbadillo wines), sharp, medium-bodied, with great length. Drink 2013-2019." 92pts WA

The Palo Cortado sherries are particularly special within the Jerez-Xèrés-Sherry Designation of Origin. This is because despite the fact that production follows the similar physical-chemical process of oxidative ageing as with the olorosos, the result is quite different with their organoleptic characteristics falling somewhere between those of an amontillado and an oloroso.

Barbadillo is, without a doubt, both the largest and the leading bodega of Sanlucar de Barrameda. Created in 1821 by Benigno Barbadillo, the company it’s still owned today by the seventh generation of the Barbadillo family, dozens of stockholders spread throughout Spain, although not necessarily involved in the operations. The business has also expanded, not only within the Sherry district, where they sell an impressive 12 million bottles of wine annually (a lot of it is the young and fruity Castillo de San Diego, which at one point was the biggest selling white wine in Spain), 40% of which are exported, but also in Ribera del Duero and Somontano. They employ 300 people and their wines are available in 39 different countries. In Sherry they own 500 hectares of vineyards, stock around 60% of the total production of Manzanilla which ages in 12,500 botas in their great cellars in Sanlucar, mainly in La Arboledilla winery, the tallest bodega in the Marco de Jerez, an impressive 16 meters high, and in a network of 16 other large and small bodegas in the Barrio Alto, the High Quarter of Sanlucar de Barrameda. They are constantly innovating and experimenting, be it with red or sparkling wines or within the Manzanilla world, as they were the first to bottle Manzanilla en rama (unfiltered) back in 1999, doing four sacas (bottlings) per year, one during each season, which they sell in half bottles with labels that clearly identify the saca and year. Other than that, their range is pretty exhaustive, from entry level wines, through VORS and an exclusive Reliquia range from the oldest, family-owned botas, some of them containing wines averaging 80 to 100 years old. As a curiosity, they probably stock more Palo Cortado than any other winery (on earth),120 casks, as the famous Toto Barbadillo had an obsession with that category and purchased all he could get his hands on. I had a great visit there with winemaker Montse Molina who arrived in Sanlucar from her native Cataluna 15 years ago and she has not looked back since. Tasting wines from the bota, listening to a knowledgeable winemaker and realizing how different and how complex the wines are is one of the pleasures one should experience at least once in a lifetime.

Could use a little more complexity, but fresh and fruity, with lots of flavors. Medium sweetness. - WS81

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.