Saturday 26 May 2012

Manzanilla Solear 15%, Bodegas Antonio Barbadillo

Appearance
Bright, light clean strawy gold with golden highlights.
Nose
Attractive and quite complex; some definite flor salinity with fresh seaside aromas, but with a little more weight than some, hints of green almond, and the slightest trace of autolysed yeast. Quite serious, with just a hint of longer ageing than some Manzanillas, but not yet "pasada".
Palate
Quite full, dry, well-rounded with almond, something floral such as camomile, hints of palomino fruit, and that yeasty flor tang which leaves the palate clean but hungry. Very long and full of flavour.
Comments
One of the classic Manzanillas, and the firm's biggest earner. It deserves all the medals it has won over the years. It has spent some 6 years flowing through 9 criaderas and a solera which consists of a total of 12,500 butts, and shows all the character one would expect from that. In the past it was sold as a Manzanilla Pasada, but due (I should imagine) to commercial pressures, it is now sold a little younger and stabilised before bottling. All the firm´s Manzanillas originate in this solera and some are subject to more or less ageing and ageing in different bodegas with different conditions.


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