Thursday 19 June 2014

Oloroso Victoria Regina VORS 20%, Diez Merito (Paternina)

Appearance
Deep amber/chestnut with hint of burnt umber fading through amber to yellow to trace of green at rim, legs.
Nose
Elegant, sophisticated,complex and immediately attractive. There is a lot going on here: lots of walnuts and toasted almonds with umami hints of meat broth and Marmite, traces of albero (earth floor) and wood from the barrels - you can smell the bodega atmosphere, and there is the implied sweetness there that you'd expect, wrapping everything up together in perfect harmony.
Palate
All of the above and quite intensely so. It has that character only offered by really old wines of total integration of all the various flavour notes where the glycerol makes it more than palatable balancing out the astringent wood notes adding to the feel and complexity. Lots of walnuts in syrup, traces of vanilla and dried fruits, but with a very slight tannic edge. A really refined wine, very smooth with terrific length. Textbook old Oloroso. Bring on the mature Manchego!
Comments
100% Palomino grapes grown in Jerez Superior albariza soils go to produce this lovely Oloroso. It comes from a solera of 27 butts plus 5 criaderas, more than average for this style, though I'm sure the scales are not run very often. The solera, which dates from 1906, was bought by Diez Hermanos from Ysasi. The wine was fortified to 17% and the extra 3% has been developed through transpiration losses over 30 plus years in solera.
Price
This wine sells in Spain for about 85 Euros (including individual wooden box), but unfortunately seems to be unavailable in the UK. What a shame!



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