Wednesday 22 October 2014

Fino En rama 15%, Bodegas Tradicion

Appearance
Quite deep for a Fino, golden with the very slightest trace of amber, legs.
Nose
Huge, full, complex, assertive. Hints of straw, lots of flor and autolysis, salt and dry scrub, traces of nuts- bitter and even toasted almond, even a passing trace of glace fruit, not so far off Fino-Amontillado, yet there is not a great deal of oxidation here, just an appley almost cidery hint, but overall this reeks of flor, still very much a Fino, and one that could age further as such. No wonder the Amontillado is so good!
Palate
Serious, very dry at first but softens a little, very full with tons of bitter flor notes, nutshells, traces only of early oxidation in that cidery hint, bitterness replaces acidity giving great balance and a fair bit of body, that roundness gives way to a very clean bitter dryness and serious depth and length. This is one for aficionados, too extreme for novices, so let's keep it to ourselves!
Comments
Fino is a fairly recent departure for Tradicion, (the first release was spring 2013), who set out to deal exclusively in old wines, VOS, VORS and Vintage. Not that this is particularly young: it is over ten years old, nearer twelve. As the bodega owns no vineyards, the wine is bought in and put into 400 butts in a special bodega next door. There are two releases (sacas) annually, in spring and autumn. This example was bottled en rama in spring 2014, bottle number 1254 of 3,000. That is two annual sacas of 1500 bottles each, so bottle no 1501 onwards would be from the autumn saca, not yet bottled. Fino not bottled as such feeds the Amontillado solera. It is bottled, labelled and wax-sealed by hand and has a driven agglomerate cork with a spare stopper cork attached.
92 points from Parker's man in Spain, Luis Gutierrez. 90 from the Wine Spectator. If I believed in points, I would give it 98, it is quite magnificent.
Price
£25.99 from Raeburn Fine Wines in Edinburgh who are also UK agents.


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