Jerez Wine

Wine Spectator 90 Points | A more flattering style, with an off-dry edge to the walnut paste, hazelnut, date and clove-studded orange notes, which show nice focus and zip on the finish.Wine Advocate 93 points The non-vintage Dry Amontillado Los Arcos Solera Reserva reveals a medium amber hue along with a nutty, honeyed, dry personality with great acid. 

This dry Amontillado acquires a genuine, rich and nutty flavour through years of ageing. Amber in colour, with hazelnut aromas on the nose. Light, soft and round on the palate, with a long aftertaste. Winemaker Description. 

A pale and delicate light dry Sherry that is light in color. Commonly served cold as an aperitif, many consider this Spanish wine to be the world's finest Sherry. Finos are excellent when young. A delicate pale cocktail sherry noted for its fine, dry after taste. Winemaker Description. 

Wine Spectator 91 Points | Takes a flattering approach, featuring a lightly sweet, rounded edge to the date, blood orange, toasted pecan and fruitcake aromas and flavors, with toasted marshmallow and bourbon-glazed peach notes on the finish. Drink now.

Wine Enthusiast 93 Points | Aromas of burnt orange and baking spices are upright and snappy for a Sherry that s fairly creamy. Fine acidity is what keeps this on an even keel and what gives lift to flavors of caramel, brown sugar and candied walnut. This is full and voluminous on the finish. 

This extra fine cream sherry comes exclusively from select vineyards in the “Zona de Jerez Superior,” the world’s finest area for production of sherry.

96 Points Decanter | Perfumed with inviting layers of coffee, almond savoury herb and spice, then to a luxurious palate of caraway, orange zest, molasses and bitter chocolate.

94 Points Wine Enthusiast | Forget about Sherry styles, Matusalem operates in its own zone with its own rules. An intense, smoky nose shows charred barrel notes and prune aromas. A rich but snappy palate is not the least bit sticky, while deep flavors of chocolate, coffee, vanilla and molasses finish with grace.

90 Points Wine Spectator | Walnut, halva, raisin and buckwheat honey notes are layered, backed by hints of bitter almond and toasted pecan. Shows good energy for a cream style, with the bitter edge imparting length and cut.

Matusalem is a 30 year old blend of Oloroso and PX. It shows an intense mahogany color with profound aromas of dried fruits, raisins, spices and mature oak. On the palate it is smooth, sweet, long and velvety. This wine has an interesting bittersweet finish due to the sweetness of the PX and the bitter tannins from the oak. Ideal with mature cheeses and blue cheese such as Stilton. Also perfect as a dessert wine with apple pie. Serve chilled. Winemaker Description. 

93 Points Wine Spectator | A shade darker than its peers, relying more on black walnut, Brazil nut and singed orange peel notes, while dried persimmon and quince flavors add a succulent side. Light rye and green tea hints echo through the razor-sharp finish, where sweet details peek in.

91 Points Robert Parker | The NV Villapanes Oloroso wears a dark amber-brown robe and has a very intense nose, showing some marmalade, dark tobacco and brandy notes. The palate is textbook Oloroso, round, ample, warm, a little spirity, ending with dry walnut flavors. It manages to balance power and elegance quite well.

91 Points Wine & Spirits | Dominated by notes of salted almonds, this Oloroso has its fair share of sweetness to balance that saline side, making it more readily accessible to a wider range of palates and fitting perfectly with smoked pork.

Villapanes is a rich mahogany color and boasts seductive, toasty aromas of almonds, caramel, fig and a hint of floral perfume. On the palate it is dry, generous and full-bodied, with persistent and lasting flavors.

Pair with roast poultry, red meat or salty, aged cheeses. Winemaker Description. 

Contrabandista has a nutty aroma with toffee-caramel tones and a rich finish. Serve slightly chilled as an aperitif or pair with creamy cheeses and pates. Winemaker Description. 

Valdespino Moscatel 'Promesa', is a heavy sherry. Light mahogany color with amber tones. A flowery smell with honey and a beetje citrus. The smaak is fris en zacht. It's a perfect balance with a ripple and a fresh fruity surface. Producer Description. 

94 Points Robert Parker | The NV Amontillado del Duque VORS is Palomino of at least 30 years of age from the Tio Pepe solera. The color is dark amber, with a very powerful nose of old wood, candied fruit and walnuts. The sharpness of the palate is somehow balanced by an off-dry feeling which makes it very drinkable.

94 Points Wine & Spirits | These soleras, believed to be more than 300 years old, were purchased from the Duke of Medinacelli in 1835. The wines for this Amontillado averaged 30 years in oak, and its severity brings something extremely salty to mind: This is as briny as sea urchin, balanced by a light sweetness that murmurs underneath. The sheer force of the minerality makes no concessions to the fruit flavors. For smoked oysters.

94 Points Decanter | Maple syrup, wood polish, butterscotch and toffee nose. Great finesse on the palate with a silky texture and salty caramel flavours. Long, fresh finish.

93 Points Wine Spectator | Stylish, with warm date, hazelnut, toasted almond and salted caramel notes that extend through the finish, starting dry but ending with a tantalizing echo of sweetness.

93 Points Wine Enthusiast | Toffee and almond aromas are a touch aggressive and hot. Matching the nose, this is intense but still well balanced by core acidity. A giant heaping of rancio blends with flavors of almond skins, apricot and salt in front of a never-ending finish.

Jancis Robinson | If you love Highland single malt, you will instantly get this peaty, sweet and wild and glossy sherry. It's cobbler's glue and smoked honey on the nose; sea-spray, smoke and Highland honey in the mouth. It tastes of bracken, black with the bruise of mountain streams and mountains stones; of brackish streams salt-licked with minerals; of kumquats pickled in tamarind and smoky with the under-growl of black cardamom. It's satin and sea glass and sunset. Formidably complex and yet approachable. 18/20 points. 

This 30 year old Amontillado shows a dark golden color due to the extended time spent in cask. On the nose sharp aromas of dried fruits and nuts. On the palate dry and powerful, well structured with an enternal aftertaste. This wine maintains a surprisingly delicate finesse. A wine to be meditated or enjoyed with powerful dishes such as small game. Serve slightly chilled. Winemaker Description. 

Wine Advocate 93 points | The NV Palo Cortado Viejo C.P. produced from Palomino from the Macharnudo Alto is feed with specific casks of Fino Inocente and Amontillado Tio Diego. It was traditionally aged in the Calle Ponce (Ponce Street), and if has kept the C.P. initials since then. It’s not age-certified, but the average age of the bottled wine is 25 years. The color is old gold or light amber, and the nose hints at a relatively old wine, with plenty of lactic notes, sweet vanilla, iodine, bitter oranges and spices. The palate is clean and delineated, subtle and on the elegant side of Palo Cortado, ending very dry. Drink 2013-2016.

I’ve often called Valdespino “the Romanee-Conti of Jerez.” Well, there, I’ve said it. To me they represent quality and tradition at the very top of the Sherry hierarchy. The winery, soleras and brands are old, registered in 1875, but with documentation about their commercial and winegrowing activities going back to the 13th century. Their recent history starts in 1999, when Jose Estevez purchases the company from the Valdespino family. Today Valdespino is the jewel in the crown of the Grupo Estevez, which also includes Real Tesoro and La Guita, who stock and age 35,000 botas of Sherry and own 800 hectares of vineyards, 56 of which come from the Pago Macharnudo, on pure white albariza soil, one of the best vineyards in the Marco de Jerez, and 17 hectares from the heart of Macharnudo are still fermented in bota today and form the core of brands like Inocente, Tio Diego, CP or Cardenal. All the wines were carefully and slowly moved to the new facilities of the Grupo Estevez on the outskirts of Jerez, where they continue their development under the supervision of Eduardo Ojeda, technical director, winemaker, who as a wine-lover is very aware of his role preserving these old soleras, wines and traditions.
  

92 Points Robert Parker | The NV Antique Amontillado is amber-colored and has a subtle nose of tobacco, some iodine, pollen, beeswax and hazelnuts. The medium- to full-bodied palate shows lots of concentration and acidity, with a very intense finish. 4,000 bottles are produced yearly.

91 Points Wine Spectator | A dry, nervy style, offering balsam wood, clove, dried orange peel and Brazil nut notes that weave together through the lacy finish. Shows range, but stays delicate in feel overall.

The Antique Amontillado comes from a very old Fino (8 yrs old) which is refortified from 15.5% to 18.0% ABV and introduced into a solera of Amontillado where it spends a further 12 years.

Light ambar color. Exceptionally aromatic, completely dry and long aftertaste. Producer Description.

95 Points Wine & Spirits | Inocente is Valdespino’s flagship, a wine from the Macharnudo Alto vineyard, where the soil is pure white albariza. It ferments in 600-liter wooden casks without added yeasts, a practice that has become increasingly rare in Jerez. The intensity of the wine’s salinity is remarkable—iodine and salt—coming together with ripe white fruit, scents of nuts and exotic spices. The structure is dry and austere, like drinking the juice of stones. This will last for a decade in the cellar, but it’s impossible to hold onto a bottle if there’s raw seafood nearby.

94+ Points Robert Parker | As with many other wines from the José Estévez group, there is a special bottling of Valdespino's flagship NV Fino Inocente in magnum, but in this case they have kept the bottles for six months as the wine is from the saca otoño 2016, the autumn bottling from 2016. So the wine is offered with some extra bottle age. It has all that you expect from Inocente, a long aging wine fermented in bota from grapes grown exclusively in the Macharnudo Alto vineyard and bottled with an average age of ten years. All the textbook aromas and flavors are there, coupled with the elegance and mineral intensity the Macharnudo white chalky soils provide. Customers who purchase one of this scarce magnums probably know Inocente already. This will have a longer development in bottle.

Williams & Humbert Dry Sack has primary nose of notes of golden raisin, hint of almonds, and walnuts.   Dry Sack is medium-dry or medium-sweet depending on your view.

Dry Sack is medium bodied, lots of flavor and richness.  Flavors of apricot, almonds, other nuts, and brioche.

This extra fine sherry comes exclusively from select vineyards in the 'Zona de Jerez Superior' the world's finest area for production of sherry. It is medium dry with a delicate color and aroma reminiscent of hazel nuts. It has an especially pleasing taste that pairs beautifully well with hors d'oeuvres, soups, salads and cheese. Winemaker Description.