OT: Pasión de Bobal 2012

• Winery: Bodega Sierra Norte. Polígono Industrial El Romeral. c/ del Transporte C2, 46340 Requena – Valencia. The winery was founded in 1999 in Requena by two local families with a long tradition in grape growing and winemaking.
• Phone: +34 962 323 099
• Winemaker: Manolo Olmo
• Website: www.bodegasierranorte.com
• Brand: Pasión de Bobal
• DO: Utiel-Requena
• Type: Young Red Wine aged 6 to 8 months in brand new French oak barrels
• Alcohol: 13.5 %
• Grape Variety: Bobal 100%.
• Vineyards: This wine is made out of Bobal grapes from more than 60-year-old vines, which are planted at 3,000 feet above sea level in the interior of the province of Valencia, Utiel-Requena region. The climate is continental but influenced by the Mediterranean. At the end of October, a manual harvest using small cases was followed by a selection of bunches at the reception in the winery. Long and very careful maceration at low temperature preceded the fermentation, also started at low temperature. The wine then went through malolactic fermentation in new French oak barrels and was aged in barrel for six to eight months.
• Soil Type: Limestone
• Bottle Size: 75.0 cl.
• Price: € 8.25 at a small wine shop in Madrid
• My wine rating: 90/100 (a wine of very good to excellent quality) NEW!

This wine is the result of a great PASION on our indigenous grape variety BOBAL, growing in extreme continental conditions, with exceptional high potential and unique personality. Malolactic fermentation and then further stay in French-oak barrels for eight months.

Tasting notes: It is a dark-cherry coloured red wine, very intense in colour, and with purple hints. In the nose, it shows very clean aromas of red and black fruits, strawberries, raspberries, cassis, very well balanced with creamy and pleasant toasted notes from the barrel. It also shows a slightly spicy touch of liquorice. In the mouth, it is rich, fruity with round and ripe tannins. It has a good acidity, and shows nice notes of vanilla, smoke and coffee. A powerful wine but with a very elegant balance. (Source: Bodega Sierra Norte).

Further reading:

“La Bobal Revisited”: The Bobal grape is presented to the British market

Spain’s BOBAL–The Grape Sensation by Philip S. Kampe

OT: Sherry & The Mystery of Palo Cortado

Jerez & el misterio del palo cortado
Directed by José Luis López Linares
Synopsis: What we taste in a glass of Sherry is not just the fruit and its ferment but also the peculiar flavour of a place to which the Gods have been invited and where they have found a home. Jerez, where wine has been made for the last 3.000 years, is a place of stories, legendary tales, and, most of all, mysteries. (Source: You Tube)

Palo Cortado

Tasting Notes: A wine of great complexity which combines the delicate bouquet of an amontillado with the body and palate of an oloroso.
Chestnut to mahogany in colour with a complex bouquet which harmonises the characteristic notes of amontillados and olorosos, citric notes reminiscent of bitter orange and lactic notes suggestive of fermented butter. It has a deep, rounded, ample palate with smooth, delicate aromatic notes appearing in the aftertaste, leading to delicious lingering finish.

Production and Ageing: The production of Palo Cortado is the clearest example of how the bodegueros in the Jerez Region need to correctly identify the true vocation of each type of wine and act accordingly. These are wines produced from very fine must, initially fortified to 15% by volume and their casks are marked with a “palo” or slash. Once completed the sobretabla stage, if the tasters note the existence of certain very specific characteristics in some of the casks in which the flor has been maintained, they will mark it as a potential palo cortado by drawing a horizontal line across the original slash mark. The wine is then again fortified to above 17% by volume, thus redirecting the process of oxidative ageing. Only long years spent in the soleras will determine if the characteristics observed in the young wine have been confirmed by time and indeed produce a true palo cortado. (Source: www.sherry.org)

Here you have a highly recommended and still affordable Palo Cortado. More information at www.lustau.es/en/