This is about as extreme as sweet wine gets. Very ripe grapes dried in the sun, then fortified and aged for a long time in old barrels in a solera system. PX can get a little cloying; this one avoids that and is quite beautiful.
Harvey’s Pedro Ximénez 30 Years VORS Sherry
From a solera founded in 1919 with wines of an average age of 30 years+. 16% alcohol. Deep brown in colour. Aromatic Christmas cake, raisin and treacle nose. The palate is incredibly concentrated and viscous with amazingly intense sweet treacle, molasses, raisin and date flavours. In beautiful balance with nice complexity and a long, long finish. A little goes a long way. 94/100 (£19.99 Waitrose/half bottle)
Sounds wonderful – if a little goes a long way, how long can you leave a top-notch fortified wine like this hanging around in the bottle? Days? Weeks?
Patrick, I find that sherries like this made in an oxidative style stay good for a few months – they’re certainly fine for a couple of weeks without any noticeable deterioration in quality.
Indeed many people suggest that lots of sherries need a few days of air to get to their best
Pedro Ximenez is a great wine variety, although I agree that it can be cloying. This featured wine, however, sounds wonderful.
In May of last year I tasted my first dry wine made from this grape and it blew me away: chalk and gravel with a hint of sea air in the nose, light apple with gripping acidity in the palate, a shocking jolt of minerals and citrus in the finish. Overall, a surprisingly minerally, dry, austere, unctuous and exciting wine.
Thanks,
Paul Kalemkiarian
President, Wine of the Month Club
http://www.wineofthemonthclub.com
When in Sanlucar de Barameda a couple of years ago visiting the Bodegas Barbadillo I met a German who asserted that Pedro Ximenex who developed the grape variety was German and his real name which had been Iberiofied was Peder Seimens (Peter Seimens). Has anyone else heard of this. I suspect it is all sausage eaters umpah.
Chris Pryor
Sherry afficianado lost in the triangle