NV La Bota de Palo Cortado No 72

100% Palomino Fino. Vineyards in Jerez de la Frontera on albariza soils at a mean 100 m elevation. Integrated pest management. Alcoholic fermentation in stainless-steel vats, then fortified up to 17.5% vol. Ageing for more than three decades in a static solera system. 1,500 bottles. An impressive wine with a beautiful mahogany colour. It has great aromatic complexity with notes of marzipan, walnut, toast, almond. Hidden below, a touch of nail varnish. It is, therefore, a pungent style of sherry with marked age. I find notes of peat, as in whisky. Very nutty, deep, and notes of caramel on the nose. Many aromatic layers. Concentrated, pungent, deep, saline. Broad palate. A great wine. (FC)

Bottled July 2019. A selection they first made eight years ago among the finest casks of oxidative wine owned by Almacenista Juan García Jarana. Two previous releases have been made, La Bota de Palo Cortado 34 Pata de Gallina, bottled in 2012, and La Bota de Palo Cortado 72 Pata de Gallina, bottled in 2017. This is therefore the third saca or withdrawal from a small solera (locally, ‘altarillo’, for ‘little altar’) under the Equipo Navazos label. The average age is more than 30 years. Mid orangey gold. More apricot and orange here compared with the older Bota NO 79 Cream, almost a touch of vanilla but still the intensity of reduced-down bitter oranges, walnut skins too. On the palate the fruit is more rounded and generous, less severe concentration but still amazing intensity. Packed with sweet/bitter orange and a mouth-filling richness but no lack of freshness. So different from the Bota NO. Seems more youthful, more lively, less demanding, perhaps. (JH)

Bottled January 2017. From a selection made more than five years ago among the finest casks of oxidative wine. The average age of this wine is 30 years. Pale apricot gold. Rich, apricot and bitter orange fruit aromas with a smoky, yeasty overlay, that smokiness a bit like lapsang. Unbelievably intense and concentrated. Stops you in your tracks and makes it hard to taste anything afterwards. Endless and increasingly complex in the glass. There’s bitter-sweetness, though it is dry, and a depth that is classic Palo Cortado. The finish is bitter toffee and apricot. But dry. (JH)