Lustau, Palo Cortado, VORS
Breathtaking. Great Sherry should smell of old wood. But not just any old wood: what we have here is a wardrobe that can whisk you to Narnia! Add lemon tea and walnuts on the nose and a dry finish that is walnuts and salty caramel and you’re in Palo Cortado heaven.
As I like to say, descriptors can only take you so far. Eventually, you have to judge - or better yet, love - a great wine on the merits of its character and sense of regal finesse. This is a wine that makes you feel you’re in the presence of royalty. With all the firmly controlled power royalty implies. Then, on the third day, it changes (as great Sherries are wont to do) and breaks loose of any aristocratic reserve as it almost melts my heart and marries the savoriness of soy sauce and meat fat with the hedonistic sweetness of fresh cream and crack pie. Wow wow wow!
Gaston Chiquet, Or, 2009
This is a wine I usually adore and it can be as good as a Special Club with less damage to the bank account. But, this bottle doesn’t play up to its usual game. Both nose and palate are charming, showing the pungency of grapefruit pips tempered by the tension and texture of chalk and the umami of mushrooms. It’s very transparent and pure, all good qualities in a wine, but I would have liked more complexity and tension, which I always got in previous vintages and bottles.
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