Wine list
and tasting notes:
Alta
Alella, Mirgin Exeo Evolució+ Brut Nature, Cava 2007
Gold, 95 points
60% Pansà Blanca, 40% Chardonnay
Gorgeous roasted hazelnuts, almonds, baked bread and biscuits set the tone with
a permeating lemon and lime freshness besetting the mousse and a crunchy
mineral finish. Alcohol 12%
Cherubino
Valsangiacomo, deSantJaume Malvasia, Valencia, Spain 2024
Value Gold, 95 points
85% Malvasia, 15% Merseguera
Tantalising pear, apple, apricot and peach aromas underscored by tingling notes
of grapefruit, lemon and lime. Bright and crisp with a linear structure and
lengthy herbal finish. Alc 12.5%
Bodegas
Alvear, Tres Miradas Paraje De Riofrío Alto 3er Año, Montilla-Moriles 2021
Platinum, 97 points
100% Pedro Ximenez
A formidable style, enchanting the nose with fennel, dried almond and herb
characters and imbedding the palate with a mineral structure and an intriguing
textural grip. Quenching, salivating and saline with swathes of toasted nuts on
the finish. Alc 13.5%
Bodegas
Valdemar, Conde Finca Alto Cantabria Viñedo Singular, Rioja 2023
Gold, 95 points
100% Viura
White peach, apricot and grapefruit aromas tumble over the glossy sheen of oak
that cushions the embracing acidity. Creamy and plush with a piquant finish.
Alc 13%
Bodegas
Rodríguez Y Sanzo, Palo Norte Verdejo, Rueda 2020
Gold, 95 points
100% Verdejo
Intricately laced with dried chamomile, dried herbs and mace on the nose, with
a flourish of delectable lemon peel acidity and a long nutty finish. Alc 13.5%
Bodegas Y
Viñedos Verum, Ilusioverum Cdvin Garnacha, Rioja 2022
Gold,
95 points
100% Garnacha
Bedecked with redcurrants, red cherries and raspberries with a sizzling lick of
black pepper. Softly structured with supple, plummy acidity and a boundless,
spicy length. Alc 14.5%
Vall
Llach, Mas de la Rosa Gran Vinya Classificada, Priorat 2023
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Carignan
Priorat has been almost as successful in our Best in Show pantheon as Barolo –
this concrete-aged Carinyena is the region’s sixth laureate. This purity and finesse of this wine makes a
convincing case for Carinyena as the pre-eminent variety for Priorat – and,
contrariwise, for Priorat as the world’s greatest location for Carignan. It’s also a plaudit for concrete ageing,
whether in egg or otherwise. The wine is
a dark black-red in colour, and the aromas are less fruity than most; it’s one
of those wines which seems to smell as much of a landscape as of fruit. It’s only two years old, yet the ageing has
been so successfully managed that it has the seamlessness and harmony of a much
older wine. On the palate, it is
refined, graceful and shawl-like, full of lingering dark-fruit intensity but
counterbalanced by the wine’s unstrenuous cashmere tannin and insinuating,
palate-lapping acidity: extraordinary finesse for a variety often regarded as
workmanlike elsewhere. Alc 15.5%
González
Byass, Del Duque V.O.R.S, Amontillado, Sherry NV
Best in Show, 97 points
100% Palomino
Like the other Amontillado in this year’s Best in Show, this VORS (Very Old
Rare Sherry) Amontillado is formidable.
It’s slightly deeper in colour: a deep orange amber. Its aromas, too, are fuller and weightier
than its peer, reminding the fortunate drinker of antique furniture and
generously endowed college libraries – as well as the scents of dry places in
high summer, with their warm stones, path-trodden, sun-dried figs and tough,
scruffy herbs. On the palate, it is a
little less savagely pure, aerial and vaporising, with more depth and bottom to
it; it has dark corners and recesses of flavour, whereas its sibling was all
light and air. Technically, in fact, it
has a few grams of residual sugar, though you won’t notice those as the wine’s
sheer power of flavour and acid cut more than offset any sweetness. A remarkable drink; a wine-world reference.
Alc 21.5%