NV 1905 Amontillado Solera Fundacional (Lot B)

There is a new bottling of their oldest and more special wine, the NV 1905 Amontillado Solera Fundacional Lot C 2024, a wine that changes very little, and even the nuances between different bottlings (which I have never had the chance to taste together) are difficult to put into words, but the wine is surely exceptional and world class. There have been three different bottlings, this one marked as C is from 2024 (the previous ones were the original one in 2002; a second one, marked with the letter B in January 2016; and now this third one from September 2024). They only fill 1,000 bottles every 10 years or so to keep the average age of the wine very old, which they believe is over 90 years old now. Similar to the second bottling, the small refresh of the wine almost 10 years ago seems to do it good, adding a little freshness while keeping the very-old wine profile, pungent, powerful and concentrated. These old wines are always labeled with the maximum allowed alcohol, 22%, but when a label says 22%, you always suspect the reality might be even higher, especially in wines as old as this one. It's not fair to taste any other Amontillado next to this one, only wines like Coliseo from Valdespino or some of the oldest bottlings from Navazos have this level of complexity, power and pungency. What I find exceptional in this wine is its ability to keep the elegance, poise and balance, being so extremely old and concentrated. There were 1,000 hand-numbered bottles C-0001 to C-1000 filled in September 2024. I guess there will not be another bottling of this wine for another eight to 10 years. I always say the same thing: beware of the vintage on the label, which might be misleading, as it's not the real vintage of the wine, which is a dynamic blend of old wines, and 1905 is the year the winery was created.

The NV 1905 Amontillado Solera Fundacional Lot B 2016 is a limited release of their oldest Amontillado, taken from the soleras that were started the year the winery was created in 1905; but it is not a pure vintage wine from that year, instead it is a blend of great complexity of multiple vintages aged in a dynamic soleras and criaderas system. I explain this here, because having the date as part of the wine name or brand name creates great confusion, and you should be aware of the differences between a 1905 vintage wine and a 1905 solera wine. A solera wine can be older or younger depending how much wine is taken out each year, and the average age of the wine is according to that. Here, they bottled some 1,000 bottles ten years ago from a total of seven 600-liter barrels, and the quantity was replaced with wine from the 31 butts (casks) of very old wine that was selected as the 'criadera' for the solera. So the average age is kept very high, and the bottled wine that is offered now is thought to be 80- to 90-years-old on average. In any case, this small refreshing of the wine ten years ago (the bottled wine had to be replaced with slightly younger wine from the older criaderas) seems to have done it good, and ironically though a little 'younger' than the previous bottling, it seems more balanced and elegant - especially as it has had plenty of time, some ten years, to blend in the newer wine. The result is astonishing. The nose combines the obvious very old wine characteristics of rusty iron, iodine, varnish, incense and oyster shells with fresher hazelnuts, noble varnished woods and a touch of white pepper. The palate is intense, terribly complex and persistent, but with gobsmacking balance and elegance, while being powerful and very concentrated. Here, time concentrates everything - alcohol, acidity and sugar, but the wine manages to keep good balance in a sort of 'a lot of everything'. I cannot see how to improve this wine (other than perhaps the packaging). This should be virtually indestructible, as it has been slowly oxidized for close to a century, so nothing is going to harm it now. 1,000 bottles were filled in January 2016.

One of the oldest wines from the winery and on earth, the NV 1905 Amontillado Solera Fundacional is a non-vintage wine, and the year on the label refers to when the solera was initiated. Having said that, the average age of the wine is extremely high as the saca of wine from those soleras (saca means to take out, and is the word used for when some wine is taken from the solera and bottled) is extremely rare. The wine is believed to average 80 years of age, which means an extreme concentration of aromas, flavors and all other components. Dark amber color with a piercing, intense nose of noble wood, sea breeze, iodine, and hazelnuts, it is very detailed, pure, focused, sharp, salty, and on the verge of being painfully intense. With lively acidity, great concentration, and an eternal aftertaste, this is as unique and as good as Amontillado gets. Drink 2013-2030. Perez Barquero was established in 1905 and still have some soleras from that time, the foundational soleras, from which very small quantities of extremely old and concentrated wines are withdrawn and bottled from time to time. In 1985 it was purchased by Rafael Cordoba who owns other three wineries in Montilla, Bodegas Gracia (from which I tasted one wine here), Vinicola del Sur and Tomas Garcia, and the four make up the Perez Barquero Group. They own 100 hectares of vineyards in some of the best locations in the appellation, in Sierra de Montilla and in Moriles Alto, planted with a majority of Pedro Ximenez, and control a further 400 hectares of vineyards belonging to other grape growers. With this they produce an impressive array of both dry and sweet wines (plus brandy and vinegar), whose main characteristic is balance, elegance and finesse. They stock 10,000 500- to 600-liter American oak barrels, the famous botas where they age their wines following the soleras and criaderas system. They produce an average of three million bottles of wine per year. Perez Barquero represents the quality summit of Montilla-Moriles. Their Finos usually have a lot number, whose first two digits seem to be the bottling year. All the Finos tasted had a lot starting with 13. The oldest wines, the ones labeled 1905, which is the year their soleras were created, were only bottled once in 2002, around 1,000 bottles of each, so the bottles should be decanted in advance to give the wines the chance to breath. Imported by A. Hardy’s USA, www.ahardyusa.com