NV Mullineux Olerasay No. 2

This is a true masterpiece from Andrea Mullineux. Her NV Olerasay 4º is a fractional blend of the straw wine (made with high-acidity Chenin Blanc from granite soils) from the 2008 to the 2023 vintages. Basically, she holds back a few barrels each year to create a solera-styled blend. The wine continues to contract and concentrate through evaporation, becoming ever more stable and enriched along the way. This wine has an 8% alcohol content, 11 grams per liter of total acidity and 365 grams per liter of residual sugar, one gram for every day of the year. The wine is quite delicate, with ethereal aromas of melted honey in tea, candied ginger slices and pastry cream studded with diced orange peel. It shows seamless richness and unstoppable length. Andrea Mullineux calls it "pixilated and defined." This special wine has only been produced four times.

The NV Olerasay 4° is the solera that now contains vintages between 2008 and 2023 of their straw wine. It presents a slightly burnished amber hue. The bouquet is very concentrated, displaying scents of lanolin, marmalade, candle wax and just a slight nuttiness. The palate is beautifully balanced with a viscous texture (obviously) and flavors of tangy marmalade intermixed with apricot, mango, a touch of ginger and quince. Very long yet fresh on the finish, this is utterly enchanting.

It is an ethereal wine that gives me no choice but to use a simple word loaded with meaning and one I rarely use with respect to wine...perfection. The 375ml bottle was examined over the course of two weeks during which time it barely changed. Each time I put it under a microscope looking for a fault. I never found one. Golden in colour, it has an intoxicating bouquet with orange sorbet, quince, lemon verbena and a very slight Aszú-like note that hovers in the background. Having recently tasted plenty of Sauternes, I can’t help noticing how the aromatics are unencumbered by a thick cloak of oak, thereby lending the bouquet brightness and vividness that is totally enthralling. This all translates across to the crystalline palate. The perfect seam of acidity cuts like an ancient Samurai sword through the viscous fruit whose purity is off the charts. This electrifying Olerasay does not mess about – it immediately thrills the senses with its mélange of blood orange, apricot, crushed minerals and passion fruit. There is so much energy in this wine. The finish has a weightless quality that means, despite its high residual sugar level, the wine is actually easy to drink and is not weighed down by its own unctuousness. The killer aspect of this is the soupçon of bitter orange that hits the back of the throat. I suspected that a perfect Olerasay was possible after the first iteration. This is it.