Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum

Recently I tasted through a trio of VORS sherries:

Gonzales Byass "del Duque" Amontillado VORS

While delicious, I seem to have had two very different experiences with this amontillado. At Terroir in New York, I recall it being spicier, just a tad bit sweet, and more unctuous than my more recent experience. Probably a matter of wines preceeding this terrific older sherry: in New York it was fino and here in SF, in the comfort of my own apartment, I have tasted the wine prior to other older sherries. So let's go with the more recent impression. Initially dried fruit aromas give way to spicier, old barrel room smells. The palate is intense, slightly spicy, very nutty, decidedly salty and tangy, as great amontillado ought to be. Though this is not the way to enjoy your everyday amontillados, try a taste of this and then a bit of something less old, maybe Lustau Obregon Amontillado, for example. What is normally a terrific amontillado will seem rather insipid and watery by comparison.

Gonzales Byass "Apostoles" Palo Cortado VORS

This is one sweet apostle. Caramel and dried date aromas lead to intense dried fruit flavors with a healthy dollop of sweetness, though still balanced it is definitely a style of palo cortado that is not bone dry. Not Equipo Navazos La Bota Punta sweet and intense, but approaching that level. For a decidedly different, dry expression of VORS palo cortado, Hidalgo's Wellington is a great one to try.

El Maestro Sierra Oloroso 1/14 Oloroso VORS

Awesome old wine. Its aromas are deep, with dark cocoa, a rancio quality and a degree of intrigue that is enough to make me reach for the bottle and pour just a little bit more right now, 20 minutes or so after having concluded this tasting. Ah, there it is. Still a salty quality, and one of very dark caramel. Flavors are rich and generous, while maintaining a real dry quality. A true rancio, walnut like finish on this, right up to the shell and skin between the meat and the outer layer. This is a classic, and though I'm not yet thoroughly versed on the subject, it is what I imagine an old school, classic oloroso from Jerez to taste like. Terrific, and an unforgettable taste.

A Xit ton of Xeres - the ambers

Once you get into it, drinking good sherry is a dangerously addictive, habit forming way to roll. I highly recommend it.

I drink way more manzanilla and fino than any other type of sherry. Regardless of the season (yes, we do experience variations in temperature as well as seasons in San Francisco...well, sort of), I love the crisp, saline, sometimes appley sometimes citric bite of the drier styles of sherry. When I say "bite" I do mean it; these wines are bone dry, disarmingly so for many people. Anyway, I could be just about anywhere south of Greenland and still crave a bracing glass or two (ok, three) of manzanilla or fino.

Olorosos (the variety of sherry which never has much of a tuft of flor form above it in the barrel) are wonderful. Pedro Ximenez based sherries, for me, are just too damn sweet for sipping, regardless of the style or VOS (very old sherry) or VORS (very old rare sherry) status. Amontillado and palo cortado styles, with their initital ageing under flor influence, hit a nice sweet spot between nuttiness and racy, tangy immediacy [he says as he downs his glass of amontillado.] Ahh!

So that having been said, I'm focusing on the three bottles of amber hued sherries which are currently open in my apartment.

Herederos de Argüeso Amontillado Sanlucar de Barrameda

#AwwHellYeah. Oops, I'm not twittering now. Anyway, this tastes like dried toffee and orange candies, if you were to take out the sugar, add some salt and a pinch of magic. There is something about amontillados from Sanlucar that are so full of energy and vitality. Awesome value at $25/750ml.

Barbadillo "Obispo Gascon" Palo Cortado Sanlucar de Barrameda

Deeper amber in color, with a decidedly more pungent and slightly boozy nose. It's 21.5% abv, a bit up there by palo cortado standards. Aromas are a shade more rancio, more oxidized, with something that I often find in amber sherries that I can only refer to as "yellow Triaminic." I don't recall what the yellow variety of Triaminic cold medicine was specifically for (maybe really bad colds, given the extra nastiness of its smell and taste), but rest assured that this sherry "tell" as it were is a personal one, and just one element of a satisfying sherry experience. Flavors echo the richer aromatics, with a bit more ripeness, nuttiness, and a hint of a dark chocolate quality as well. To me I see this as a terrific after dinner drink, whereas the aforementioned Argueso Amontillado could function as apero as well as dinner accompaniment for the right dishes.

Lustau Almacenista "Pata de Gallina" Juan Garcia Jarana Oloroso

At 20% abv, this is a comparably lighter oloroso. Very minimal detectable sweetness as well. It drinks brighter than the Barbadillo Obispo Gascon PC, with racier acids as well as a more noticeable depth in the mid-palate and finish. Hella walnut, we might say here in the Bay Area. I think this could well be the most versatile of this trio, equally adept as apero, dinner companion, and after dinner drink with cheese (Cabot clothbound cheddar, perhaps?), nuts, or just a warm fireplace and some interesting modern or contemporary fiction. Nothing pre 20th c, that would just be too stodgy in today's fast paced, casual, drinking and reading environment.

Pues...nada. Salud!