21% ABV. A textured wine of salty, nutty intensity and great finesse, this old Amontillado is drawn from a solera laid down in 1922. Like all of Toro Albalá’s wines this is made from 100% Pedro Ximénez grapes. The average age of the wine when bottled is 35 years old (five more than required for VORS in Jerez) and, remarkably, at 21% ABV, the wine has not been fortified. The ripeness of the fruit sugars at picking, then the natural evaporation that occurs with such long aging, account for the natural alcohol level in the wine.
It is a lovely, driven, spicy, nutty and smoky Amontillado with a generous, pulpy, glycerol-rich personality and a complex finish that has a twist of quinine and bitter coffee.