NV Solear

The 2023 winter bottling of the NV Manzanilla Pasada Solear en Rama marks the 25th anniversary of this groundbreaking Manzanilla, and it's sold only in a case that includes the other five Manzanilla en Rama wines from the winery. The 550 butts (botas) they have in the El Potro winery are topped up with Manzanilla Solear that is already six years old (under flor). From those, they select 15 botas to extract 1,500 liters of wine that averages nine years under flor. It has a golden color and a complex and nuanced nose, with the greatest complexity. They outdid themselves in the preparation and selection of the lots to make this special blend that is the 100th release of the wine in its 25th anniversary. It has notes of diesel, more than ever, iodine, esparto grass, spice and a hint of low tide. It's pungent and persistent, balanced and elegant, with marked bitterness and salinity. It is dressed with the same label used for the first release in 1999. 1,000 bottles were filled in December 2023. This is the first time it's bottled in regular 750-milliliter bottles, as in the past, it was only released in half bottles and magnums.

Deelish. Fresh and briney; pale and light; superb liquid appetiser. (JR)

Full bottle 1,138 g. Aged for six years in old casks and develops a veil of flor, or wild yeast, on the surface. The resulting wine is blended with older vintages using the solera system. Pungent, bold and tangy. Bitter pickled lemons, salt-crusted walnuts, pith-thick citrus rind. A robust, bone-dry manzanilla with a decidedly bitter spine and a finish that tastes of cobnuts and fresh bay leaf. (TC)