An invite to a rare tasting and masterclass of Equipo Navazos wines was a real treat earlier in the week.
Hosted by the master Jesús Barquín we tasted an impressive lineup from their extremely limited La Bota series.
We started the tasting with the unfortified wines that make up the 'Florpower' releases, then a Palo Cortado 'Bota 121' sourced from a selection of musts coming from grapes harvested in 2010 from the Pago Miraflores La Baja, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, old vines that have supplied all the vintages of the La Bota de Florpower. A truly delicate and appealing single vineyard, vintage Palo Cortado wine...truly sensational!
Moving on to an unfortified wine made in collaboration with Dirk Niepoort and a freshen up of both glass and palate courtesy of a sparkling 2019 Xarel-lo from Penedes maestro Sergi Colet using a Sanluccar Palo Cortado for the liqueur d'expedition
Next came the latest sacca of the 'I Think' Manzanilla, followed by a Montilla Amontillado 'Bota 117' from the cellars of Pérez-Barquero, unfortified Pedro Ximinez, an average age of 23 years old, bottled at 20% solely from evaporation, a super pungent and intense wine.
The last wine we tasted took my breath away, a wine to be enjoyed in small quantities and much contemplation, an extremely old Amontillado 'Bota109' from the Albarizas de Trebujena. A very rare bottling from one of the very few casks that they treasure and allow Eduardo and Jesús to bottle in tiny amounts.
As a finale to the masterclass, we enjoyed a walk round tasting of numerous other bottlings in the series, some great new releases including a red and white Vermut. All in all a real privilege to attend this tasting and to be in the company of such masters of the Jerez wine industry.
Want to explore some of the Equipo Navazos range, take a look at our online shop or drop by the shop and have a look at what we currently have in stock.