I simply can't pick an Ugni Blanc every time I need to find a white wine for Week U. To avoid the problem I have chosen a wine which is soft, almost treacle-like and packed with flavour; unctuous, you might allow me to say. It is:
As we are approaching the festive season this is an appropriate selection. Referred to as some, including those nice people at Majestic, as Christmas in a glass.
I have reviewed a 'PX' Sherry once before, in February 2019 since you didn't ask, when I chose it for Week X and I believe this demonstrates not only how versatile the wine is, but also how necessity really is the mother of invention. That wine cost about half as much as this one, on a drop for drop basis, and I liked it.
This PX has been made by Gonzalez Byass, one of the biggest Sherry producers who also own all of these brands, and it has been aged by them in the traditional solera system where wines of multiple vintages are blended progressively over many years to create the final product. (If you have nothing better to do and to saving repeating myself, you could look back at my Ximinez, Pedro entry for more waffle on this subject.) In this case some of the wine will be at least 30 years old before bottling giving it plenty of time to mature slowly and develop all of the rich, figs, treacle, caramel, dates and spice flavours that characterise the style. Think of it as the perfect friend of a mince pie, but also really good mates with soft cheese and ice cream.
Is it worth the premium price? In truth, as it is nearly three years since I last tasted a PX Sherry I can't be sure, but it is a very nice drop.
It is not a wine that you are likely to want to guzzle, as it is too thick for that, but it is a real treat on the right occasion. Christmas is approaching (as is yet another mutated virus, so get your shopping done quickly) and despite that being something of a mixed blessing, I could be persuaded to look forward to a log fire, a pile of small short-crust mince pies and a thick, sticky glass of Christmas.
Buy again? The style, yes, but as I still have an unopened 70cl bottles of the Valdespina from Week X (2019) it won't be for a while as it does keep rather well.
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