Pedro Ximénez

Bodegas Emilio Lustau was established in 1896 and was initially a small family concern until the founder`s son-in-law placed it on a business footing. The firm is perhaps best known as pioneering the Almacenista system, whereby individual dry Sherries are produced from small private holdings. These are bottled under Lustau`s name but with the individual bodega's name on the label as well.
Darker than the night and richer than Croesus: this is to be poured, nonchalantly, onto ice cream. Made with Pedro Ximénez grapes, which are dried under the hot Spanish sun, concentrating the sweetness to create a thick, dark grape must with intense flavours of raisins and molasses that is then fortified and matured in solera.
Sherry has remarketed itself by way of promoting their better and more individualistic wines. So to match a delicious figgy pudding I have chosen the sherry region's most extraordinary wine. This wine is called Pedro Ximenez and this one is a reserva from Emilio Lustau.

When it isn't blended as this one is, it makes a dark, treacly, very sweet and intense style, serve chilled and in a normal wine glass. One for the sweet tooth, but well worth a try.
Andrew Firth, Evening Gazette, 9 December 2011

Equipo Navazos is a team of Sherry hunters, rescuing particularly special barrels of wine from the cellars of Jerez, Sanlúcar and El Puerto, as well as in and around Montilla. Originally only for personal consumption, there has been such demand that these Sherries are now available on the market.

This is an extraordinary wine. Think of it as a jewel from an Aladdin’s cave of the finest Sherries, each of which has been chosen for its unique and unusual complex qualities. This one in particular is dark and rich, endorsing your desire for the sweet, sticky, juicy raisins and caramel. It is smooth and silky, and could be heavenly with all things chocolaty or as a dessert in itself. Some of us have been know to pour it over our favourite ice-creams too.

Small lots of old vintages are released following no apparent logic, like this 1965 Don PX Selección, which is produced with white Pedro Ximénez grapes but it's black rather than white, bottled in June 2014 with 290 grams of residual sugar. It has a nose of pure curry, aromas of an Indian restaurant, very balanced, not as sweet as others, in fact it's more bittersweet than sweet, combining the spices with bitter chocolate and with very good acidity that makes it relatively easy to drink. 9,600 bottles were filled.-2014 - 2020
97/100 Luis Gutierrez eRobertParker.com #216 Dec 2014