Palo Cortado Cayetano del Pino y Cía, Almacenista, Emilio Lustau
White | Ready, but will keep | Bodegas Emilio Lustau | Code: 42033 | Sherry > Palo Cortado | Palomino Fino | Medium Bodied, Dry | 21.0 % alcohol
Scores and Reviews
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The Wine Advocate 91/100 |
The Producer
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. Today they are amongst the most sought-out Sherries in the region.
The firm also produces superb wines from its recently acquired 170 hectare Montenegrillo vineyard.
The Grape
Palomino, named after Fernan Yanez Palomonio, one of King Alfonso X`s knights, is the primary grape variety for Sherry styles (Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado) production.
It is a high yielding variety that is widely planted in Spain producing mostly insipid thin, dull wines lacking in fruit and acidity. However it thrives on the predominantly chalk based soils of Cadiz where it produces large bunches of golden yellow grapes, which ripen in early September. The resulting must is transparent in colour and somewhat neutral in flavour, but the subsequent wine can develop a coating of flor before maturing in the solera system and produce a whole range of intense and aromatic sherries.
It is also grown in South Africa, California, and Australia where it is fortified to make sherry-style wines.
The Region
Palo Cortado is a very rare variety of Sherry. Iinitially put to age under Flor yeast to become a Fino or Amontillado, but after the inexplicable demise of flor, oxidative development takes over in the lines of Oloroso ageing.
Bright mahogany-coloured, it combines the delicate savory character of Amontillado with the rich vinous qualities of Oloroso. Its alcohol content varies between 17ºand 22º. Palo Cortado is a great apéritif served with olives, nuts, cheese, or foie gras. It can also accompany fowl, red meats, or game.
Relatively new to the celebrated Almacenista family, this 22 butt Solera produces an enigmatically fresh yet persuasively powerful Palo Cortado, the sherry style which is to me both the hardest to fathom and, not unrelated, the most potentially rewarding. Stylistically it sits half way between Amontillado and Oloroso, maintaining the elegance of the former and the nutty complexity of the later, combining them effortlessly with a mysterious and nearly alchemical brio.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer