Stunning, Rare Palo Cortado
La Bota Palo Cortado
"Bota No" #41 375ml
Lowest Price in the U.S.
"An exceptional, extreme, brutal (but delicate) wine."
-Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate
Over the holiday weekend, sherry got a bit more of its due. Luis Gutierrez, the new Spanish critic for The Wine Advocate, placed the wines among the world's best.
This is very well deserved. For the past few years, we've been singing sherry's praises: they are some of the most singular, compelling and complex wines around.
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Among the wines reviewed, La Bota's Palo Cortado "Bota No" #41 was at the very top.
La Bota's #41 is a wine that we've been behind since its release. Recently, over the July 4th weekend, I sneaked in an offer saying it was "one of the greatest Palo Cortados I've tasted." The quantities were so small that we had to send the offer only to sherry fanatics and over a holiday. The distributor doled out allocations to top accounts in 3-6 bottle quantities.
In short, Palo Cortado #41 offers a monumental complexity that puts it on the level of the world's great wines. This is a don't miss. It will be years before it gets bottled again and the quantities for this inaugural release are just tiny.
It's sourced from the legendary GF30 solera of the defunct sherry house of Gaspar Florido, which now rests at Pedro Romero. It was at Pedro Romero that the La Bota team tasted through the solera, selecting their three favorite barrels, those that delivered the best combination of balance, intensity and elegance. In their own words, they write: "it is a truly extraordinary wine for its unlikely balance between sheer authenticity, concentration, and finesse; genuinely amazing, with so much character and personality."
Palo Cortado confounds sherry's neat categories. It comes with the snappy steeliness of an amontillado yet some of the richness and dark tones of an oloroso. And for many sherry aficionados, it doesn't get any better...
At its best, like La Bota's #41, Palo Cortado is a riveting, mindbending experience. There are notes of caramel, haunting notes of aged wood, smoke, nuts along with racy citrus. Mr. Gutierrez's note captures the ridiculous complexity of the wine when he writes: "the palate reveals a pungent, incisive wine, sharp, saline, smoky, with good acidity and a finish that lasts for minutes."
Equipo Navazos and their La Bota series is one of the most compelling projects in the world of wine, and the #41 gets to the heart of why this is. The heart and soul of Equipo Navazos is this selection process. The selection is not of the best and oldest soleras, but of the best barrels within the soleras. You can call it the best of the best.
If sherry is enjoying a renaissance in popularity, it's in large part thanks to the dedication and sharp palates of those behind Equipo Navazos. In terms of intensity and complexity, the Palo Cortado "Bota No" #41 stands as one of the best releases to date.
Quantities are limited. Please give us your ideal order and we'll try our best.
To order, reply to offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
Luis Gutierrez: "The NV La Bota de Palo Cortado Viejisimo Bota No 41 is a very special wine. Bota NO is the name given to specific casks that are usually reserved for the owners of the wineries and are kept under lock and key so nobody can take any wine from them. This Palo Cortado is 22% alcohol, which denotes old age and concentration. It is sourced from the Pedro Romero winery in Sanlucar. It has a very spicy and singular nose, very complex, expressive, with the nuances of a very old wine, walnuts, leather, cedar wood, incense, with extreme concentration with finesse. The palate reveals a pungent, incisive wine, sharp, saline, smoky, with good acidity and a finish that lasts for minutes. An exceptional, extreme, brutal (but delicate) wine."