It's amazing that what started as a way for some friends to bottle an Amontillado that they had found in a bodega has hit its 100th release.
The people behind Equipos Navazos combine a deep love for sherry with an intricate knowledge of the region and the courage to bottle some of the most superlative examples seldom commercialized by the bodegas that house them.
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Out of their incredible releases, the Manzanilla Pasadas represent high points. Equipo Navazos' Manzanilla Pasadas are some of the most profound wines you'll ever encounter.
It seems fitting that their 100th release would come from this 15-barrel solera.
In 2011, I tasted through the entire solera and the wines were really great. Many years ago, Jesús Barquin, a sherry scholar and one of Equipo Navazos' founders, said the following about the solera: "This is very special. I don't know of anything else like it in sherry country."
It's hard to believe that the solera had never been commercialized until Equipo Navazos' releases. For decades, the "Capataz" (the bodega foreman) kept it going by drawing small amounts of wine and refreshing it to keep the flor (yeasts) alive. He couldn't let Manzanilla of such incredible quality go.
The #100 is really exciting. It walks the edge between the energy of a regular Manzanilla and the depth of an Amontillado. You get a chalky saline cut with serious nuanced complexity. Of course, there's the riveting energy and finesse that's the signature of their Manzanilla Pasadas.
Equipo Navazos' Manzanilla Pasada is one of the great wines of sherry. There's likely no better wine to mark the 100th release of this project that changed the landscape of sherry.
To order, email offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
