Bodegas Tradicion Amontillado Viejisimo +80 Years

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate"The NV Amontillado Viejísimo Tradición is estimated to be over 80 years old on average, as it's a blend of vintages in a classical solera system. The name is still not clear; it could be called Amontillado Extra Viejo Tradición VORS but once opened it's a bit redundant to say that it's a VORS, meaning over 30 years old when the wine is clearly much, much older than that. Either way, it is a new, extremely old Amontillado. When Sherries are this old they tend to lose the character of any one style. It's not clear whether they are Amontillado, Palo Cortado or even Oloroso since the wine gets so concentrated and powerful that most of the time you can only say they are 'vino viejo', old wines. This wine is an exceptional case. It was sourced from an Almacenista from Sanlúcar, so most likely it was a Manzanilla in its early days. It's fine, built like a wardrobe with everything in large doses, but all of it in place and in balance. It has plenty of balsamic, cigar ash, peat, smoky aromas with some notes of oak coming through with time in the glass. It's sharp, extreme, really salty, with a clear marine, Sanlúcar origin. It was bottled unfiltered at 24,87% alcohol and over 3 grams of sugar, but it feels completely dry, the extreme age concentrates everything. The price shows is for one of the only 300 half bottles produced." - 99 point