Tasting Notes

Penetrating aromas, nutty yet with tangy freshness. One of the great dry sherries. The palate is full rich and rounded.

Superb on its own or as an aperitif, but is also recommended with soups and other well flavoured foods. Its aroma is so good that many Spaniards have taken to putting a drop on their handkerchiefs to enjoy its aroma wherever they go.

Vintage Description

Palo Cortado is unusual, in that it first ages under a film of yeast ‘flor’ which protects it from oxygen, but then loses that flor to age oxidatively at the very end of the process. Thus, the freshness of Manzanilla and the complexity of dry Amontillado are combined. Over twenty years old, Jerez Cortado is entitled to the designation VOS, (Very Old Sherry). About 190 years ago when the French occupied this part of Spain this sherry was sold to the British troops under the name ‘Wellington’. The 1st Duke of Wellington’s portrait is still used on the label today. Another sherry was also simultaneously sold to the French under the name ‘Napoleon’!

Property Information

Established in 1792, the family owned and run business is now in its sixth generation, with Javier Hidlago in charge of what is widely regarded as the definitive Manzanilla house.

Extensive vineyard holdings ensure the best quality Palomino Fino is delivered from the bright albariza soils to the bodegas in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where every step is taken during the long solera process to deliver excellence and consistency. Gradual biological ageing via the solera process under natural flor for Manzanilla and Amontillado produces dry, salty styles that are proving particularly popular in our ever evolving tapas-style culinary culture, where their ability to match such a diversity of ingredients is unrivalled and increasingly fashionable.