Luis Pérez Tres Palmas Villamarta 2014 - saca 2023

100% Palomino Fino from the El Corregidor vineyard at the heart of Pago Carrascal. Harvested in 2013 and bottled in 2018. The soil consists of thin, stacked layers like a pack of cards, which is the source of the name Barajuela. Vines more than 40 years old. The harvest takes place in several passes, or 'tries', each of which is used for a different wine. The grapes for this Barajuela, the third trie, are dried in the sun (asoleo) for a few days to increase their sugar content. This intensive treatment allows sherry to be made without the base wine being fortified. The must is added to the barrels unfiltered, where it continues to ferment without temperature controls. The decision whether to age the wine under flor or oxidatively is only taken after fermentation. The wine selected for this Fino is then transferred into barrels that are filled more than usual so as to not give the flor the chance to drown out the character of the vineyard.

Full-bodied, rounded, complex. Hints of ripe apples, melon, herbs, yeast, ... The aromas of the flor remain subdued, but are much more present than in the first two sacas. Equally complex in the mouth, with a nice tension between salt, minerality, fruit and enormous length.