Colosía Solera Familiar Amontillado

Colosía Solera Familiar Amontillado is made by Bodegas Gutiérrez Colosía, a house dating from 1838 set on the estuary of the Guadalete river in El Puerto de Santa María, on the bay of Cádiz. The cellars sit close to the water, where dry easterly winds and Atlantic moisture regulate humidity naturally and favour a long, even ageing. The wine is pure Palomino Fino from the albariza chalk soils, drawn from one of the oldest soleras the family keeps, with around 50 years of ageing. An Amontillado first ages under a veil of flor yeast, which adds saline, bready character, before the flor dies back and the wine is refortified for a long oxidative stage that builds nuttiness, depth and amber colour. Decades of fractional ageing through the solera concentrate the wine and convert alcohol to acetaldehyde. It is deep amber with a dry, intense palate of walnut, hazelnut and dried apricot over oak and toasted bread, finishing long and saline. Serve at around 14 degrees in a copita, with aged cheese, mushroom dishes, game or oily fish.