Don Px Convento Selección 1964

Toro Albalá is a leading bodega in the D.O. Montilla-Moriles, founded in 1844 at Aguilar de la Frontera in Córdoba, with a reputation built on holding old wines for decades. This Don PX Convento Selección carries the 1964 vintage, a Pedro Ximénez of extreme age and concentration. The grapes are harvested and then laid out in the Andalusian sun for the asoleo, drying to raisins that pack in sugar before the small yield of dark must is pressed off. After a brief fermentation the wine is fortified to around 18 percent and aged for many years in old oak butts. Across that long oxidative ageing the wine slowly loses volume to evaporation, darkens to near black and gains a thick, syrupy texture and a deep layered flavour that only time in cask can give. The nose is dense, with raisin, date and prune over molasses, coffee and walnut. The palate is hugely sweet and viscous, coating the mouth, yet decades in barrel have built enough complexity and savoury edge to keep it from feeling simple, and the finish runs on for a long time. Serve at around 14 degrees in a small glass. A little is enough alongside dark chocolate or as a digestif.