Forlong Amigo Imaginario 2023

Amigo Imaginario is made by Bodega Forlong in Andalusia from Palomino Fino, the white grape best known as the backbone of sherry. It is organic and vegan, and made as an orange wine, the juice given skin contact before a long ageing of 24 months in sherry oak barrels. That extended barrel time is the defining feature. The wine ages oxidatively, slowly exposed to air through the wood, which converts some of its character toward the nutty, apple and almond notes typical of oxidative ageing, much as it does in the sherry tradition of this region. The skin contact adds amber colour and a phenolic grip, while the long oxidative maturation builds the savoury, dried fruit complexity that makes the wine structured rather than fruity. Andalusia's hot climate and the chalky albariza soils that suit Palomino give ripeness and a saline thread. The wine is a deep amber. The nose shows almond, dried apricot, orange peel and walnut over a beeswax base, with a clear saline lift. The palate is dry, textured and savoury, the oxidative nuttiness framed by skin tannin and a briny, long finish. Serve at 12 to 14 degrees in a broad glass. A wine for savoury food.