Ximénez-Spínola Old Harvest

Ximénez-Spínola Old Harvest is made in Jerez, Andalusia, by a family winery founded in 1729 that works exclusively with Pedro Ximénez. This sweet wine blends two vintages drawn from an old solera, with extreme levels of grape dehydration behind it: it takes around 1,000 kilos of fresh grapes to yield only 300 kilos of raisins, and those raisins make a tiny volume of intensely concentrated wine. The grapes are sun-dried after harvest so their sugar concentrates to syrup-like levels before pressing and fortification. Ageing through the criaderas and soleras system blends younger and older wine fractionally and, through slow oxidation in cask, builds the wine's depth and dark colour. It pours a clean, bright, glyceric dark amber. The nose is intense, layered with raisin and dried fig alongside smoked and roasted touches, almond and a thread of white fruit. The palate is round, balanced, smooth and silky, with a slight sweetness rather than a cloying one and a long, savoury aftertaste from the oxidative ageing. Serve lightly chilled at around 12 to 14 degrees in a small glass. It suits chocolate and caramel desserts, nutty cakes and aged hard cheese.