Alvear Pedro Ximenez Solera 1927 (375ML half-bottle)
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Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Wong
Wilfred -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Suckling
James
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#5 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 of 2017
The vineyards, located at an elevation of 1,050 feet, are comprised of the famous chalky soil called Albariza and the 40-year-old vines produce extremely low yields. The grapes were hand-harvested at the peak of maturity and dried on mats in the sun. This is one of the oldest wines in the cellar since the Solera was started at the beginning of the last century.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The NV Pedro Ximenez Solera 1927 is non-vintage, but does have some 1927 material in it. This is totally dark brown/amber with notes of figs, toffee, caramel syrup, molasses and coffee. It is dense, super sweet, intense, rich and an amazingly, unctuously textured, thick beverage to consume slowly and introspectively after a meal. Drink now through 2050, or even longer.
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Wine Enthusiast
One of the world's best PX wines is Solera 1927, the pride of Alvear. Whatever solera stocks went into this bottling were well selected. Aromas of maple and fine wood turn to fig and caramel. Saturation and weight on the palate are expected, but this has some (though not a lot) acidic cut. Deep flavors of fig and Nutella finish with nuttiness and warmth.
Editors' Choice -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Alvear Solera 1927 Pedro Ximénez offers a decadent wine experience. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers complexities that few wines can. Its aromas and flavors of crushed nuts, iodine, and chalk nicely balance out the wine's brown sugar sweetness. Serve with banana bread topped with molasses and walnuts. (Tasted: July 21, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Alvear Pedro Ximénez de Añada is another beauty. Made from sun-dried Pedro Ximénez grapes that were fermented and aged in large clay jars, it reveals a ruby/amber color as well as a great nose of orange liqueur, brown sugar, honeyed figs, and flowers. Uber-full-bodied, thick, and vicious, it’s a dessert wine geared for tiny sips. It will probably age forever.
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James Suckling
A raisiny, plum pudding-like nose with a wealth of brown-tea aromas. The palate has a sweet, rich and fleshy sultana and raisin finish. Drink now.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Montilla-Moriles is a DO wine zone in Andalucia, in southern Spain, just south of Córdoba city but inland from the coast. Historically the wines of Montilla-Moriles made their way into the sherries made in Jerez. But once it was awarded DO status in 1945, Montilla-Moriles began to establish its own identity. The chalky and sandy soils combined with extremely hot temperatures are best to produce Pedro Ximénez, which accounts for nearly three quarters of the region’s production, some of which is still legally sold to Jerez and Málaga producers. The unique conditions of Montilla-Moriles allow for Pedro Ximénez to be bottled also in the Vinos Dulces Naturales (naturally sweet) style, a non-fortified style for which the region is recognized.
Muscat and Lairén are also produced for blending. Palomino is not suited to the extreme conditions of the area.
The basic types of Montilla-Moriles DO wines include young fruity wines, aged (crianza) wines, and generosos, which are aged in a solera system similar to those in Jerez. The resulting styles of generosos, simply known as, Montilla, while similar to sherry, perhaps display a bit less finesse given they are aged away from the cooling effects of the Atlantic.