Fernando de Castilla Antique Fino (500ML)
- Decanter
-
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Over the years the Antique range has won many medals from Decanter. For me this fino stands out. It’s made to the traditional style, fortified before bottling to 17% alcohol. Jan Pettersen’s bodega hides many treasures (including lovely brandy and equally good vinegar). He says he made the fino for his friends and was surprised to find that there was much more demand. Gloriously aromatic, with almonds and iodine. Intense in the mouth, with saline, citrussy and walnut notes.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The NV Antique Fino is eight years of average age when bottled; it’s fragrant and perfumed, feminine and subtle, with dry flowers and a rare balance between old and young. The palate shows a much more serious wine, pungent, intense, saline, sharp and at the same time delicate, complex and long, most probably because it’s fortified to 17% at the time of bottling, something that was common in the past, but that almost nobody does anymore. A most unusual old-style Fino. Bravo! 4,000 bottles produced yearly.
Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla was founded in 1837, purchased and revitalized in 1999 by Jan Pettersen (a Norwegian with 15 years at Osborne). Jan also took over the cellars of Jose Bustamante next door and quickly established Fernando de Castilla as one of the region’s finest small, independent sherry houses. The company specializes in natural, unblended and unfined products as supreme examples of the ancient winemaking traditions of the Jerez region. The vineyards (farmed without pesticides or herbicides) and winery are all located in Jerez, all sherries are estate bottled. JEREZ || The DO Jerez-Xérès-Sherry was founded in 1933, Spain’s first. It is situated in the province of Cadiz, where the wines are made in the traditional way, based on the Solera system of dynamic aging on butts (barrels). The best vineyard sites are on the famous ‘albariza’ soils, a white limestone marl; which are deep, with excellent water retaining properties. These are ideal conditions for vine cultivation since they are able to reserve the rainwater for the dry, hot summer months.
Sherry is a fortified wine that comes in many styles from dry to sweet. True Sherry can only be made in Andalucía, Spain where the soil and unique seasonal changes give a particular character to its wines. The process of production—not really the grape—determine the type, though certain types are reserved for certain grapes. Palomino is responsible for most dry styles; Pedro Ximénez and Muscat of Alexandria are used for blending or for sweet styles.
Known more formally as Jerez de la Frontera, Jerez is a city in Andalucía in southwest Spain and the center of the Jerez region and sherry production. Sherry is a mere English corruption of the term Jerez, while in French, Jerez is written, Xérès. Manzanilla is the freshest style of sherry, naturally derived from the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.