El Maestro Sierra - 15 Year Oloroso Sherry NV (375ml)
Price: $24.00
| Producer | El Maestro Sierra |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Jerez |
| Varietal | Oloroso |
| Sku | 25946 |
| Size | 375ml |
One of the most famous of the small bodegas in Sherry/Jerez, El Maestro Sierra was founded in 1830 by a master cooper - a rarity in the days when the Sherry business was dominated by aristocratic families, the bodega is still run by his descendants, and has been woman-run for three generations now. All the work is traditional here, everything done by hand (no pumps to move the wine from barrel to barrel, for example), they do all their own cooperage, and the wines are neither filtered nor sulfured. This excellent Oloroso starts, like essentially all Sherry, as a light, dry white wine from chalky soils. After fermentation, it is put into barrels to age for *15 years*, after which we have a wine walnut in color, mellow, not oaky (these are very old, neutral barrels) but rich with notes of dried fig, walnut, hazelnut, black tea, and leather, which almost makes it sound like a dessert wine...but it's dry! Totally dry, and really very savory. Besides just being extremely fine, serious wine in and of itself, it is an excellent companion to salty snacks, cheese, soups/stews, pork and red meat, or just by itself. -- James
