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Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.89 $17.09
12 bottles: $15.57
‘Telleira’ is the Galician word for tile factory. In the past, tiles were made in this plot with the clay from...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $17.92
12 bottles: $17.56
Red
750ml
Bottle: $31.94
12 bottles: $31.30
• Varietal Mencía from a few parcels, some younger and some up to 100 years old. • Spontaneous fermentation in...
12 FREE
Red
750ml
Bottle: $18.94
12 bottles: $18.56
There is a note of dry hay and esparto grass in the 2022 Fusco, which made me think of some wines from Douro in...
WA
90
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $11.31 $12.57
Our wine stands out because of its marked fruity character which brings out all the qualities and characteristics of...
White
750ml
Bottle: $169.93
12 bottles: $166.53
Complex and super intense Palo Cortado, loaded with concentration. Salted caramel, toffee, walnut and some tangy...
12 FREE
WA
96
JS
96
Red
750ml
Bottle: $36.00
12 bottles: $34.20
A new paraje bottling from Antoine Graillot, the 2021 Encinas La Rata is from just below El Rapolao, on clay-rich...
12 FREE
WA
94
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $25.89 $26.40
12 bottles: $25.37
The 2021 Encinas feels cleaner and less reductive than previous years but still has the earthy rusticity that seems...
WA
93
Case only
Red
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $21.50
A vin de soif, made in a light, refreshing style. Earthy with some smoked meat aromas on the nose. The palate is...
12 FREE
Case only
Red
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $19.01
A vin de soif, made in a light, refreshing style. Earthy with some smoked meat aromas on the nose. The palate is...
White
375ml
Bottle: $13.00
12 bottles: $12.35
Case only
Spirits
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $45.03
12 FREE
Sale
White
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.89 $15.83
This is bright for a cream Sherry, with green tea and singed ginger notes out front, providing heft to the date,...
WS
91
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $14.94 $15.83
Sea salt, Brazil nut and dried chamomile notes are racy and filigreed, with a stony edge on the finish. Drink now.
WS
90
White
750ml
Bottle: $69.95
6 bottles: $68.55
The NV El Tresillo Amontillado Fino is from the El Tresillo solera (hence the same name as the 1874 Amontillado). It...
12 FREE
WA
90
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $27.94 $31.19
Shows lovely focus and persistence, with a prominent thread of bitter almond that runs from start to finish, while...
WS
92
Sale
White
750ml
Bottle: $59.93 $64.79
The NV Villapanes Oloroso wears a dark amber-brown robe and has a very intense nose, showing some marmalade, dark...
12 FREE
WA
91
Red
750ml
Bottle: $69.94
Again, the cooler 2021 seems to have worked nicely for the 2021 Ultreia Cova de la Raposa, which compensates for the...
12 FREE
WA
93
Red
750ml
Bottle: $69.94
The nose of the 2021 Ultreia Petra is completely different from the rest of the Ultreia range. This is only two...
12 FREE
WA
96

Ice Wine Japanese Whiskey Mencia Mencia Sherry

Whisky might not be the first thing that springs to mind when we think of Japanese fine produce, but over the past one hundred years, this fascinating and multi-faceted country has diligently forged a unique whisky identity which is growing in popularity, and which is entirely its own.

The story of Japanese whisky begins in 1918, when Masataka Taketsuru was sent to Scotland to undertake a tour of single malt distilleries in the Highlands, and bring home a knowledge of whisky and distillation skills. He returned full of inspiration, helped no doubt by his new Scottish wife, and alongside his friend, Shinjiro Torii, set up what would become a successful whisky industry.

Today, the Japanese whisky industry is spread over a relatively small handful of distilleries, which continue to use Scottish techniques and recipes, but with a hefty dose of distinctly Japanese experimentalism. This is displayed most obviously in the barrelling techniques the Japanese use - to create a distinctly Oriental set of tasting notes, native Japanese oakwood casks are used for ageing, alongside casks taken from plum wine producers, which impart a beautiful set of floral flavors to the whisky.

While some distilleries produce some excellent single malts, the majority of Japanese whiskies are blended, which reveals a unique set of flavors and aromas ranging from honeysuckle and orange blossom, to toffee and acetone.

Sherry is made in a unique way using the solera system, which blends fractional shares of young wine from oak barrels with older, more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to 50 years or more, the date the solera was begun. If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers to the date the company was founded.

Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape, which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle" and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.

Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which means that distilled, neutral spirits are used to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it will have a longer shelf life than table wines.