Los Loros La Bota de Mateo 2017

The 2017 Los Loros La Bota de Mateo is a very special Listán Blanco fermented and matured in a sherry cask for 13 months. When tasted blind, I located it in the Jura with a clear flor twang but clearly not a sherry. It has 14.5% natural alcohol and very good acidity, and it's produced in the same way many unfortified whites from Jerez are—fermented in a used Manzanilla cask, where the wine clearly got the character of the yeast during the élevage. A second bottle showed much more Manzanilla character, with notes of esparto grass and chalk and a dry, fine palate with pungent and very tasty flavors. It felt young and tender, it would have been interesting to see how the wine behaved with more time in cask. Only 580 bottles were filled in November 2018.