Robert Parker
98/100
Another rarity is the extremely old and concentrated NV Pedro Ximénez San José, which will be sold without appellation of origin because it's only 12% alcohol and they refuse to add alcohol to it to reach the 15% alcohol needed to get the appellation of origin. It has a mind-blowing 565 grams of sugar per liter. It has lots of dark chocolate, carob beans and a touch of concentration that I find in wines like Toneles from Valdespino, which goes beyond the varietal notes and those that I associate with coconut aromas. It was sourced from a winery called García Monje from Sanlúcar, and they had vineyards in San José (Los Espejos) in the Pago El Carrascal (in Sanlúcar) that were planted with Pedro Ximénez, which is very unusual in the zone. The vines were very close to the sea (the vines were pulled up in 1971, but there was a family reserve of very old wine; there's also a Cream and an Oloroso that will follow this). The wine is also very spicy, and despite the huge amount of sugar, it has a distinct bitterness (and even saltiness?) that they associate with the place and which gives the wine freshness and balance. It's super dense, the wine is intense but very elegant, it doesn't seem as old as it really is (they estimate it can be 70 to 80 years old). It's sharper in the unusual Sanlúcar style for sweet wines. There will be a one-off bottling of 350 half bottles, which is the wine that remained from that family reserve.
