15%ABV. Toro Albalá's Eléctrico solera produces a superb, complex and powerful Fino with vivid aromas and flavours of green apple, lemon peel, grilled almond, and iodine. One of the keys to understanding this wine is that it has not been fortified, i.e., it only has the natural alcohol from its primary fermentation. This makes for a particularly pure and vinous expression of Fino. It’s also made from 100% Pedro Ximénez grapes, which brings texture and depth. This offers an invitingly layered mid-palate and a round finish that sets it apart from Jerezano Fino and Manzanilla. However, there is still plenty of that bright, chalky crackle—so distinctive of the Fino style and the local chalky soils. The freshness is, well, electrico! As always, this is an absolute bargain.

17% ABV. From a solera approaching a century of production, this rich yet almost fully dry Oloroso averages 15 years of age.

It’s fleshy, with a round and velvety texture and a long, vibrant finish. Unfortified again, the nose throws hints of caramel, orange rind and toasted almonds. The palate is mellow and super-complex, with lively freshness and complex flavours of quince, bitter orange and loads of brown spice and tobacco notes. The finish is long and iodine-rich. Perfect to drink on its own or sensational with almonds, charcuterie and very mature cheese.

Like all sherry-style wines in Montilla-Moriles, even the dry ones, this Palo Cortado is made from Pedro Ximénez grapes. It starts its life as a Fino, then becomes Amontillado as the flor dies and evolves further towards Palo Cortado as the character of the oxidative aging becomes stronger. You could say this wine is selected from the heavier, darker casks of Amontillado.

Bottled unfiltered with an average of 25 years, it opens with an intense with tobacco leaves, walnut and hazelnut underpinned by pepper and clove spice and notes of orange peel. The palate is dry with citrus peel and roasted nuts joined by super-fine, moreish savoury texture. It finishes with salty and intense close. It deserves the best jamón you can get your hands on.

21% ABV. A textured wine of salty, nutty intensity and great finesse, this old Amontillado is drawn from a solera laid down in 1922. Like all of Toro Albalá’s wines this is made from 100% Pedro Ximénez grapes. The average age of the wine when bottled is 35 years old (five more than required for VORS in Jerez) and, remarkably, at 21% ABV, the wine has not been fortified. The ripeness of the fruit sugars at picking, then the natural evaporation that occurs with such long aging, account for the natural alcohol level in the wine.

It is a lovely, driven, spicy, nutty and smoky Amontillado with a generous, pulpy, glycerol-rich personality and a complex finish that has a twist of quinine and bitter coffee.

17% ABV. The Don PX wines come from the youngest, sweet vintage wines of Toro Albalá. The carefully selected Pedro Ximénez grapes were hand-harvested and then left to dehydrate under the sun on straw mats for about seven days. The grapes were then pressed and, when the perfect balance between sugar, alcohol and acidity was reached in tank, the fermenting must was stunned with Aguardiente (clear local brandy), to stop the fermentation. The fortified wine was decanted into stainless steel and large cone-shaped amphorae known locally as tinajas. Due to the richness of the wine it must be naturally settled to avoid filtering, and so it's bottled straight from these holding vessels.

As these early release wines are neither barrel-aged nor blended, they are wonderfully pure, grapey examples of Pedro that capture all the delicious raisin and honey hedonism and the racy acidity of the variety before the rancio sets in. The amber nectar glows with concentrated fig, honey and muscatel raisin notes, and finishes warm, lingering and sweet. Despite this natural sugar level, it remains remarkably bright and fresh.

Pedro Ximénez’ affinity with chocolate-based desserts is well known. Perhaps less well-known is how well the wines pair with salty blue cheeses. This is particularly the case with Toro Albalá’s younger vintage wines. This can also match well with fig-based desserts and sweet pastries. It can be kept opened in the fridge forever by the way, which makes it perfect for pouring by the glass or keeping. The Don PX has also become popular as a cocktail mixer due to its depth of flavour and superb price point.

Toro Albalá reserve select lots of their best vintage wines for later release. These rich and complex Pedro Ximénez wines are destined for very long aging in oak barrels. After filling and sealing, these barrels are left for decades in their single-vintage state. It's during this slow maturation that the wines undertake their delicious, savoury, rancio transformation (through controlled exposure to oxygen) which brings a kind of nutty, iodine character that infinitely complexes the sweet, fruit cakey wine but also gives it added freshness. Naturally, as the wines concentrate in flavour and texture, the colour darkens and the mouth-feel thickens. Vintages are selected for release after a minimum of 20 years in barrel and only when they have attained these classic hallmarks of aged PX.