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Toro Albalá puts aside select lots of their best vintage wines for later release under this label. These rich and complex Pedro Ximénez wines are destined for very long aging in oak barrels. After filling and sealing, these barrels are left in their single-vintage state for decades. It’s during this slow maturation that the wines undertake their delicious, savoury transformation (through controlled exposure to oxygen), which brings the nutty, iodine, rancio characters that add infinite complexity to the sweet, fruitcakey wine and somehow gives a greater impression of freshness.
Naturally, as the wines age, their flavour and texture concentrate, the colour darkens, and the mouthfeel thickens. Yet, at the same time, something more vibrant emerges as the acidity levels also rise. With more than 30 years in barrel, the 1988 is absolutely singing. The perfume is lifted and reminds one not only of raisins and liquorice but also of geranium and fresh grape seeds. The palate is thick and sweet yet so complex, with crushed raisin, ground coffee, bitter chocolate and roasted almond rancio notes. It perfumes the mouth for minutes after swallowing. Keeps forever once opened. Stunning value.