Gutiérrez de la Vega »Recóndita Armonía Solera 1987« - 0,5 L. 1987

Über diese besondere Süßwein-Spezialtät schreibt Luis Gutierrez von Robert Parker’s Wine Advocat:

„Labeled as Fondillón until last year, the new bottling of this wine from May 2014 is simply called Recóndita Armonía Solera 1987. The wine is quite sweet (213 grams of sugar) with 15% alcohol and 7.2 grams of acidity made with pure, dry-farmed Monastrell from 60-year-old vineyards on chalky soils at 600 meters altitude. This is bottled from a 1,300-liter oak cask that was filled with wine in 1987 and refilled with wine that had previously aged for at least ten years in barrique. Between 100 and 200 bottles are filled each year. The nose is extremely aromatic and balsamic with notes of quinine, aromatic herbs, cinnamon, curry and other spices and herbs that made me think of a vermouth. It is very intense.

After years of tension with the style of their Fondillón (and lately their sweet Moscatel too), Gutiérrez de la Vega has finally left the Alicante appellation. All the grapes are grown within the physical limits of the Alicante DO, but the wines are sold as varietal wines, whose vintage is certified by an independent body, not the Alicante appellation. His sweet red wines cannot be labeled as Fondillón either, as the name is used exclusively by the appellation. It's a shame an appellation lets one of its more important wineries go.
As I visited their vineyards and cellars I had the chance to taste all the extremely limited cuvées which are bottled and sold in homeopathic doses. The best sweet wine producer in Spain?“

Der Musik- und Literaturliebhaber Felipe Gutiérrez de la Vega hat mit der Namensgebung seiner Weine bereits seine Leidenschaft Kund getan. Als Zugabe zu dem Recóndita Armonía Solera 1987 gibt es eine CD, mit alten Aufnahmen von Opernarien, gesungen von Antonío Cortis (1891-1952), galt seinerzeit als der beste lyrische Tenor Spaniens und wurde als der spanische ‚Caruso‘ gefeiert.