Saca de June 2022. This is the tenth release of La Bota de Manzanilla, which originates from the vineyards of Las Cañas (pagos Balbaína and Las Tablas) and La Soledad (pago El Cuadro) in Sanlúcar. It’s drawn from a small selection of toneles (750-litre butts) and botas of a quality that Barquín calls “outworldly”. These two-dozen or so casks have been carefully looked after by Eduardo Ojeda and his team for more than twelve years, and the wines have been getting more and more complex.

The estimated average age of this bottling is seven years (so, far older than the vast majority of Manzanilla on the market). Like all La Bota wines, this is en rama, so it has not had the aggressive filtration that gives most Manzanilla its clear appearance. This is what proper Manzanilla looks like with age when served from cask, i.e., pale and golden. The wine itself serves to remind you that Manzanilla is simply Fino, a Fino from Sanlúcar vineyards. A glass with roast chicken or pork sausage would be sensational.  

Saca de August 2022. This stunning Fino comes from the Macharnudo Alto (the ‘Grand Cru’ parcel within Jerez’s legendary Macharnudo vineyard) and was drawn from Valdespino’s Inocente solera. This will need no introduction to Navazos fans, as the same solera and vineyard brought you the fabled La Bota numbers 2, 7, 15, 18, 27, 35, 54, 68 and 91.

Of course, this is a single-vineyard wine (extremely rare in the world of Fino these days) from one of the four great pagos that lie to the north and west of Jerez. Dubbed the ‘Montrachet of Jerez’, the albariza chalk here—called Tosca de Barajuelas—results in low yields of thick-skinned grapes and a particularly fine, chalky, saline, structured Palomino. Macharnudo Alto is the most celebrated part of the vineyard, the parcel with the highest altitude and the one considered to have the purest albariza soils.

This time around, it’s a selection from the solera: the oldest casks for complexity, and the second criadera for freshness. This bottling was also blended with some younger criaderas from the Macharnudo Alto estate. Eduardo Ojeda (the Master) explains: “We are looking for particular finesse and freshness in this saca. The wine is now more fluid and fresher than in previous editions, without in any case losing its authenticity.” Its average age is close to eight years, a couple of years less than the previous bottlings. Food? Oysters, olives, anchovies, salted almonds, whitebait, charcuterie, prawns, hard cheese, etc. In fact, drink it with whatever you like, but with the aforementioned foods, you will be in heaven!

Saca de October 2018. This remarkable Montilla Fino is the heir to the fabled La Bota Nos. 24 and 45, and fans of those wines should not hesitate. This labelling is necessitated by the current, restrictive legislation but this is really a Fino that is moving towards being an Amontillado. Underneath, in small text, the subtitle “Un fino que va para Amontillado” translates as exactly that.

The wine is sourced from the oldest Fino solera at Pérez Barquero’s Bodega Los Amigos. Luis Gutiérrez’ note below tells you what to expect: a superb, unique, unbelievably intense wine. Think great La Bota Fino—with all the complexity, freshness, intensity and drive—but with a touch more glycerol fat and more dried fruit generosity and you won’t be far off the mark.

Saca de October 2022. This iconic bottling can trace its ancestry right back to the first ever La Bota wine: La Bota de Amontillado No.1. Since that time, we have been regaled by those Sanlúcar wines numbered 9, 37, 58 and 95. This time there is a new source. Barquín explains that for La Bota 117, they travelled from Sanlúcar to Montilla—"looking for something new and because we had to take advantage of the opportunity of a spectacularly fine and lively Amontillado, delicious, fluid and at the same time with much character.”

Sourced from the venerable Bodega of Pérez Barquero, it is a wine of more than 20 years of age from Altos de Moriles. The solera started life as a Fino and during its first oxidative stage in a prestigious winery in Lucena. This was followed by its definitive period of aging at the Bodega of Pérez Barquero. In the Montilla tradition, the wine has never been fortified, and its alcohol content clocks in below 18% which contributes to its freshness on the palate.

It’s a wonderfully gastronomic wine that harmonises with a wide variety of dishes, as well as being a delicious glass in itself. It is best enjoyed in a large white wine glass at around 11ºC and 13ºC. An excellent aperitif, it also works beautifully with powerful meat-based entrées and is also a surprisingly good accompaniment to spicy Asian food and, of course, a wide variety of cheeses (both hard and soft). 

Navazos disciples will be well familiar with this wine, inspired by the time when Pedro Ximénez was often a vintage wine released without extended aging, and therefore without the resulting rancio characters that such maturation brings.

It is made in partnership with the highly regarded Pérez Barquero family in the D.O. Montilla-Moriles and derives from late-harvested and dried PX grapes from one of Montilla’s best vineyards. Fortification is carried out only with top-quality, grape spirit. After 18 months resting in traditional, large, cone-shaped amphorae (of the type used in Montilla-Moriles for centuries, locally called tinajas or conos), the wine is released as an ultra-pure, viscous, incredibly intense and naturally sweet dessert wine.

For those new to this wine, this isn't your opaque, black, rancio style of PX. Instead, you can expect a bright and perfumed, amber/brown coloured wine of wonderful vibrancy, fruitiness and freshness, with dried raisin, leatherwood honey, cold tea, nutmeg, molasses and fresh resin notes. Of course, with 430 grams of residual sugar, it is very sweet yet balanced by just the right amount of acidity. The wine can be consumed in the same way as an aged PX: served with coffee, tea or with chocolate desserts. Like Navazos’ solera PX, it will keep for aeons in the fridge.

Saca de July 2017. La Bota 76 was just the second commercial release of this wine, drawn from an ultra-rare, 100% PX solera resting in Sanlúcar’s Marqués del Real Tesoro bodega (the first release was La Bota No. 11). This 12-butt solera was filled in 2000 with a very old P.X. that had been carefully selected from the stocks of a small Sanlúcar producer that was closing down. Since then, it has remained untouched, except for the two small withdrawals made by Navazos.

Estimated to have an average age of 30 years, this is a mind-blowing example of pure Pedro Ximénez produced in the Jerez style: fortified initially to 18.5% alc. and aged in butts filled only to 5/6 of their capacity (to enhance the complexity of oxidative notes). With time, the alcohol percentage has dropped to 16% alc. This beguilingly sweet wine can be enjoyed on its own or side by side with chocolate-based dishes. Serve on the cool side, so the temperature inside the glass can evolve from 12ºC to about 16ºC.