1910 | Bodegas Alvear | Pedro Ximenez Solera (Half Bottle)

Detailed Description

Solera 1910 starts with notes of molasses, honey, oak spice (vanilla bean, nutmeg, and cinnamon), and dried black fruits (fig, prune, and raisin). The finish melts into rich notes of mocha, demerara sugar, and espresso.

Producer Information

Bodegas Alvear is one of the largest and best-known producers in Andalucia, in southern Spain. It was built in 1729 by Diego de Alvear y Escalera in what is now the Montilla-Moriles DO, and its wines are competitive even with the great sherry producers of Jerez. The winery’s success came out of a contract Diego won to ship wine to England in the late 18th Century, and today 40 percent of Alvear’s production is for the international market. The estate owns a number of vineyards in Montilla-Moriles and buys fruit from other producers in the region. Located south of the city of Córdoba, Montilla-Moriles is most famous for wines similar stylistically to sherry (the classic Amontillado style of Sherry actually means “in the style of Montilla”). Pedro Ximénez (often dubbed “PX”) is more commonly used in Montilla-Moriles than Palomino (which is predominant in Jerez). The solera system is still used to age the wines, often under a flor. Across its multiple properties, Bodegas Alvear boasts the ability to age 5 million liters of wine in oak butts at once. One of its most well-known wines is the PX de Solera 1927, which identifies the Solera the wine was aged in as beginning in 1927. The original Alvear estate, the bodega “de la Casa”, has Montilla’s oldest solera barrel system, which houses 200-year old Amontillado. Falling interest in both sweet wines and fortified wines has meant that the Alvear PX de Solera 1927 has become a phenomenal bargain for a high-quality, complex wine.