Equipo Navazos built the "La Bota" project on amontillado, the very first bottling, back in 2005, was one, and this marks the first in the "Navazos" line to come from Montilla-Moriles rather than the usual haunts. Palomino under flor and then without it, the oxidative half of the equation doing the heavy lifting: nutty, saline, cut with the kind of structure that makes you sit up. Sherry's not a category, it's a rabbit hole. This is a good place to fall in.
Winemaker Notes
Amontillado constitutes a vital part of Equipo Navazos’ history: the “La Bota” lineage began with an amontillado in 2005, and they have bottled an additional five “Navazos”-designated amontillados since then—including this, the first in the series to hail from Montilla-Moriles. In their words, a “Navazos”-designated amontillado must “represent the ideal balance between complexity and freshness that in our opinion makes amontillado the king of wines.” La Bota #117 comprises casks of Pedro Ximénez from the Altos de Moriles zone which began life at a prestigious bodega in Lucena—first long-aged as a fino then briefly as an amontillado—and which were thereafter refined and finished at the Pérez Barquero estate. With an average wine age of over 20 years, #117 is palate-commandingly intense and layered, yet with a sense of brightness and delicacy—partly a result of its modest-for-the-category alcohol level of 18%, derived through the slow oxidation and concentration of its unfortified component wines. Bottled October 2022; 3,200 bottles produced.
