NV La Bota de Manzanilla No 71

From the Hijos de Rainera Pérez Marín winery (source of La Guita) in Sanlúcar. Taken from butts selected by Eduardo Ojeda (chief winemaker at Grupo Estévez and recently Julia’s perfect guide to sherry country ) in January 2017; average age of seven years. On its way to becoming Manzanilla Pasada, but still considered Manzanilla. Eduardo says, ‘I was searching for a pungent style with marked acetaldehyde’. 7,000 bottles produced. We are urged to serve it in a wine glass not a copita. Pale amber. Bready and putty and green vegy. Seems at first it's going to be standard-issue Manzanilla but there is such an amazingly vibrant undertow. This is a wine from a very particular corner of the wine world rather than a sherry. Super-clean. (JR)

This is the eighth release of La Bota de Manzanilla, bottled January 2017. The estimated average age of this Manzanilla is seven years. Bottled after only the slightest filtration. Pale gold. Incredibly intense aroma of the sea as well as dried chamomile and wild grasses, even a note of hay. It’s as if you can smell the heat – or its effect – of the vineyard in a wine that is ultra-fresh and tangy. Smoky too. Really sour – deliciously so – on the palate. Tangy, bone dry, textured and just a little yeasty but the sweetness of yeast that you get on a champagne. It has the lovely bitterness of Campari but none of its flavours, it’s more like bitter orange pith/zest. We are by the sea but there is also the fine texture of the chalky soils and the precision of Manzanilla. (JH)

I'm always reluctant to taste unbottled wines but I previewed the NV La Bota de Manzanilla 71, and the final wine was quite different to what I sampled then. So I took the opportunity to taste the bottled wine, which was sourced from La Guita. The golden colored wine averages seven to nine years of age and has somehow high acetaldehyde, with a volatile twist and great depth. It has pungent flavors and combines power with elegance. This should develop nicely in bottle for at least a couple of years, as they have now decided to bottle this wine with less frequency than in the past. Some 8,000 bottles produced.