Fortified Wine

Taylor’s Fine Tawny is aged for up to three years in large old oak in Vila Nova de Gaia at the mouth of the mighty Douro River; home to port. 

It is a sweet, medium ruby coloured wine with medium body and finish; a lighter style of port and bottled ready to drink. It does not require any further ageing in bottle and will not evolve in flavour further. 

Drink lightly chilled with tasty cheese and dried fruit or as an aperitif on its own.

Madeira comes from the Atlantic island of the same name, which is part of Portugal and is nearly 1000 kilometres south, situated off the African coast. This wine is fortified (as are most Madeiras) and has rich caramel flavours balanced by a touch of saltiness. It is ready to drink now and will not evolve further in the bottle. This Madeira is, like many fortified wines, extremely good value for money. 

Old Masters is modelled on a cream sherry style and made in New Zealand by Villa Maria. It's a straightforward fortified wine made in a sweet style with flavours of caramel, dried fruit and walnuts. 

Deliciously treacly sweet sherry from a great producer - this is the ultimate liquid match for sticky date pudding or warmed gingerbread, fresh from the oven.

Bodegas Hidalgo - a rare sherry producer, six successive generations...

Bodegas Hidalgo is one of the few independent sherry producers remaining in Andalucia in the south of Spain - the home of sherry. All of its grapes come from its own vineyards, another rarity these days and one that definitely supports the universally high quality of its wines, which are made at Sanl?car de Barrameda near the Guadalquivir River, at sea level. The continuous exposure to sea breezes bears a strong influence on the quality of the wines and their long aging process, helping to keep barrels moist in the solera system, which creates a slow and steady aging. 

Bodegas Hidalgo produces about 200,000 cases of sherry and brandy every year.

Character

This Fine Tawny has fervent fans around the world who love it for its approachability and its caramel nuttiness. And who are we to argue?

Style

Young, vibrant wines are expertly blended and oak aged for up to three years. Fine Tawny has a fruitiness of youth and a nuttiness from the casks, while the ageing makes it lighter in appearance than ruby ports. A not-so-dark horse.

Goes well with

Creamier desserts like rice pudding as well as dried fruit and nuts. Pairs brilliantly with after-lunch card games.

O2 Chenin - Chenin with oxygen, aged and oxidised in barrel for 3 years. In the spirit of the great dry Oloroso Sherry wines of Southern Spain or similar from the Jura, Portugal and beyond comes the first Central Otago version of what an aged style of wine can achieve.

Chenin, grown our Morrison vineyard, has been barrel fermented in older French oak and left aging on lees for a year. Racked and then fortified to 15% the wine is then left in barrel, 3/4's full, with air for a period of three years. Over this time it slowly develops its colour, a bright  amber  golden hue, and crucially also its flavours and aromas.

Aromas of lightly burnt butter & umami lead to a palate that is driven by bright acidity. Dry mineral edged nuttiness elevates these savoury flavours to a salty edged finish leaving nothing but freshness of flavour. Delicious and refreshing at the same time.

This is a wine that demands hard cheeses , salty cured meats, shellfish in their brine and piles of fresh notes and dried fruits to go with it, it will sing with matches such as these and remind you of every Mediterranean holiday you wish you had.

Drink slightly chilled
Eat with hard cheese and cured meats - or have a holiday in Spain

En Rama is a pure expression of dry sherry from Jerez. En Rama roughly translates to 'raw', which is exactly what this is. This wine is extracted from the barrels in Spring, when the flor is at it's thickest. This sherry is unfiltered and unfined. Best drunk fresh, En Rama tastes more intensely nutty and yeasty than the standard Tio Pepe. The palate is complex and fresh with a saline finish.

From the winery...

Only half a cask is bottled of this 52 year old Amontillado.

Time and the winery have taken care of this Amontillado Muy Viejo, transforming it into a truly splendid wine. It has been ageing for 52 years and bottled from cask number 5 in Bodega La Constancia Solera Museo.

Intense mahogany colour with amber shades, yet clean and bright. High glycerine content and persistent legs.

Spectacular, complex and profound nose, reminding you of antique furniture, cedar, lacquer and varnish. Pure concentration where we can still appreciate the origin of biological ageing.

The wine shows an overwhelming, very dry, direct, profound and almost wild palate. Its finish is impressive, round, showing a perfect balance between acidity and ageing with notes of iodine, brine, cocoa and caramel. The aftertaste is like a dream come true, where the roasted and balsamic flavours blend together with the salinity and bitterness make this wine a true legend.

En Rama is a pure expression of dry sherry from Jerez. En Rama roughly translates to 'raw', which is exactly what this is. This wine is extracted from the barrels in Spring, when the flor is at it's thickest. This sherry is unfiltered and unfined. Best drunk fresh, En Rama tastes more intensely nutty and yeasty than the standard Tio Pepe. The palate is complex and fresh with a saline finish.

A classic dry fino that tastes like sherry, but is made made from the Pedro Xim?nez grape (rather than, more typically, Palomino) and is completely unfortified as well as coming from Montilla-Moriles rather than Jerez, which is the city where sherry comes from. 

This wine was made following the traditional solera ageing system in barrels and was aged under a veil of natural yeast known as the flor - exactly like sherry. This gives the wine its distinctive flavours of toasted almonds, olives and salty tang, finishing on a clean and refreshing flavour note.

It is one of the rare wines which will happily partner dishes containing vinegar. Pair it with jam?n serrano, mussels, salted Marcona almonds, marinated olives, croquettes, clams or gazpac