N.V. Valdespino Don Gonzalo Oloroso VOS 20 years old

Jerez is a famous and historic wine-producing region in Andalucia, at the southern tip of Spain. It is also the Spanish name for what English speakers call Sherry, the distinctively nut-flavored, fortified wine. Jerez has been a viticultural center since at least 1,000 B.C., when the Phoencians introduced winemaking to southern Spain. When the Moors conquered the region 1,700 years later, they added know-how about distillation to the wine industry, and the Spanish fortified wine industry was born. By the 16th century Jerez fortified wines were considered among the world’s finest wines of any kind. There are more than a half-dozen styles of Sherry, from dry and pale to sweet and creamy, but the grapes used for all of them are the white varietals Palomino, Pedro Ximenez and Moscatel. There are wineries in this region that specialize in non-fortified wines, though Sherry represents the overwhelming majority of winemaking.