Villamarta 2013 Tres Palmas

They kept five barrels from 2013, and the wine kept the layer of flor, being unblended with any other vintages; so this wine has nine years in biological aging and is from a single harvest. They did a blend from four of those barrels to produce what they consider their greatest white wine, the 2013 Villamarta, which is unfortified but with 15% natural alcohol. It has the parameters to be Sherry, and it would be a textbook, old-style Fino, but it has not yet passed the approval from the appellation, although they are not worried. It has incredible finesse, great complexity (lemon, aniseed, mint, esparto glass...) and some reductiveness, and it's silky (they've been doing bâtonnage to put the dead yeasts, or "cabezuelas," in suspension). This should develop gunpowder and reductive notes in bottle and age over the years. It's complex but very harmonious and surprisingly easy to drink. They were inspired by the wines from the 1940s and 1950s, and they are convinced this wine is going to age for 50 years. 1,200 bottles.

Ultra-complex and ultra-fine with egg-roll pastry, cashews, brine and seaweed. Concentrated and long, with well-integrated substance. Super-dry, linear and long. Lasts for three to four minutes. It simply won't stop. It gives a stripped-down sensation. Superb finesse. Drink now, but will hold, too.