Cayetano del Pino - Amontillado, Jerez, Spain (NV)

TASTING NOTES

Wood varnish and baked pastry, burnt orange peel, almonds and walnuts. Salty and peppery notes alongside a rich glycerin-led mouthfeel. Beautiful wine!

Don Cayetano del Pino y Vázquez was born in 1858 in La Carlota near Córdoba but moved to Sevilla at the age of 11. In 1886 he had a chance to realise his dream of starting a bodega with the help of Alberto Romero and Manuel de la Calzada, the son of a popular banker.

The first warehouse of C. del Pino y Cía was in the Plaza Cocheras in Jerez and later moved to a big compound in the Calle de Armas de Santiago which contained several bodegas, grape presses, two bottling lines (one for Spain, one for exports), a cooperage, distilling equipment, printing department and administrations.

At the end of the 19th century they had around 150 workers and exported all over the world. In the 20th century Cayetano del Pino was forced to fold back and started operating as an almacenista, supplying wine to larger bodegas instead of bottling themselves. Nowadays Cayetano del Pino is considered one of the experts when it comes to Palo Cortado sherry. While this is considered one of the rarest types of sherry, the bodega almost exclusively produces Palo Cortado, delivering some very fine examples at different ages. In total they currently have just over 1000 barrels in the warehouse.

In the 1980s and 1990s the bodega had some difficult decades (like most of the sherry industry). At that time the bodega closed down for twelve years without selling any wine. A few years ago, helped by the more flexible rules of the D.O., they started bottling themselves again, but are hard to get outside of Spain.