Equipo Navazos - La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada No. 59 Sherry, NV
Equipo Navazos is an unorthodox Sherry producer with a fascinating story. It is the story of a true wine lover (Eduardo Ojedo, the man behind this project) with an unrestrained affection for Sherry. Equipo Navazos’s tale began in late 2005, when Eduardo Ojedo visited a small old bodega in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, one of the capitals of Sherry. There Mr. Ojedo discovered several casks of exceptionally fine Amontillado Sherry which had remained unsold and almost abandoned. He decided to rescue those jewels, bottling 600 specimens and calling his creation La Bota de Amontillado / Navazos N°1. The name is a bow to Edgar A. Poe’s popular story “The Cask of Amontillado”
Since then, year after year, Equipo Navazos selected specific butts of outstanding Sherry wine from different bodegas around the Jerez area. Each time, with the same idea in mind – bottling the best casks and releasing great Sherry with a progressive numeration. The “La Bota” series was born.
“La Bota” by Equipo Navazos started as a private initiative, whose sole beneficiaries were a restricted number of wine writers, distributors and sommeliers. By the time of La Bota de Fino – Macharnudo Alto N°7 (in 2008), Equipo Navazos decided to make his beauties available to the general public. And we are very grateful for that!
This “Capataz Rivas” borrows its name from Rafael Rivas, the boss (“Capataz”) of the La Guita bodega until his retirement in 2011. Three years earlier, Equipo Navazos purchased a few butts from Rafael Rivas to produce this powerful and complex wine.
This Manzanilla is amber-hued in the glass, with a medium intensity of colour. On the nose, it has a pronounced intensity of flavours. It opens up with fresh sensations of saline minerality and almonds. Oxidised notes then follow. Roasted nuts, walnuts, rancho and butterscotch nuances, green olives with tangy notes and a touch of white flowers.
On the palate, this sherry is bone dry, medium in acidity and full bodied. Toasty nuts and a resolute briny iodine minerality mingle in the attack, with green olive, walnut kernet and orange rind in the mid-palate. A tannic sensation gently lingers. This wine transforms on the palate, attaining more and more complexity as you savour it. Gaining nuances of smoke, dried straw and chargrilled wood. There is a great tension between the characteristic flavours of a typical Manzanilla and the oxidatives notes which loom above. Huge intensity of flavours, richness and elegance. A wonderful long finish.
I hope you enjoyed my suggestions on white wines for the autumn. Do you have any favourite for this beautiful season? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to pop an autumnal bottle to celebrate wearing my winter coat for the first time this season!