Equipo Navazos, La Bota No 108, Oloroso, "Viejisimo de Chiclana Bota No", Jerez, Spain (37.5cl.)

Producer Profile

Equipo Navazos was born out of a group of friend’s passion to share the authentic, traditional wines of Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Montilla … legitimately some of the greatest wines of the world!

These wines come from soleras and individual casks that remain, relatively neglected by the market in corners of many of Andalusia’s most prestigious bodegas. These unexpected yet fortunate findings have been made available to wine lovers around the world in limited quantities under the La Bota series (consecutively numbered editions, with the date of each saca or withdrawl date on the label) … in doing so respecting generations of expertise and care for these rare and beautiful wines. Today their efforts are increasingly focused on producing their own exceptional wines, such as Florpower, that truly express the character of Sanlúcar and its unique terroir. Outside of Andalusia, Equipo Navazos have collaborated with winemakers including Dirk Niepoort and Sergi Colet to develop authentic and individual wines that never fail to impress.

Viticulture

The white chalky soil of the Jerez area, 'albariza,' is ideal for the cultivation of Palomino grapes which produce the sherry for which Jerez is so well known. With a focus on the old vine vineyards of Mirafloes La Baja, Sanlúcar from which their Florpower wines come from. However, experience has shown them that, in the end, the vineyard always prevails regardless of the intensity and duration of ageing, which is why they increasingly tend to limit the latter more and more.

Winemaking

"Saca de Octubre de 2021. A beast of an Oloroso … It is a powerful, super-concentrated and venerable wine, in the same category as the most noble and oldest sacred relics. Only 1,300 bottles have been made. It is very ancient, surely 80-90 years old; one of those very dry and concentrated wines, with lifted acidity, a touch of bitterness and power, with strong iodine, seaweed character. We have had the opportunity to enjoy it and see how well it marries with cured Manchego cheese for example, white sausage from Chiclana and morcilla from Conil, with many small sips and taking time to enjoy the aromas” Jesús Barquín, professor of criminology and founder of Equipo Navazos

Oak Ageing

Time: Decades
Type: Very Old Solera Casks
% wine oaked: 100
% new oak: None

Tasting Note

We’ve secured just 35 cases of this … Sourced from the same winery as the much heralded La Bota 63 (which received 99 points from The Wine Advocate). From the unheard of Bodegas Manuel Aragón “Sanatorio” in Chiclana. It doesn’t carry the Jerez appellation, but has all the character of a Sherry, and a superb one at that!

Food Matching

It marries with cured Manchego cheese for example, white sausage from Chiclana and morcilla from Conil.

Awards

Robert Parkers The Wine Advocate 97 Points
As they run out of 98 pretty quickly, they soon bottled a similar NV La Bota de Oloroso Bota NO 108, another butt from the same group, which has a more civilized nose, with hints of orange and somehow gentler (relatively speaking) and polished. Each barrel is different and the wines are so old, so this specific one seems to have a softer personality but is still pungent and powerful. These wines, as they are aged in Trebujena, cannot be labeled as sherry, but in the future that should change. They filled 1,200 half bottles in October 2021. 97 Points, LG, September 2022.
Tim Atkin Jerez Special Report 2024 Monuments of Sherry
This centenary Oloroso is sourced from Chiclana, held in high esteem by sherry cognoscenti though now marginal to mainstream sherry production. A completely brown wine, it exudes a uniquely layered bouquet that makes you understand why this class of sherries was named “Olorosos,” the perfumed wines. But then it shows likely the highest acidity I have tasted in Jerez (13 g/l by numbers) including a fair bit of volatile, as well as shocking bitterness. It is really hard to unpeel its original flavours, so compressed and sharpened they have become from what is arguably a process of over-oxidation. Jesús Barquín and Eduardo Ojeda of Navazos acknowledge this presents a formidable sensual challenge but, sybarites as they are, they recommend sipping it over morsels such as liver sausage. Monuments of Sherry, WB(MW), October 2024.