Bodegas Poniente

VISIT IMPORTER'S WEBSITE
Country of Origin: Spain
Location: Jerez
People: Alberto Orte, Owner & Winemaker
Viticulture: Practicing Organic

Items

Bodegas Poniente Amontillado VORS Sherry, Jerez DO Login WA 93 <1 Case
Bodegas Poniente Fino Sherry, Jerez DO Login WA 94 In Stock

Following the arc of history, winemaker Alberto Orte embraces his family’s rich tradition of solera system wines from Montilla-Moriles to create this unparalleled sherry project: Bodegas Poniente. Bodegas Poniente is named after the cool western Atlantic Poniente winds.

Bodegas Poniente sherries are the product of the thoughtful blending of precious, treasured soleras and criaderas from the 18th and 19th centuries with wine from Alberto's estate vineyards. Over the past few years, Alberto Orte has carefully selected and purchased old soleras and criaderas from sherry bodegas. These soleras are then refreshed in the traditional method each year with Alberto's estate production. Some of the resulting wines are over 40 years old and can be officially classified as VORS.

Alberto Orte owns 16 hectares of vines on pure albariza soil. The vineyard sites San Cristóbal, San José, and El Aljibe are located in the Pago Añina, one of three known pago sites in Jerez designated as Jerez Superior. 21 different grape varieties are planted in Viña San Cristóbal; such varieties include Tintilla and Vijiriega and many old clones of Palomino, some of which are over 60 years old. They are planted in the old format, trained in the traditional vara y pulgar, and farmed organically. The wines are produced and aged in their historical estate, a restored house tucked among the vines of El Aljibe.

Reviews

  • Bodegas Poniente Fino Sherry, Jerez DO
    The Wine Advocate
    Rating: 94 (6/28/2019)
    The golden colored and pungent NV Fino was bottled for the first time in 2018 (marked with a neck label that says "Saca 1/18"), and the idea is to do one single bottling per year. The wine comes from three vineyards in Pago Añína on albariza soils, so it's a single-vineyard Fino, fermented in bota like yesteryear and organized in four criaderas and one solera that averages over eight years of age. The younger criadera is topped up with the wine from their own vineyards. The winery where the wine matures is halfway between Jerez and Sanlúcar, so it combines the active flor from the cooler location and the volume of a wine that is only bottled and refreshed once per year. It feels old, complex, developed and with volume, with classical aromas and a bone-dry palate. Superb!
  • Bodegas Poniente Amontillado VORS Sherry, Jerez DO
    The Wine Advocate
    Rating: 93 (6/28/2019)
    There first bottling of the NV Amontillado VORS, marked as "Saca 1/2018," comes from a solera and six criaderas that are over 40 years of average age, and the sixth criadera was topped up with biological wine that was over ten years of age. The color is quite dark and with a green touch around the edge, and the nose seems dominated by oxidative notes of noble woods and some rusty nails with an unusual leafy/balsamic twist. The palate is very salty, dry and saline, with echoes of low tide and seaweed, leaving a dry sensation in the finish.