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The breathtaking NV La Bota de Amontillado Bota A.R. 49 is an extremely old Amontillado - around 80 years old - purchased from Pedro Romero who had bought it from the now defunct Gaspar Florido. This wine was named after a rare breed of duck known as Ansa Real, hence the A.R. in the name. The wine is extremely old and concentrated, and age concentrates everything; alcohol (it boasts a whopping 22%, according to the label...), acidity, dry extract... What a beast! The aroma fills the room as soon as you pour a glass from the half bottle. The color is a dark amber/mahogany with a green edge denoting extreme age. The nose literally jumps form the glass: iodine, peat, smoke, roasted nuts in an intensity that is not common at all. It keeps changing in the glass, showing new nuances every five minutes: orange peel, spices, nutmeg, incense, seaweed, salted almonds, hazelnuts, iron, cigar ash... more and more marine as it warms up in contact with air. The palate is powerful, intense, concentrated and extreme (think a cask-strength Islay whisky, Port Ellen if possible), with saline, marine flavors (seaweed, shells) lifted by the alcohol to leave a warm, extremely long aftertaste. But what is remarkable is that within its brutality it's astonishingly balanced. This is an extreme wine to sip in small doses, as good as it gets. This wine will outlive us all, and probably our grandchildren too. A really unique wine; this is not a razor, it's an ax. Only 1,200 half bottles were bottled in January 2014 from a single cask. The price given is for a half bottle, and whether it's expensive or cheap is open for debate, but it's certainly a lot of money. The price of perfection. As a curiosity, if this wine is kept in the fridge, as I've seen with old, high-strength spirits (Malt Whisky again), it becomes cloudy and the nose fells blurry, so you should drink it slightly chilled, at cellar temperature, but without giving it any temperature shocks in the form of ice buckets or refrigerators. This is truly world class. Grab it while (and if) you can! Wine Advocate 100
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