This year's Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Trophy for Spanish Fortified over £15 went to Bodegas Robles, PX Selección, Montilla-Moriles NV (15%)
Tasted against:
- Gonzalez Byass, Finca Moncloa Tintilla de Rota, Cádiz 2011
Profile:
‘As a child, I can remember the journeys we made with my parents, who used their holiday time to sell our bodega’s wines the length and breadth of the country,’ recalls Francisco Robles, third generation of the Robles family. ‘It was then, surrounded by carafes and bottles, in those lost taverns in remote and wonderful little villages scattered throughout the Spanish landscape of the 1970s and ’80s, that I learned to love and appreciate the world of wine.’
Montilla-Moriles is essentially fortified wine country, and it was Francisco’s grandparents, Antonio and Pilar, who established Bodegas Robles here in 1927. This organic Trophy-winner not only represents the year of the bodega’s founding, but also reflects the fact that it is made from a solera that was started in the same year – a real taste of history.
Once harvested, the bunches of Pedro Ximénez grapes are left to dry on mats in the sun. Every day they are carefully turned so each side of the berry receives an equal amount of exposure. Once they have reached a level of sweetness that will result in a wine of at least 300g/l residual sugar, the grapes are pressed and the must is fortified to 9% alcohol before fermentation.
This is the bodega’s top wine, with an annual production of just 600 bottles.
Written by Decanter
