Rich and concentrated with coffee and caramel flavors in a balanced presentation. Picks up a grilled nut accent on the finish. Solid and complex, but not cloying.
Very deep, figgy nose. Black pepper, coffee and chocolate notes. Fresh and alive with mature, caramel-tinged prune fruit. Silver, DWWA 2011, Decanter World Wine Awards
90 POINTS
2017 - Decanter World Wine Awards
Raisin, figs, heaps of chocolate, coffee, christmas cake, molasses, firewood, roasted walnuts come through to a long nutty and raisined finish.
Award: Silver - DWWA 2017
Wine Spectator
Unctuous, with buckwheat and maple notes out front, followed by prune, chocolate, fruitcake and licorice snap accents that show good energy through the bramble-edged finish. A bit obvious due to the sweetness, but balanced by range and freshness.
Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The dark amber-hued non-vintage East India Solera is essentially an old Oloroso blended with an old Pedro Ximenez, which gives it a sweet character. It offers more mature notes of maple syrup, brown sugar, spice box, raisin and chocolate beer nuts, and its terrific balancing acidity cuts through the sweetness. This delicious effort is best drunk after the meal.
Lustau made its reputation in the foreign markets with its extraordinary single cask Almacenistas which had been accumulated by the family over many years as their soleras are among the oldest in Sherry. The family also owns over 500 acres of vineyards. These are all remarkable efforts for their stunning value. While they are still under-the-radar for most American wine lovers, I encourage readers to give them a try as they are great introductory reference points for how profound sherry can be. I first wrote about the extraordinary sherries of Emilio Lustau many years ago, in the early days of The Wine Advocate. The portfolio of under $25 a bottle selections represents remarkable value for their complex, well-made personalities. Lustau includes a bottling date code as purchasers would want to buy Finos and Manzanillas as young as possible. It is difficult to describe the glories of sherry, but I’ll try. These Solera Reservas are all great reference points at a low price point from Lustau. None of the Almacenista soleras, which are single cask and very limited bottlings, are reviewed since they are priced over $25 a bottle, but they can be as profound as any alcoholic beverage in the world.
Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Readers looking for something weighty, sweet, and provocative should check out the non-vintage East India Solera. A blend of soleras averaging 15 to 50 years of age, it boasts a dark amber color as well as a huge nose of melted toffee, caramel, figs, and prunes. This over-the-top yet surprisingly vibrant (because of good acidity) effort is best drunk as dessert at the end of a meal.
Robert Parker - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The dark amber-hued non-vintage East India Solera is essentially an old Oloroso blended with an old Pedro Ximenez, which gives it a sweet character. It offers more mature notes of maple syrup, brown sugar, spice box, raisin and chocolate beer nuts, and its terrific balancing acidity cuts through the sweetness. This delicious effort is best drunk after the meal. Lustau made its reputation in the foreign markets with its extraordinary single cask Almacenistas which had been accumulated by the family over many years as their soleras are among the oldest in Sherry. The family also owns over 500 acres of vineyards. These are all remarkable efforts for their stunning value. While they are still under-the-radar for most American wine lovers, I encourage readers to give them a try as they are great introductory reference points for how profound sherry can be. I first wrote about the extraordinary sherries of Emilio Lustau many years ago, in the early days of The Wine Advocate.
Luis Gutierrez - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The NV East India Solera is a Cream, a category I have not really covered in this article, which is a blend of 12-year-old Don Nuno Oloroso (80%) and San Emilio PX which is also about 12 years old, blended and aged together for a further three years in a special, slightly warmer part of the winery which replicates perhaps the character of the wines that traveled by boat to India or elsewhere. Mahogany colored with a green-amber edge, it has the nose of an old wine with notes of antique shop, wax, shoe polish, noble wood, and a touch of spices, dates and prunes, all of it very well integrated. The palate is spicy and sweet (it has 130 grams of sugar) again very integrated. At this price level it represents good value and should go well with cheeses. Drink 2013-2020. Emilio Lustau is one of the better internationally known names in the Sherry world, which is quite remarkable, as they have never been a very big operation. In fact they can be considered a small- to medium-sized bodega for Sherry; they were selling around 350,000 bottles per year. Furthermore, when more and more bodegas and important names have disappeared, been bought and sold, brands and soleras acquired by big drink corporations, Brandy or other businesses cannibalizing wine in some of the bigger companies, it’s(m(more...)
