Williams Palo Cortado en Rama 2002 50 cl

The first Palo Cortado from the Colección Añada series is the 2002 Colección Añada Palo Cortado en Rama, as they did single casks from 1966, 1998 and 2000 in the past. This 2002 was classified as Palo Cortado in 2019 and comes from an oxidative wine that had unusual finesse (for many, this is the real style of Palo Cortado), with a silky character, really elegant and aromatic. This feels young, but it's already 17 years old and feels full of energy and life, with plenty of character. It's incredibly delicate and long, with very good grip. Up until 2012, they fortified their oxidative wines to 18%, but from that year on, they only fortify them to 15.5% but the barrels are topped up, which gives more possibilities for wines like this or for more wines that can be classified in different types. This is super expressive and elegant, and aging has concentrated the acidity (it has a pH of 2.9 and 6.3 grams of tartaric acid per liter, really healthy parameters). What I tasted was from a bottling of January 2019, when they filled 1,500 half-liter bottles, which is the size of bottle now used for the whole Colección Añada (or Vintage Collection) series. In general, Palo Cortado wines at this quality level are older and more concentrated, most of them more structured and oxidative. A unique Palo Cortado, all about finesse. Again, single-harvest wines age at a faster pace than a solera.