In the hot, dry, inland climate and sandy soils of Montilla-Morilés, Pedro Ximénez is the only grape variety tough enough to thrive. It doesn’t like fermenting to dryness, and always tries to keep back some residual sugar, but it can be used to make phenomenal sweet wines. Toro Albalá have been on the scene since 1844. In their first incarnation, they kept a small wine cellar inside an old windmill where they made wines to be served in the family tavern. A few generations later, in 1922, they were formally (re)founded as a proper winery in the tunnels of an old power station. Their third lease of life arrived in the 1970s, when the redoubtable Antonio Sánchez took over. His search for a distinct personality for the bodega led to them becoming the world’s only specialist in vintage-dated Pedro Ximénez.

The fruit is harvested in August and then laid out on mats for three weeks to partially dry, at which stage it is pressed and the thick, unctuous juice starts its long journey into wine. A slow fermentation is followed by extended maturation. In the tunnel-like cellars under the winery, there is a huge stock of old vintages slowly maturing. Preserved by sugar as much as by alcohol, these wines will have an extremely long life. They remain sweet with age, but also acquire haunting levels of complexity. (NT 11/10/23)