I couldn’t find any info online about this Dingle Palo Cortado expression specifically, however, I did find some very interesting information about Palo Cortado sherry itself:
“Palo Cortado is an intermediate type of sherry and probably the most ambiguous of them all. This is fueled by the vague description in the official rules of the Consejo Regulador: it should have the aromatic refinement of Amontillado combined with the structure and body of an Oloroso. In short: Amontillado on the nose, Oloroso in the mouth. Compared to an Amontillado, it will have spent less time under flor (traditionally up to three years, but in fact modern Palo Cortado rarely ages under flor).” – SherryNotes.com
Appearance: Medium gold, lighter than usual for a sherry cask (or, at least the ones that I’ve sampled before). Long silky legs materialise after a short time post-swirl.
Nose: Definitely a sherry influence, quite strong and sharp when nosing close up. Quite an up-front sweet oaky aroma too, very nice.
As the glass matures there’s a struck match smell that comes to the front. Behind that, there are berries, oranges, plum skin and also stewed red apples, skin left on. Above all – struck matches!!!!
Palate: Nice mouthfeel. Still those freshly struck matches! Slight sweetness with chilli heat, quite reminiscent of Fireball Jawbreakers! It’s actually quite hot!
Still the oaky sweetness too, possibly an after taste of the match taste? There’s a metallic taste at the back of the mouth towards the finish.
Finish: Medium in length, the chilli and metallic flavours linger the most. The struck matches are there, but fade quickly.
Overall: Not a fan, sorry Graham (love Dingle in general though!!). There’s just too much chilli and that burning matches taste for me.
