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Showing posts from November, 2013

A Century of PX

Toro Albala Don PX Montill-Morilles, with Antonio Sagata   Last Wednesday morning was perhaps the most hedonistic of my life, thanks to a tasting of some of the sweetest wines in the world, spanning a hundred years.  A recent 100 point score, in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, for one of these wines just put the whole region of Montilla-Morilles in the spotlight so I was eager to find out more for myself. Coming to Andalucia in the 16th Century, the Pedro Ximenez grape (PX) has long been grown in Montilla-Morilles. Toro Albala was established in 1844 and like the other wineries in the region it sold its PX in bulk to Jerez, for use in sweetening their Sherries.   In 1950, Toro Albala decided instead to raise the quality and start to bottle the wines themselves.  This proved successful and the business soon outgrew its original premises.  Production was moved to the local disused electrical power station and their Fino became known locally as ‘Electrico’ or ‘High Voltage’!