Shop/Dessert & Fortified/Williams & Humbert 'Don Zoilo' Palo Cortado Sherry
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Williams & Humbert 'Don Zoilo' Palo Cortado Sherry
Williams & Humbert
Aged 15 years — palo cortado from one of Jerez's most prestigious houses.
$56.00
750mlVintage may change. If it does, we’ll notify you of any price adjustment before dispatch.
About
Williams & Humbert's Don Zoilo Palo Cortado spends a minimum of 15 years ageing through the traditional Criaderas y Soleras system. Made by selecting the finest soleras and vintages — wines that combine the finesse of an Amontillado on the nose with the body and structure of an Oloroso on the palate. Old gold colour, intense complex aromatics, toasted nuts and hazelnuts. Dry, silky, full-bodied with balanced acidity and a long expressive finish.
The base wine comes from Pago Añina and Pago Carrascal, two of the classic vineyard sites in Jerez Superior. Their soil is albariza, a chalky white clay that holds winter rain through the region's long dry summer and keeps the vines going without irrigation.
Palo cortado starts out fortified to around 18 degrees, like a fino, and ages for a time under a cap of flor yeast. When that flor dies back, the wine shifts to open, oxidative ageing more like an oloroso. That switch partway through is where its dual character comes from, and why Williams & Humbert blends only its finest soleras into it.
Serve it at 12 to 14 degrees in a decent-sized glass so the aromatics have room to open. It holds its own as a sipping sherry, or alongside Iberian ham, aged cheese or anything built around mushroom.
Producer note
Bodegas Williams & Humbert was founded in 1877 by Sir Alexander Williams and Arthur Humbert and is one of the most prestigious sherry producers in Jerez. The Don Zoilo range, launched in the 1960s, sits at the premium end of their portfolio — all aged a minimum of 15 years.
Structure
Flavour
Picked on Stef's structure profile.
