Alvear 'Solera 1927' Pedro Ximénez

Profile & Story

Founded in 1729 by Diego de Alvear y Escalera, Bodegas Alvear is Spain's oldest continuously operating family-owned winery and the oldest in Andalucía. The estate is located in the D.O. Montilla-Moriles region south of Córdoba, an area with an extreme continental Mediterranean climate quite different from the Atlantic-influenced climate of nearby Jerez; unlike Jerez, fortification during biological aging under the velo de flor is not practiced (and is legally prohibited) in Montilla-Moriles. Alvear specializes in vinos generosos made from Pedro Ximénez, a grape that can naturally reach 15-16% alcohol on the vine, and was the first Spanish producer to release a vintage-dated Pedro Ximénez sweet wine and a vintage-dated Fino en Rama. Solera 1927, the family's most iconic sweet Pedro Ximénez, is made from 100% Pedro Ximénez grapes grown on roughly 125 hectares of estate vineyards in the Sierra de Montilla de Calidad Superior, from old, head-trained vines farmed sustainably without organic certification but without the use of harmful fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, or irrigation. The grapes are harvested green and sun-dried on straw mats for a week before being pressed in a traditional olive-oil press; the resulting must is fortified to 16% ABV and aged for an average of 30 years through a solera and criaderas system, the solera itself having been founded in 1927, the wine's namesake year.