El Candado Pedro Ximénez (Valdespino)
El Candado is Spanish for the padlock, and indeed every bottle comes with a small padlock and two little keys. The idea is that a butt from this solera used to be locked away as someone from the Valdespino family wanted to keep the wine to himself.
Like the Manzanilla Deliciosa, the solera for El Candado used to belong to the almacenista Manuel de Argüeso which was taken over by Valdespino in 1972. It is a fairly simple solera of four stages. The bottled wine is around 8 years old and contains around 420 grams of sugar per liter.
El Candado Pedro Ximénez (18%, Valdespino)
Nose: quite a bright nose, with lots of raisins and figs but in a fruity way rather than the sticky way. Honey and plenty of quince jelly. Some green, leafy notes too, as well as a light woody touch. Light cinnamon.
Mouth: very sweet and onctuous, but again not over the top. Toffee notes, desserts with figs and honey. Guava. Grows slightly darker towards the end, with some Turkish coffee, dark caramel and a light spicy edge (pepper, cardamom). Long finish.
Availability: a bit more difficult than other PXs. Available for around € 20. Also exists in half bottles. If you can’t find it, check The Whisky Exchange for instance, they ship around the world.
Summary: This is among the best affordable Pedro Ximénez. It's very smooth, with decent complexity and a sweetness that's not over the top. The padlock may be a gimmick but the wine is great value.
4
Very good
About the Author
Ruben is a Certified Sherry Educator who fell in love with sherry some 25 years ago, but switched to a higher gear in 2013 and started writing about it. Lived in Madrid for a couple of years, now back in Belgium. I also run a whisky blog over at www.whiskynotes.be
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