Tres Cortados Medium Dry (Valdespino)
Tres Cortados would indicate it’s a Palo Cortado type of wine, old enough to get three signs. This seems a bit odd: Palo Cortado is not cheap, let alone really old Palo Cortado. It is also rare, so why is this available in whole litre bottles for just € 13?
The reason for this seems to be that it has now been transformed into a wine that is not entirely Palo Cortado any more. Maybe at some point it was considered over-aged and it has been blended with a younger, sweet wine, or a whole series of different wines, to form an off-sweet blend that only has a portion of the original aged wine in the mix.
Tres Cortados Medium Dry (17,5%, Valdespino)
Nose: a rather dark, toasted nose, very nutty, with some savoury / sulphury elements and quite a lot of dried porcini. Hazelnuts, caramel and mocha. Underneath are sweet and sour traces of raspberries and prunes.
Mouth: not very intense and surprisingly dry. It seems touched by some sweetness but this is not what modern Medium sherry is usually about. Again quite savoury with a fairly low acidity. Nutty notes, hints of smoke and espresso, mixed with plum juice and hints of Black Forest cake. Orange peel. Like a lighter version of an Oloroso Dulce.
Availability: not seen too often and apparently only available in 1 litre bottles. Quite cheap, around € 13.
Summary: This wine is surprisingly difficult to classify. It's seems fairly light-bodied and less sweet than other Mediums. There's something really old (or rather old-style) to it, a Palo Cortado kept upright by the sweeter components.