Bodega San Francisco Javier Fino Vina Corrales Pago Balbaina (2022 Release)

Golden hay-like colour, notably richer than mass-produced styles of Fino. The nose is a delight, with perfumed aromatics of camomile, cherry blossom and almonds. Thanks to the en rama nature of contact with the lees and the absence of fining, there is a creamy palate that finishes with a moreish lick.

96/100 - The NV Fino Viña Corrales Pago Balbaína bottled in May 2022 shows different from the 2021 bottling, as the wine is influenced by the dry year and has more smokiness, flintstone and yeasty aromas. This is round and lush, with a buttery sensation in the texture and the textbook notes of esparto grass and wet chalk. The finish is bone-dry, tasty and almost salty. They are also adding the wine from Viña Corrales in Balbaína. I also sampled the wine from the solera as it is now, and it's impressive how the wine seems to have changed in one year and how the influence of the different yeasts is noticeable on the nose, with the influence of the Beticus yeasts in the smokiness. The 2022 saca contains 7,900 bottles. - Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate

94/100 - The effect of Peter Sisseck's announcement in 2017 that Sherry was the finest white wine in Spain, and that he was investing in a bodega and a vineyard, was electric. Here was a maker of top fine wines cheering for Jerez. His wisely chosen adviser? The wonder-worker from Sanlúcar, Ramiro Ibáñez. And the wine? About eight years old, bottled like a white Burgundy, saline, yeasty from flor, savoury, with dried herbs and a brisk dry finish. - Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter