Ximénez-Spinola Brandy

The Pedro Ximénez grape is sun-dried until it's almost raisined, before being pressed into something so thick and dark it can barely still be called wine. Ximénez-Spinola takes that tradition one step further and distils it into brandy - a rare crossing between Jerez's sweetest dessert wine and a cask-aged spirit. This is dark, sweet alchemy from Andalusia.

Bodegas Ximenez-Spinola Diez Mil Botellas Brandy Sherry 70 cl 40%

Item no.: 22227865464-388

The aroma has unmistakable notes of plums and raisins. The taste is smooth with a slight sweetness that hides the alcohol and gives the brandy a pleasant and rounded aftertaste.

The Ximenez-Spinola winery was founded in 1729 by Phelipe Zarzana Spinola, and from the very beginning it was dedicated to exclusively producing Pedro Ximenez. At the time, the winery bottled the wine under the name Zarzana Spinola, but as this name was a challenge, if not impossible to pronounce in English, a large English customer demanded that they change it to Ximenez - Spinola, which they have since done.
Today, they still make wines exclusively from Pedro Ximenez, and although they are still very traditional in their vinification, they try to experiment with the grape type so that they don't just make sherry. One example is the Late Harvest, which is the only one of its kind in the district.

What makes Spinola Brandy Criaderas exceptional is the use of chestnut barrels during the aging process. Until the Spanish Civil War in 1939, there was a tradition of using chestnut barrels in Spain, but as a large part of the forest areas were cut down during the war, the coopers then increasingly switched to using American oak and eventually stopped using chestnut wood altogether. The barrels at Bodegas Spinola are all a minimum of 70 years old and therefore only release a very limited amount of tannin, which gives the brandy a rounder and softer flavor.

Vinification
The wine that is distilled is taken from a Solera that was started in 1984. It is distilled on a pot still before the spirit is poured into used chestnut wood barrels where it is aged for a minimum of 12 years

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About Ximénez-Spinola

Ximénez-Spinola Brandy comes from the Jerez region and is built on the Pedro Ximénez grape, known for producing one of the world's sweetest and most concentrated dessert wines. For the newcomer it's an unusual, deep and sweet brandy experience; for the connoisseur, the interest lies in the crossing of two traditions itself - the Pedro Ximénez grape's sun-dried sweetness and brandy's cask-aged complexity create a spirit hard to find an equivalent to anywhere else in the world.

History & Background

For centuries, the Pedro Ximénez grape has been the very foundation of the Jerez region's sweetest dessert wines, where the grapes are sun-dried for several weeks after harvest to concentrate the sugar content, before being pressed and fermented into a thick, dark wine. The Ximénez-Spinola house has taken this tradition further by distilling the grape into brandy, a rare approach combining the region's classic grape variety with brandy's cask-ageing technique. The result is a spirit that draws directly on Jerez's long dessert wine heritage, but presents it in an entirely different, cask-aged form.

Production & Style

The brandy is distilled from grape wine and matured in a solera system in former sherry casks, giving it a distinctive sweetness and depth from casks that previously held Pedro Ximénez.

Signature Style

Sweet, Deep, Raisiny
Expect raisin, dried fig, and a deep, sherry-inflected sweetness from the re-used casks.

Facts

Bodega	Ximénez-Spinola
Pronounced	hee-MEN-ez spee-NOH-lah
Region	Jerez
Country	Spain
Owner	Family-owned
Raw material	Grape wine
Official website	ximenezspinola.com

Did You Know?

Just like sherry itself, Brandy de Jerez must be matured under the solera system within the demarcated Jerez area to carry the name, regardless of where the grapes originally come from.

Like Ximénez-Spinola? You should also try:

Maraska Brandy.