“Botas NO”, saca of February, 2022
30 y.o. vinegar – D.O. Vinagre de Jerez Reserva
10% acetic acid
37,5cl
Páez Morilla
Jerez de la Frontera
1,600 bottles
This is a younger “brother” of the very old vinegar (La Bota de Vinagre de Jerez Gran Reserva 106 “Bota NO”) that we bottled in the summer of 2021. But what a younger brother: being thirty years old, as a result of adding the age of the wine and the aging period as vinegar, it is obviously also very old and could more than comfortably display the Gran Reserva label. However, we have preferred to label it simply as Reserve to mark distance between both editions.
La Bota de Vinagre de Jeres Reserva 112 “Botas Punta” is made with wine that was initially 15 years old. Then, along another fifteen years the alcohol has gradually become acetic acid. Its content of acetic acid is above 10 per cent, only surpassed among the vinegars available on the market by its predecessor and older brother, and it also maintains some degrees of alcohol. For this saca, we have selected some botas de punta or butts located at the extreme of the row, belonging to the solera immediately prior to the individual cask that we bottled as No. 106. A little over a hundred liters have been extracted from each of them.
Compared to the seven or eight per cent of acetic acid that the oldest and noblest vinegars on the market usually have, here we are above ten. Again, it does not reach the tremendous concentration of La Bota 106, but it is still a beast, with the obvious advantage of a more friendly price. An exceptional vinegar that we recommend stocking up for intensive use at home and to give as a present to gourmet friends.
Vinegars like this are often used to impart character to younger ones, but in this case we has bottled it as is, without watering it down at all. Very dry, of course, as is typical of true Sherry vinegar. Ideal for perfuming dishes with just a few drops, a small amount will usually suffice as a dressing. Another interesting option can be to prepare a mixture of sherry (it can be very old, but also a young amontillado, or even a fino) and this vinegar in a small jar; for example, 1/4 of the first and 3/4 of the second. Or it can be used less sparingly: a marinade or escabeche prepared entirely with this vinegar will be awesome.