Bodegas Alvear do not make Sherry. They make wines that taste a lot like sherry, look a lot like sherry and are as good as any sherry we have ever tasted, but these are wines from Montilla, some two and a half hours drive north east of Jerez. Alvear’s Solera 1927 (which contains some wines from before the Wall Street Crash) tastes like all your Christmases have arrived at once. A naturally sweet wine with a nose reminiscent of prunes and chocolate. This sumptuous wine has rich and concentrated fruit on the palate with a full, seemingly unending finish.

Perfect with Christmas cake or Christmas pudding style desserts.

'The impressive 1927 Pedro Ximenez Solera, from a Solera begun nearly 80 years ago, boasts a dark amber color as well as an extraordinary nose of creme brulee, liquefied nuts, marmalade, and maple syrup. Huge and viscous, yet neither cloyingly sweet nor heavy, it is a profound effort priced unbelievably low. It is meant to be drunk alone at the end of a meal.'
96pts, Robert Parker 2005