- Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

Equipo Navazos keeps churning out bottlings of incredible wines of high-quality sherries. I had not tasted their wines for a while, so there were a lot of wines to taste. During the pandemic years, they celebrated their 15th anniversary and 100th new wine (either with a new name or a new vintage). I have now tasted up to their 118th wine... They have been really influential, almost inventing and recovering styles and a type of project that others are now following. They have also branched into more spirits, vermouth and even vinegar, which I didn't taste!

Amontillado constitutes a vital part of Equipo Navazos’ history: the “La Bota” lineage began with an amontillado in 2005, and they have bottled an additional five “Navazos”-designated amontillados since then—including this, the first in the series to hail from Montilla-Moriles. In their words, a “Navazos”-designated amontillado must “represent the ideal balance between complexity and freshness that in our opinion makes amontillado the king of wines.” La Bota #117 comprises casks of Pedro Ximénez from the Altos de Moriles zone which began life at a prestigious bodega in Lucena—first long-aged as a fino then briefly as an amontillado—and which were thereafter refined and finished at the Pérez Barquero estate. With an average wine age of over 20 years, #117 is palate-commandingly intense and layered, yet with a sense of brightness and delicacy—partly a result of its modest-for-the-category alcohol level of 18%, derived through the slow oxidation and concentration of its unfortified component wines. Bottled October 2022; 3,200 bottles produced.