Equipo Navazos La Bota 94 Oloroso Viejisimo “Mas alla del NO” (375ml)

Equipo Navazos is perhaps the most significant thing to have happened in the world of Sherry for a very long time. It has some of the most influential people in the fine wine world raving about the quality of these wines, and they are talking about the quality first and the fact that they are Sherries second. These are wines to make Sherry sexy again. They are also as rare as hens’ teeth and are being sought after with the same urgency that wealthy Burgundy collectors seek out the wines of DRC or the greatest Montrachet. This makes sense: these wines are every bit as profound, deep, long and complex as any bottle of DRC (and that is no insult to DRC!)

The Navazos Sherries are drawn from several bodegas, and represent a variety of styles: Manzanilla, Fino, Palo Cortado, Oloroso, Pedro Ximénez, Cream and even a brandy. The wines are bottled in limited series, in successive numbered editions, dated and named “La Bota de….” (the cask of…). The date of each saca, or racking, has been precisely stated on the label so that it is possible to compare editions of the same solera. This also enables precise tracking of the evolution of the wines, as these wines are expected to evolve in the bottle (it’s Sherry, but not as we know it). These are once off bottlings and once the bottles for each La Bota… release are spoken for, there are no more.

This is an extremely old and powerful sherry that belongs to the same category as the noblest relics of the Sherry world, including Navazos No. 5 “NPI”, No. 14 Oloroso, No. 47 Palo Cortado and No. 49 Amontillado, among others. Just 750 half bottles were filled from a single butt of very old Oloroso raised by Eduardo Ojeda in Jerez. It is a double NO, or ‘cask beyond’, meaning that it contains an even older wine than the respective Bota NO. Not only is the age of this release clearly extreme—something close to 80 or 90 years—this is the first time the solera has been commercially bottled in over 20 years!

Other Reviews....
The unique NV La Bota de Oloroso Más allá del NO 94 comes from a single butt of extremely old Oloroso from Valdespino. It's a wine that goes beyond the Bota NO concept, because it's an even older wine that has the signs of very old wine, with extreme concentration, evaporation and high alcohol and acidity. Often such wines are too much, and the rarity is to find a wine where you can mention elegance, as they can be aggressive (and sometimes even painful). This has notes of iodine, coconut, varnish and liqueur, finishing dry and long. Not long, eternal... They bottled 75 half bottles produced. Drink 2022 - 2050.
99 points
Luis Gutiérrez - Wine Advocate (Sep 2022)