Autumn is my favorite season. I just love everything about it – the sweaters that return like long lost friends, the changing colors of the landscape with colors so bright I am convinced they were created by an artist’s brush and heartier dishes that fill the house with savory aromas. Since beginning my career as a consultant at Sokolin, I have a new reason for anticipating the season – the rich, sweet wines I enjoy more when the temperatures are a bit chilly like the .
On a recent Sunday, after attending a fall festival at an outdoor history museum and miles of walking, my husband and I settled in for a quiet evening. We dined on a winter vegetable stew from earlier in the week, the kind of dish that just gets better and better with a few days in the fridge. Since it was still early enough to embark on a bit of baking, I decided to make a chocolate spice cake, a recipe I found online that claimed to be very close to one served at a very well known coffee retailer. The recipe was everything I hoped for and proved to be the perfect accompaniment to the first bottle of we opened this season. And like those aforementioned sweaters, it was like an old friend!
Rich, sweet flavors like raisins steeped in honey with essence of walnuts and a dash of spices, the 1927 Alvear Solera Pedro Ximenez is an experience! And it should be as the process began for it almost 80 years ago. Grapes are hand harvested at the peak of maturity from 40-year-old vines that grow in the chalky soils of Albariza. The fruit is then dried on straw mats until the flavors concentrate. The juice is then added to barrels that were first filled in 1927 and have been replenished continuously ever since. The barrels are housed in one white-washed bodega, equivalent to the size of two or three barn stalls, which has the tangy aroma of old wood saturated with the dark golden brown nectar. This is a labor of love and one that results from a dedication to tradition and history.
Robert Parker rates the 1927 Alvear Solera Pedro Ximenez 96 points and refers to it as a ‘profound effort’ to which I would agree. He recommends it alone, in place of a dessert, though there I will differ with him. It is perfect with dessert and on what I hope will be a gloriously beautiful autumn day, it will be served with a burnt almond cake at the wedding of my daughter. It is, indeed, special enough for this occasion and I assure you, special enough to gift or serve to the special people in your life. No one will ever guess that you obtained a Solera worthy of a fairy tale wedding for just $19.95!