Equipo Navazos La Bota 43 Brandy

Bottled in 2013. This stunning spirit is the follow-up bottling to La Bota No. 29 and the second of three barrels to be bottled two years apart.

The age of the liquid at bottling was 13 years, with the last three years of aging undertaken in an old Manzanilla cask of Rey Fernando de Castilla in El Puerto de Santa María. This edition is from a single cask and the totality of the butt has been bottled, so that each of the 500ml bottles is indeed a jewel of limited production and availability, and strictly unrepeatable.

Like its predecessor, this must be tasted to be believed. So floral, so pure, so complex and so intense, this is a spirit that will amaze (and possibly trouble!) even the finest Cognac producers. Compared to its sibling No. 29, edition number 43 is two years older. Its finesse is evident in a side-by-side comparison—it’s more harmonious and less marked by fruit presence (however, if tasted next to the best Brandy de Jerez of other producers, both 29 and 43 share a remarkable degree of sophistication as opposed to spirits with traditionally enhanced sweetness and intensity).