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Deeply shocked and saddened by the death of Paco de Lucía yesterday. I had the great privilege of seeing him perform live twice, here in Sevilla, and I was hoping I might get a chance to see him a third time at this year’s Bienal de Flamenco. Such a irreparable loss, the world is a much emptier place now.
Adiós maestro, descanse en paz.
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I saw the mapping a couple of weeks ago but arrived too late to get a good vantage point for a video. Made it back for the final showing last night and went up to the new BOSTON cocktail bar to watch it again and make this. Happily did not drop iPhone off the balcony.
How do you think it compares to last year’s mapping? I kind of missed the “snow”.
I am very excited to have been invited to tonight’s Finos Palmas tasting event in Sevilla, which will also be live-streaming in Madrid, Barcelona and Jerez, starting at 19.00 Spanish time. This is the third year that Gonzalez Byass has done the limited edition Palmas bottlings and, like their Tío Pepe en Rama, these wines have become very trendy. As they are bottled direct from the cask, with no filtering or refining, this means that the wine is best drunk within six months.
Initiallly destined for Tío Pepe these specially chosen casks were judged to have potential for extra ageing. Finos Palmas casks are marked with a vertical chalk line and the number of “palm branches” proportional to its age. These elegant old finos have been selected cask by cask by Gonzalez Byass winemaker and master blender Antonio Flores in collaboration with Master of Wine Sarah Jane Evans.
Fino Una Palma is an evolved fino with six years of biological ageing under a still active covering of flor. From a solera of 142 casks only three casks (numbers 1, 9 and 11) have been selected.
Fino Dos Palmas has been ageing over eight years in contact with a thinner layer of active flor on the surface. From the solera of 150 casks, only two (numbers 7 and 26) show this distinctive feature.
Fino Tres Palmas comes from a single cask (number 30) out of a 150 casks solera, and after ageing for 10 years still preserves traces of live flor that continue to permeate the wine.
Fino Cuarto Palmas is the jewel of the Solera Museo, containing just six casks (this year only number 3 was chosen). It is an extraordinary and very limited edition 45-year-old amontillado.
Finos Palmas 2013 LiveStreaming from 19.00h (Spanish time)
Twitter hashtag: #FinosPalmas
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An introduction to Finos Palmas by winemaker-poet Antonio Flores
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Taken on a rainy and windy night (apologies for dodgy sound)
Showing in Plaza San Francisco until December 31st.
Monday to Thursday at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm
Friday to Sunday 7pm, 8pm, 9pm and 10pm.
Here’s last year’s mapping – the first one.
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[click on the captions button to see English subtitles]
An interesting short documentary about the death of traditional Spanish bars in Madrid.
Is Sevilla following suit? Is the square plate to blame?