Valdespino Quina Aperitivo Jerezano CRV5 with a pronounced saline streak

with a pronounced saline streak and the structure to age a decade or more

the palate bursts with sweet/sour morello cherries and hints of spices

it's delicate

above an old limestone quarry whose stone helped rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake

so it's a small thrill that one of the most interesting bottles in the range comes from somewhere else entirely

Valdespino Quina Aperitivo Jerezano CRV5 with a pronounced saline streakBefore quinine ended up in tonic water, it went into wine. Quina is that older tradition: a Jerez wine base, fortified and steeped with cinchona bark and a cast of botanicals until it turns bittersweet and pleasantly medicinal. Valdespino's version comes from one of the oldest houses in Jerez and it tastes like it, with real sherry character underneath the bitterness, all dried fruit and nutty depth, and a quinine edge that snaps the whole thing back