González Byass announces launch of Finos Palmas 2015 range

By Mathew Lyons

Published: 16 November, 2015

González Byass has announced the fifth annual release of its limited edition Finos Palmas wines.

The four-bottle Finos Palmas 2015 range was selected this year by Spanish wine expert, Michael Schachner, a contributing editor for Wine Enthusiast.

Gonzalez Byass has been classifying its best sherries using the palmas system since the 1880s. A palma is a chalk mark made on the barrel to indicate it contains exceptional wine.

One palma means the sherry has been aged for six years, two means eight years, three means 10, and four means at least 40. This year's Cuatro Palmas release has been ageing for 51 years.

All the Finos Palmas releases are bottled en rama and have not been filtered or clarified.

Antonio Flores, master blender at González Byass, said: "As ever, the process of selecting the wines has been fascinating and it was a privilege to be able to have Michael Schachner helping to choose some particularly outstanding wines which highlight the unique evolution of our very best finos through time."

Schachner said: "What an incredible experience this was! Never before had I been invited by a winery to take part in the barrel selection or blending process.

"Usually this is the exclusive domain of the winemaker, but in this case my voice, nose, palate and opinions were taken seriously, with my selections falling very much in line with those of Antonio.

"I lost count along the way, but we must have tasted through nearly 100 barrels to select 33 of our favorites. Then we re-tasted those barrels in order to find the very best lots."

The Finos Palmas range is available now from selected retailers.

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