Cardenal Mendoza Carta Real Solera Gran Reserva

Description

Cardenal Mendoza Carta Real Solera Gran Reserva is a Spanish Brandy, a Brandy de Jerez which is aged through a Solera system. It is the big brother to the Cardenal Mendoza Solera Gran Reserva which has has become the family’s flagship brand, although their Sherries follow closely behind!

Bodegas Sanchez Romate is a high quality producer of both Sherry wines and Brandy de Jerez. The company was established by Juan Sánchez de la Torre in 1781 to produce fine wines. Over two hundred years later Sanchez Romate is one of the oldest bodegas in Spain and one of the remaining wineries in the Jerez Designation of Origin that remains under independent family ownership. A brandy was first produced in 1887. Regulated under the strict auspices of the Consejo Regulador – the Brandy de Jerez regulatory body – and the even stricter controls of the bodegas of Sanchez Romate itself, the Cardenal Mendoza brand surpasses these regulations with ease, making it one of the greatest and most sought after brandies in its category.

Cardenal Mendoza brandy is still made according to the unique traditions specific to Jerez de la Frontera. The first stage in ageing Cardenal Mendoza is to run the new spirit into special 250 litre American oak casks for two years of static ageing. It is then introduced to the dynamic ageing that makes Brandy de Jerez so special, the system of criaderas y soleras. For Romate this means using 500 litre casks, which have previously been used for ageing Pedro Ximénez (PX) and old Oloroso Sherry wines. The spirit is then continuously blended though the solera process for many years, until it is drawn off for bottling. In this case the average age of the brandy is around 30 years old.

Cardenal Mendoza Carta Real was created with the purpose of satisfying the most demanding brandy consumers. In 1981, with its eyes set on the new millennium, Sanchez Romate set aside a reserve of their Cardenal Mendoza brandy (which is normally bottled at around 15 years old). This brandy has remained under the constant attention of its foremen since then. Time has created a unique brandy. The presentation of the brandy is sober and elegant like a “Carta Real” (royal letter).

Presented in exclusive numbered and screen-printed bottles, with a Riedel brandy glass.