Palo cortado: the accidental sherry

Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia

Palo cortado is the rarest and most mysterious style of sherry — it begins life as fino (with flor yeast protection) but at some point during aging, the flor dies without the winemaker's deliberate intervention, and the wine continues its life as an oxidatively-aged wine. The result is a wine that has the delicacy and finesse of amontillado combined with the weight and intensity of oloroso — a combination that cannot be deliberately produced, only discovered. The name comes from the symbol cut into the barrel when the wine transitions — a stroke through the palo (stick) indicating the flor has fallen. Genuinely traditional palo cortado is extremely rare; most commercial examples are blended amontillado-oloroso combinations that approximate the style without the genuine accident.