Soberano is produced from Airen grapes grown in the La Mancha region of Spain. Once picked, the Airen grapes are pressed in Gonzalez Byass’ distillery and the best musts are chosen for fermentation. The musts are distilled in column stills where the skilled master distiller selects the central part or “heart” of the “holanda”, discarding the “heads” and “tails”. Blending and Ageing: The selected “holandas” are then aged at the Gonzalez Byass bodega in Jerez. Here younger brandy is carefully blended with an older brandy in each successive Criadera, so that it gradually assumes the characteristics of the oldest and best brandy possible. Perfect on its own, on ice or with a range of mixers.

Tasting notes

Medium topaz color; superb clarity. Smells doughy/ bready / yeasty and a touch sour in the first welcome inhalations; the aroma deepens after further aeration, giving off lovely notes of green pepper, black pepper, and beeswax/paraffin. Entry is intensely grapy and ripe but not overly sweet or thick in texture; mid-palate showcases the grapiness more in a dried out manner than the concentrated, fruity entry and it works, as a result, for the finish, which is medium-long, off-dry, slightly baked, and nutty. Nice job here.