Lustau VORS 30 Year Old Amontillado Sherry
Jerez Amontillado
NV

The producer

Founded in 1896 by Don Jose Ruiz-Berdejo. Lustau was an almacenista (small sherry wholesaler) in the early years, and it was not until the 1950s that the company became Emilio Lustau SA, and started bottling and selling their own wines. In 1990, Lustau was bought by the Louis Caballero group. Bodega Lustau is widely considered one of the finest producers in Jerez, and has over the years won many awards, including oenologist Manuel Lozano being named the world’s best fortified wine maker for the fifth year in a row in 2014.

Lustau is especially famous for the “Almacenista” range of wines, which they introduced in the 1980s, and which consists in buying and maturing casks from small bodegas and then later bottling and releasing them with the original bodega name on the label. Altogether, Lustau’s range is vast, covering all sherry styles, and with over 15,000 casks maturing in their cellars.

The wine

The Lustau VORS 30 Year Old Amontillado Sherry is a highly selective and limited sherry, originating from a meticulous selection process by former cellar master Manuel Lozano. Matured in the Sacristía, this Amontillado is drawn from just eight casks, making it exceptionally rare with only 900 bottles released in 2021. It boasts classic old Amontillado characteristics like butterscotch, walnuts, and almonds, complemented by iodine, leather, curry spice, and candied orange peel. On the palate, it offers a dry, saline, and sharply acidic profile with flavors of olives, spices, and salted caramel, leading to a long, piercing finish.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.