León XIII Pedro Ximénez 1878 ‘Vinos Finitos’

González Byass has just released León XIII, a Pedro Ximénez from 1878, selected in honour of the pontificate of Leo 13th. The bodega used to have the tradition of bottling wines for recently elected popes. It was Pedro Nolasco González de Soto, the son of the founder of the bodega, who selected this cask, just like his father did for Pio IX and Pio X (bottled in 2017).

Now, 142 years later, this small cask contained 80 litres of pre-phylloxera PX, resulting in just 78 bottles available on the market as part of the Vinos Finitos series. The wine hasn’t been fortified and comes at a natural strength of merely 9 degrees.

León XIII is available from the González Byass online shop for € 1800.

Tags: 1878, don gonzalo, Gonzalez Byass, Leon XIII, Pedro Ximénez

About the Author

Ruben is a Certified Sherry Educator who fell in love with sherry some 25 years ago, but switched to a higher gear in 2013 and started writing about it. Lived in Madrid for a couple of years, now back in Belgium. I also run a whisky blog over at www.whiskynotes.be