1943 Toro Albala Don PX Gines Liebana 750ml, Montilla-Moriles Andalucia

From one of the most extraordinary corners of the Toro Albalá cellars, the 1943 Don PX Ginés Liébana is less a wine and more a piece of living history. Named after the surrealist artist who collaborated with the estate, it comes from ancient casks where Pedro Ximénez has been quietly concentrating for decades, turning sun dried fruit into something almost impossibly layered.

The aromatics are vast and hypnotic. Raisin, fig and date roll straight into molasses, espresso and bitter dark chocolate, then keep going, burnt orange peel, walnut, antique wood, old leather, even a flicker of balsamic and spice. It’s the kind of nose you keep returning to because it never quite sits still.

It moves with weight but not heaviness. Thick, viscous, almost syrup like, yet somehow lifted. The sweetness is huge but beautifully controlled, balanced by a gentle bitterness and a thread of freshness that stops it from collapsing in on itself. Flavours of toffee, coffee, caramelised nuts and spice seem to echo long after the glass is down.

This is where you can have some fun. Forget safe pairings. Try it with a slab of aged pecorino and honeycomb, or pour it over a scoop of burnt butter ice cream with sea salt. It’s wild with a sticky date pudding drenched in toffee sauce, but just as good alongside a plate of roasted figs, mascarpone and crushed amaretti. Even something like a dark chocolate and olive oil cake or a few squares of 90 percent cacao with toasted hazelnuts will push it into another gear.

Fully mature and essentially timeless, it will keep going for years once opened if stored well, though it rarely lasts that long once people realise what’s in the glass.

There’s a sense of theatre here, a wine that feels less like something you drink and more like something you experience.