Aromas of raisins and plums, espresso coffee and a touch of liquorice. Sweet and fat on the palate, with lots of dried fruit and more raisins. Distinctive, unique taste with a very cultured PX-influence and just enough bittersweet coffee and caramel to balance well. Well-balanced, long and nutty. Cardenal Mendoza is still made according to the unique traditions specific to Jerez de la Frontera. The grape spirit that lies at the heart of the brandy is distilled from airen grapes, which are harvested at optimum ripeness. The brandy is distilled in copper pot stills, or alquitaras, and the resultant distillate is known as holandas. The first stage in ageing Cardenal Mendoza is to run the new spirit into special 250 litre American oak casks for two years of static ageing. It is then introduced to the dynamic ageing that makes Brandy de Jerez so unique - the system of criaderas y soleras. For Mendoza this means 500 litre casks, which have previously been used for ageing pedro ximenez (PX) and old oloroso wines. The spirit is then continuously blended though the solera process for many years, until it is drawn off for bottling.