Tío Pancho Romano. PHOTO: José Luis López de Zubiría.

Patience is often the key to success. One must have a vision to present an innovation to society in the exact moment when it can be assimilated and evolved. One should have the perspective to wait and Pass on to future generations stories told in just a sip.

Pancho Romano was someone who had this vision and patience to wait and whose identity we may never know. Tio Pancho Romano has taken his place among us since a few months ago.

We have achieved the impossible with him, we have travelled back to a time before the existence of soleras, a time when the barrels where fortified to protect the wine during transatlantic voyages, a time when the bota (the traditional wine skin) bored the of the family, a time when nothing was as seen, a time that fed stories instead of food and in which a bite did not fed the mind rather than the stomach.

This is an example of how reliques should be in the right hands, first by bodegas rivero and after by Gonzalez Byass, in 1871 when it has already been an old wine for quite sometime. Next year, when  Mugaritz marks its 20^th anniversary Tio Pancho  will be 290 old. But eternity has an end, because the atmosphere steals 4% of the barrel each year for itself. If it was a dry wine Tio Pancho Romano would be a thing of the past, but as it is sweet this sherry is an ancient story living in the present.

“Since 290 years ago this bota has been handed down from generation to generation, who have lovingly cared for it always with an eye on the future. It’s an authentic pleasure to be able to count upon this.” explains Guillermo Cruz, head sommelier at Mugaritz.

A liquid and solid which neither of which are quite so. All of the value and priceless.