Fortified wines get forgotten in the summer. As temperatures rise, we instinctively reach for crisp whites, rosé, or beer, while bottles of Port, Sherry, and Madeira remain firmly associated with winter indulgence.

Yet this broad and diverse category extends far beyond rich, sweet after-dinner wines.

Many of its finest expressions are dry, savoury, and refreshingly high in acidity, making them ideal aperitifs and remarkably versatile partners at the table.

Unsurprisingly, most originate in some of Europe's hottest wine-growing regions, where locals have long enjoyed them alongside simple seasonal dishes.

Here's where to start.

White Port, Portugal

Cocktail lovers would do well to rediscover White Port. Produced in Portugal's Douro Valley from indigenous grape varieties such as Gouveio and Malvasia Fina, fermentation is stopped by the addition of aguardente, a neutral grape spirit, preserving natural grape sugar and raising the alcohol to around 20%.

The result is a wine with ripe stone fruit flavours, dried herbs, and subtle nutty complexity from barrel ageing.

Served chilled, it makes an excellent aperitif in its own right.

Better still, try the Porto Tónico, Portugal's favourite summer serve.

Mix one part White Port with two parts tonic water over plenty of ice, then garnish with a wedge of citrus, a slice of peach, and a sprig of mint.

Refreshing, aromatic, and effortlessly elegant.

Sercial Madeira, Portugal

Madeira deserves serious attention in the warmer months.

Produced on the subtropical Atlantic island of the same name, these fortified wines are renowned for their complex, oxidative character and remarkable acidity.

Sercial is the driest of Madeira's styles and is particularly refreshing in warm weather. Served cold, it offers flavours of lemon peel, toasted nuts, and dried herbs, balanced by a searing acidity that keeps you coming back.

Pair it with salted pistachios, charcuterie, and tangy goat's cheese, and it becomes the ultimate sundowner.

Fino & Manzanilla Sherry, Spain

Head to Jerez in southern Spain and you'll find Fino and Manzanilla, summer drinking at its finest.

Made from Palomino and aged beneath a layer of living yeast known as flor, they develop wonderfully savoury flavours of bread dough, almonds, sea spray, and a briny quality reminiscent of a dirty martini.

At just 15% ABV, Fino is among the lightest fortified wines available. Serve it ice cold and drink it fresh, as this is not a wine to keep in the cellar.

Lay your table with olives, anchovies, salty crisps, and a free-poured Fino, and you'll be transported straight to a balmy evening in Andalucia.

Marsala Vergine, Sicily

Sicily's famous fortified wine is too often dismissed as a cooking ingredient. In reality, the wines are incredibly complex and age-worthy.

The finest dry examples, such as Marsala Vergine, are serious yet refreshing wines. Serve chilled alongside bottarga pasta or grilled fish with spiced couscous.

The combination of nutty depth, bright acidity, and savoury character makes it an unexpected and sophisticated dinner companion.

The golden rule for summer fortified: go dry, serve cold, pair with something salty, and drink in the sun.

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Warm autumn sun gently seeps into the dark-panelled tasting room of the Barbadillo offices in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on Spain’s Atlantic coast, north of Cádiz. New-release wines sit alongside bottles of old vintages whose labels are barely legible in the dappled light.

It’s quiet, with the silent energy that only exists in the criaderas (Sherry ‘nurseries’) of the region’s bodegas, where flor – the layer of yeast and other microorganisms that forms on the surface of some Sherries – industriously yet discreetly goes about its work on the wines.

Here in this golden gloom, winemaker Montserrat (Montse) Molina speaks softly and thoughtfully about the wines. The conversation is technical and detailed, as one would expect of someone with her experience and knowledge.

Then something shifts: a spark, a flicker in her eye and Molina grows animated. Why? The subject has turned to yeast.

‘We can’t always explain the “why” – why something tastes the way it does, even though it’s the same wine but in a different barrel,’ Molina explains. ‘It’s the yeast. The manzanillas are old but lively because of the type of yeast that has developed. And once I’m gone, these yeasts will still be here.’

‘More than anything, we have to maintain and defend the wines of the region’

Montserrat Molina

Heading south

Molina arrived in Sanlúcar in 1997 without any previous experience or knowledge of the region. She grew up in Catalonia in the northeast and studied pharmacy in Navarra.

There she was interested in the classes relating to food and so went on to undertake a master’s degree in winemaking and viticulture. Having been introduced to the aromatic and expressive rosé wines of Navarra, Molina had planned to work in the region.

Just then, a newspaper advertisement appeared for a role with the winemaking team at Barbadillo. ‘I didn’t know anything about Sherry wines but I was sure the region would be amazing (my grandparents are from Andalucía). And it combined my interest in chemistry and viticulture.’

When Molina was selected, it was August and she was working in a very busy pharmacy in Girona. ‘I finished work on a Saturday and the next day packed up the car and left.’

After a quick stop at a local tourist office to buy a map (of course, no GPS!), she arrived in Sanlúcar. Molina remembers that it wasn’t easy to adapt, at first living on her own in a room above the winery. ‘I kept my bags packed each night,’ she muses.

But this was simply a period of adjustment to her new life and a different culture. In fact, everyone was very supportive. ‘There was a technical director here and I was assisting him. He was very generous with his time and taught me a lot.’

It was a time when there weren’t a lot of women working in the region’s wineries, but Molina never felt that this was a problem. ‘I remember one of the retired workers coming into the winery one evening to have a drink – a normal occurrence at the time – and he showed some surprise that I was busy working among the barrels. But his comments weren’t directed towards me in a negative way at all.’

A woman’s work

Sherry is often portrayed as a male-dominated region steeped in tradition, so it may surprise some readers that women have occupied key winemaking roles in some of its most established wineries. Some of these include…

• Pilar Aranda was one of Sherry’s first female winemakers and in the mid-20th century owned what is today Bodega Alvaro Domecq

• Ana Cabestrero Ortega started working as the winemaker at El Maestro Sierra in 2004 and is also the bodega’s commercial director

• Reyes Gómez Rubio has been the technical director and winemaker at Sánchez Romate since 2005

• Paola Medina is from the second generation of the owners of Williams & Humbert. She has been working at the winery since 2010 and is now the technical director and winemaker

• Silvia Flores is now assisting her father Antonio Flores as part of the winemaking team at González Byass. She represents the third generation of the Flores family at this well-known Sherry house

Trial and error

As a big company, Barbadillo has had the capacity to invest and experiment, and Molina believes it has been very open to doing new things over the course of its 200-year history.

When she arrived at the winery, she was able to digitalise some of the systems and paperwork with the acquisition of a computer, only the company’s second. ‘Barbadillo has been very ready to adapt to the market, not to copy other people but to do something that adds value.’

She has led her team to create new wines, as she explains, ‘to take people on a journey through Sherry’. The range of still white wines, grown on albariza soils – the chalky soils, rich in calcium carbonate, clay and marine fossils, found only in Jerez – and aged in Sherry casks without flor, is an entry point for many consumers into the world of Sherry.

Mirabrás, a 100% Palomino Fino from old vines, was launched with the 2014 vintage and, in 2020, Molina took the same must and aged it under a fine veil of flor in individual casks to create a light manzanilla as a stepping stone to the winery’s more complex Sherry wines.

Molina saves some of her biggest pride for the red wine that Barbadillo has been producing, classified as Vino de la Tierra de Cádiz (2022, £13.75 Bowland Forest Vintners), since the mid-2000s.

‘A hundred years ago, nobody planted any red varieties and there was no history of reds in the area, so it took a lot of work to make wines that taste of our region, and not to copy others,’ she explains. ‘And they are hard to sell.’

Crafting the future

Despite being in charge of so many historical products and having worked so long for the same company, Molina believes in innovating and adapting to new consumer preferences. ‘I really like working with our sparkling wine Toto,’ Molina explains.

Made mostly from Palomino grown on albariza soils, it’s a traditional-method brut nature. ‘It has a manzanilla-like palate with a lot of salinity, like a base wine for Champagne. Even though it’s sparkling, it reflects the region because of the fruit and structure.’

But of course, we soon return to the topic of yeast and the future of the region’s fortified wines. ‘I am always taking photos of the flor – it is so beautiful. It makes me think of all the generations that came before who contributed to this history.’

And what is her biggest pleasure? ‘Seeing how amazed people are when they taste the yeast’s influence in manzanilla and appreciate its unique taste profile.’ Her final words resonate the strongest.

‘More than anything, we have to maintain and defend the wines of the region, which are culturally really important and unique in the world.’ Molina’s contract with Barbadillo was initially for three months – 28 years later, it looks as though she isn’t going anywhere.

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As we wade through the sticky, sultry dog days of summer, the allure of cool and refreshing drinks becomes not just more tantalising, but necessary.

And perhaps you’re currently feeling a little jaded by just the one style of wine you’ve been drinking over the past few weeks, too hot and bothered to muster up the brain power to try anything else.

A long, hot summer can be an awfully long time to constantly drink just the one rosé after all.

So if you’re stuck in a summer rut, here are three top tips to find something else to shake up your summer evenings and languid days by the pool.

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1. Wines made by the sea

It sounds obvious or perhaps rather silly, but wines made from coastal regions really do seem to have the juice when it comes to the best styles of wines for summer sipping.

Is it the varieties’ intrinsic nature? Does proximity to the sea really give them a salty tang?

Are winemakers in these areas just more clued-in to the style of wines that work best with your feet in the sand and the roar of the surf in your ears?

Maybe a mix of it all?

Either way, there’s no doubt that if you want a great wine for the summer, think of places beside the sea as a good starting place.

There are loads of wines which just scream summer and beach holidays, accompanied by fresh seafood.

There’s Vinho Verde from northern Portugal, Txakoli from Spain’s Basque country, Muscadet from the Loire.

Heading into the Mediterranean we have the refreshing salty lick of Manzanilla Sherry, the herbal freshness of Xarel-lo in Catalonia, brisk Picpoul de Pinet and pale rosé from the southern French coast, stony Vermentino from Sardinia and Tuscany and the kaleidoscope of varieties from the Greek islands.

2. The faraway Mediterranean

And that’s just Europe we’ve been talking about. But don’t forget that much of the winemaking world operates on the same principals and proximity to the ocean in the warmer climes of the Americas, Africa and Antipodes is often essential to help moderate the temperature.

As such, a great many non-European regions are also seaside wines par excellence.

This is particularly true when many of these Mediterranean-esque regions are also producing wines made from grape varieties you’d expect to find in Europe, such as Albariño – which has seen an increase in worldwide plantings in recent years.

Large chunks of California, the Chilean littoral, the Cape in South Africa, Western and South Australia and the islands of New Zealand are great places for crisp and refreshing whites made from Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño, Semillon and so forth.

3. Beyond Provence

Finally, a word on rosé. Provence set the bar years ago with its brilliantly pale and limpid pinks.

These boosted rosé from being one of the has-been afterthoughts of global viticulture to a runaway hype-train of luxury labels and copycats.

But popularity comes at a price and Provence is now at a premium. However, you don’t have to look far to find wines that are essentially identical.

Both the nearby Languedoc and Roussillon produce extremely delicious rosés in much the same style as Provence and with the same grapes but for a fraction of the price.

Indeed, such has been the impact of pale Provence rosé, that around Europe and the world, you can now find your desire for chillable pink fulfilled by pretty much every country and region mentioned above.

Remember that Liz Gabay MW gives us a rundown each year not only of her pick of the latest Provence rosé releases, but her selection of the best rosés from around the world.

Below is a selection perfect summer white and rosé wines that have been tasted recently by the Decanter team or one of our esteemed experts.

With any luck it’ll give you some extra inspiration for something new to put in the fridge before the summer is through.

Decanter Cellar: 25 white and rosé wines for summer

Wines are listed white then rosé in score order

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Casa Bigote, by the mouth of the river, was one of the few bars still open. We ordered a half-bottle of manzanilla (priced just €7) while we waited for Thomas de Wangen of Sotovelo. The copas glistened; the wine in them was steel-green.

‘Oh no,’ said de Wangen, walking in a few minutes later. ‘Look at that colour!’ The remark shocked me. His glance told him that the wine had been filter-stripped before bottling, eviscerating its character. At that moment, it sunk in. Yes, the Sherry world has changed.

Here’s an intriguing story. Twelve years after founding a wine-importing company in Shanghai, de Wangen sold it (in 2019), came to Jerez and bought 20ha of fine limey clay soils in Balbaina, west of the city – to make an unfortified wine of the place as naturally as possible. ‘I’m convinced,’ de Wangen says, ‘that Jerez can produce world-class unfortified white wines, with the unique character of the veil of flor [layer of dead yeast cells protecting the surface of the wine maturing in barrel] – in my view, a key element to the local terroir.’ Moreover he found a singular partner for Sotovelo (which means ‘under the veil’).

Charles Rolls loves fino. His drinks career began, though, when he acquired a quarter-share in Plymouth Gin in 1997 and, as managing director, nursed it back to prominence; it was sold in 2000 to Absolut’s owners V&S Group. Rolls had discussions with the almacenista business [specialist in maturation] El Maestro Sierra after that, but never went further; instead, he suggested to his future business partner Tim Warrillow that they take on the huge but tired tonic and mixers market. The pair founded Fever-Tree in 2004; it went public in 2014; it’s now a global success. He’s retired from Fever-Tree (though he still owns 4.5% of its stock) but remains fino-haunted. He knew de Wangen through a family contact.

Why have they (and others – notably Peter Sisseck of Pingus fame, who has vineyards next to Thomas’ main plot) come to Jerez? In latitude, it’s just south of Tunis and Algiers. The hills are almost treeless. Harvest begins in July. Doesn’t global warming pose an ominous challenge?

I sipped the debut 2022 vintage of Sotovelo with de Wangen and Rolls as we gazed across the plaza towards Cádiz’s ‘Cathedral of the Holy Cross over the Waters’. The Bay of Cádiz glittered beyond the palms. Next landfall, Brazil. Of course: the Jerez region is a grand Atlantic terroir, a place where ocean meshes and mingles with land. Two of the three key centres of the Sherry region are port towns; those ports once scattered 15th- and 16th-century mariners across the Americas. It’s ocean air which moderates the heat; it’s ocean air which brings moisture to the vines even on rainless days, especially when the Poniente winds blow; it’s ocean air which mothers the flor. ‘The closer you are to the ocean,’ said de Wangen, ‘the safer you are.’

Sotovelo is part of a seaswell of unfortified winemaking in Jerez, as I first reported in February 2016 for decanter.com: others involved include Jesús Barquín and Dirk Niepoort, Ramiro Ibáñez, Willy Pérez, Alejandro Muchada and the hugely impressive wines of Alberto Orte, sold as Vara y Pulgar and Atlántida. Not all these winemakers use flor; but for those that do, the yeasty overlay can play an even more prominent role in the wines’ profile than it does in classic fortified Sherries. It intensifies their fermentative complexities and takes on the structural function formerly gifted by a dash of fortifying spirit.

It’s in these new wines, too, that you might read vineyard nuance: de Wangen points out that the higher sectors of his own vineyard have more ‘verticality’, while wine from the lower areas are plumper and fruitier. Distinctions like this would never survive fortification and solera-ageing.

Something new, in other words, is coming into being in the great vineyards north of Cádiz. Something old, too: Jerez’s vineyards were celebrated prior to the advent of fortification. Wine, flor, finesse.

In my glass this month

The 2022 Sotovelo (£19.95-£21.95 via Cellar Door Wines, Diatomists, Theatre of Wine, Thorne Wines) is a cloudy light-gold colour and powerfully aromatic: fennel, walnuts, straw, soft fresh bread. It’s mouthwatering and fresh yet pulpily satisfying on the palate – chewy and tangy, with a flavour that tells you that the sea isn’t far away (seaweed and umami as well as mushrooms and yeast). Expansive, nourishing, and all in a 12% glass of wine.

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Some places are just ‘drink towns’; synonymous with – even dominated by – the process of creating bottles known the world over. Bordeaux, Cognac and Porto are great examples; destinations on the bucket-list of anyone with an interest in what they drink. And if you have a shortlist of ‘potential drinks visits’, Sanlúcar de Barrameda should firmly be on it too.

If your reaction to this news is ‘eh?’, ‘why?’ or ‘where’s that?’ this is understandable. Because Sanlúcar is home to a drink style – Sherry – that has spent most of the last 30 years trying and failing to ‘do a gin’ and move from 1970s non-chic to 21st century icon.

Plus, it’s the home for a very specific style of Sherry: manzanilla, making it a niche within a niche. It doesn’t even give its name to the category – that honour goes to Jerez, 25km to the east. Unlike Port, Cognac and Bordeaux, there’s no ‘Sanlúcar’ section on a wine list.

So why visit?

Firstly, because this is where the whole pale dry style of Sherry originated; secondly because it’s a small town and the Sherry bodegas’ influence runs unmissably right through the heart of it; and thirdly because the combination of local food and local drink is the simplest and most joyfully harmonious you will find anywhere in the entire wine world. Fact.

If you’re surprised by the news that Sanlúcar (not Jerez) is the birthplace of pale dry Sherry styles, you need look no further than its coastal location for an explanation. Exposed to the Atlantic and more or less non-stop breezes, it’s cooler and more humid than inland Jerez.

Consequently, a few hundred years ago when barrels of white wine developed an accidental frothy layer of yeast, the conditions in Sanlúcar’s warehouses meant that it stayed there.

This ‘flor’ might have been unintentional, but the locals realised that it kept the wines super fresh, preventing them from oxidising, and also added interesting extra flavours.

Thus it was here, on the banks of the Guadalquivir river, that the pale dry style was born; manzanilla has to have been aged in barrel warehouses in Sanlúcar.

As for ‘niched’ – it dominates the domestic scene. Spain is Sherry’s biggest market, and roughly half of all those sales are manzanilla, according to the DO for Sherry.

Visit the town itself and you can see why. The drink is everywhere. Producers’ names jump out at you from billboards and signs, and restaurants are awash with the stuff. Bottles of manzanilla sit in ice-buckets at lunchtime, glasses drip tears of condensation in the Andalusian heat.

On restaurant wine lists, it’s no longer a small part of a hidden ‘fortified’ section, but a proud category in its own right. Manzanillas often outnumber reds and whites.

Walk through the old town – the Barrio Alto up near the medieval castle – and you’re bound to pass within a few metres of hidden barrels of manzanilla, stacked behind the high white walls.

Suddenly, manzanilla doesn’t feel like a niche within a niche; it feels like the only drink in town. And if you try it with the food you’ll see why.

Sanlúcar – at the confluence of the Guadalquivir river and the Atlantic – has some of the best (if not the best) seafood in the world; something which saw the town awarded Gastronomic Capital of Spain in 2022. The langostinos, in particular, are justifiably renowned.

The dishes in the bars and restaurants change daily depending on what the boats have brought in, and are, for the most part, simply prepared – a lot of deep-frying and not a lot of sauce. Chilled manzanilla – tangy, savoury, whistle-clean – is the perfect partner.

Its faint spritz of sea-salt echoes the platos, the surroundings and even the town’s maritime heritage. Was ever a drink so perfectly in tune with its surroundings?

Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a small town with a population of around 68,000 people but draws a large number of visitors in the summer. In July and August it can be hard to find accommodation and it’s wise to book restaurants in advance. If you do visit in August, the horse racing along the beach is a spectacle that attracts national TV every year.

There are flights to Jerez – 25km away. But Seville has more, and is an easy 90-minute drive.

The streets of the old town – the Barrio Alto – are narrow, with tiny pavements that are not wheelchair friendly.

All the Sherry bodegas offer tours and tastings. Barbadillo’s stunning cathedral cellar is one of the world’s most striking barrel rooms. The producer also has a Manzanilla Museum. Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana offers visits to the vineyards and a restaurant.

The Coto Doñana is a beautiful, unspoiled nature reserve across the Guadalquivir. It’s not possible to stay without a permit, but locals take the ferry for the day, attracted by the huge white-sand beaches. Just take lots of water and a hat.

Sanlúcar is the perfect size for a long-weekend getaway, merging culture, history, beach down-time and – of course – a stimulating and proudly-local food and drink scene. Your fridge will never be without manzanilla again.

Your Sanlúcar address book

Restaurants

Food and drink are closely intertwined in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Most bars will offer tapas of some description, even if it’s just ham, cheese platters and a freshly-made seafood stew.

Much of the hospitality is focused around Plaza del Cabildo – both in the beautiful fountain and bougainvillea-filled square itself – and the maze of narrow streets around it. But for sheer concentration of venues go to the 200m strip of Bajo de Guía. Overlooking the white-sand beaches and the ferry to the Coto Doñana it’s a busy, buzzy, bacchanalian maelstrom of food, drinks and joyful socialising.

Casa Balbino

One of the busiest, buzziest eateries in the socialising hub that is the Plaza del Cabildo, queues stretch down the street at peak times as locals and tourists alike wait for its famous – and crunchily moreish – tortillas de camarones (shrimp fritters). It’s possible to eat at the bar, so if you’re in a hurry you can skip the queues, order a glass of manzanilla and get your food at the same time.

Casa Bigote

Bajo de Guia

Probably the food institution of Sanlúcar, Michelin-bibbed Casa Bigote has expanded over the seventy plus years of its existence, but continues to fill up its 150 covers sitting after sitting. It’s traditional, no-nonsense and gimmick-free Sanluqueño food that does nothing more than showcase quite beautifully the quality of the local ingredients. Its langostinos are legendary.

El Espejo

Calle Caballeros

Elegant, modern Michelin-bib standard food from the excellent local chef José-Luis Tallafigo. It’s handily positioned on the same street as both the medieval castle and Bobedas Barbadillo in the Barrio Alto. The ten-course tasting menu is a bargain, with dishes of poise, creativity and imagination. With a dreamy interior Moorish courtyard and lots of local Sherry by the glass, it’s a must-visit.

Poma

Bajo de Guia

One of the first restaurants on the strip at Bajo de Guía, Poma is a classic seafood restaurant with a huge variety of fish and seafood, cooked in a myriad of ways, though it’s best known for its arroz marinero – a heartily comforting seafood and rice stew. Thirty manzanillas (and no other types of Sherry!) are the biggest section on the wine list.

Bars

Traditional Spanish bars have great ranges of manzanilla and traditional food, though their ‘cocktails’ aren’t likely to stretch much past a rebujito – manzanilla and lemonade – the town’s sangria-adjacent staple long drink for hot summer months.

Cocktail bars in Sanlúcar cater for locals and tourists looking for ‘hot weather’ drinks – Mojitos, Caipirinhas and Piña Coladas. Free-pour gin and tonics are traditionally drunk after dinner and can be ferociously strong.

Manzanilla’s savoury character pairs really well with gin, and it makes for a good alternative to vermouth in Martinis for those who like the more briny styles.

Bar Astillero

Bajo de Guia

‘La Vida Puede Esperar’ – Life can wait – says a sign in this bar at the far end of the venues lining the beaches of Bajo de Guia. Bright, airy and spacious, with its full-length windows and wooden decking, this former shipbuilders has been neatly renovated and feels more modern than most bars in Sanlúcar. Try the signature Astillero cocktail.

Bar Casa Pedro Hernández Santolalla

Calle Bolsa

A classic Spanish bar, with ham hanging from the ceiling and an L-shaped bar. It began life as a grocers in 1947, before becoming a tobacconists and then its current iteration. Simple, but good tapas and manzanilla literally on tap served straight from the barrel.

Ribera 22

Plaza del Cabildo

With its low beams and wooden floor, there’s an air of a smugglers den to this venue that sits in a prime location right on one corner of the buzzing Plaza del Cabildo. With a big range of whiskies and gins, it’s clear that the team takes its craft seriously. Bartender Manuel Hoang has created a whole range of twists on classic cocktails, cleverly substituting Sherry for the original base spirits.

Taberna der Guerrita

Calle Rubiños

Unpretentious and friendly, with a great range of manzanillas, since it opened in 1978, Taberna der Guerrita has justifiably gone on to be something of a Sanlúcar institution. Its tasting room with 300 listings has attracted passing winemakers from all over the world, and the five course wine and food tasting menu is well worth considering for the curious oenophile.

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Sherry’s most dramatic moment takes place every other year in Jerez. Top chefs from seven countries, many of them from Michelin-starred establishments, compete to create beautiful three-course menus while squeezed into the most difficult of spaces – the stage of the Villamarta theatre.

Scroll down to see Sarah Jane Evans MW’s top 20 Sherries

Under the proscenium arch, they present their dishes to the judges, while their sommelier partners serve three chosen Sherries and explain the matches. From my own experience in 2019 as a judge at Copa Jerez, I can say it is a delicious task. On that occasion, the winning Danish team paired an unlikely dessert of caramelised banana ice cream with liquorice, olive oil and a coffee sauce, with VOS Pedro Ximénez from Bodegas Tradición. It was a sensation.

Denmark won again in October 2023, and deservedly so – the triumphant team paired its starter of poached prawns with beurre blanc vinegar and marinated rye bread, green celery, sea lettuce and sisho with Bodegas Barón’s Soluqua Manzanilla (£25.95 Worsley Fine Wines).

During the event, outside the theatre, it is party time. Sherry bodegas large and small pour wines and the Sherry trade mills about, gossiping and glad-handing. When you’re there, it’s hard to imagine that Sherry has been living through decades of decline. Copa Jerez, this theatrical display, plus the conference and winery visits that surround it, has established itself as one of the pillars rebuilding the image of Sherry.

I’m enthusiastic about signs of growth for Sherry. Much of the inspiration, rule-breaking and creativity comes from the outliers and the small businesses. The big brands have caught up with the message and are following through with their own innovations.

Embracing the new

Sherry still retains its classic categories: biologically aged, or oxidatively; young or with many years of age; every gradation from bone dry to intensely sweet. However, there have been significant changes. The Sherry ageing area has grown from a ‘triangle’ of towns to more of a cube. More grape varieties are being added or reinstated. Important is the revival of vinos de pasto. These are literally wines to enjoy with food. They are unfortified, they emphasise their terroir origin, and they may have a short time under flor – the best are fine wines in their own right, and a good introduction to Sherry.

My selection in the pages that follow is of Sherries – vinos de pasto need an article all of their own. I have selected wines from practically every category, and from producers large and small. The (dry) manzanillas and finos should be served cool – just how cold depends on your taste. Amontillado and the sweetest Sherries benefit from being served cool. Palo cortado, oloroso and aged Sherries flourish nearer room temperature.

It’s important to enjoy Sherry without feeling bound by tradition. I have put in drinking dates, but again these are very much up to your taste. Top manzanillas and finos can last for a number of years if kept in cool, dark conditions. The oxidative wines are fairly indestructible unopened. Store Sherry upright. Whatever the category of Sherry, serve it in a regular white wine glass.

20 scintillating Sherry buys:

Sherries were tasted non-blind

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In my opinion Sherry is the single-most underrated style of wine from Spain. Even among wine lovers it suffers from misconceptions about taste (‘It’s too sweet!’), how to serve it (‘In a tiny glass from your granny’s cupboard?’) and strength (‘It’s fortified: is it as strong as a spirit?’).

But as any Sherry aficionado will tell you, this style of wine is as nuanced, enjoyable and complex as any fine wine from Spain. In fact it isn’t even a single style – but we’ll come to that later…

Sherry comes from Southern Spain, in the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ of vineyards that lie between the towns of Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. Sherries are fortified wines, meaning that a small amount of grape spirit (brandy) is added to them, after fermentation, to give them greater longevity and stability.

What is Sherry?

Sherry is an aged white wine that’s matured by being passed through a series of 600-litre barrels, in a system known as a solera. The solera system allows for fractional blending of the wines. The barrels in a solera are arranged in different tiers or groups, called criaderas, according to their age.

The oldest criadera holds wines that are ready to be bottled. When wine is removed from a barrel for bottling, that barrel will then be topped up with an equal amount of wine from the first criadera, which holds the youngest wines.

The first criadera will be topped up from the second criadera; the second from the third; and so on. This means that any Sherry will be a blend from different years.

Where you see an age statement on a label, such as 40 years, this will be an approximate average age. The blend will certainly contain wines much older than 40 years, but also some younger.

The Sherry styles

There are two broad styles of Sherry. The first is known as ‘biological’ and refers to wines that are aged under a thick layer of yeasts, called the flor. This flor prevents the wine from being exposed to oxygen. But it also interacts with the wine, eating sugars and other chemical compounds, and producing acetaldehydes, which give Sherry its distinctive ripe apple aroma.

The second broad style of Sherry is ‘oxidative’. These wines are aged without their layer of flor, so in contact with oxygen. Oxidative ageing gives Sherries a deeper colour and a complex nutty character.

Within these two broad types, the Sherry category is then broken down further into distinctive styles, depending on the exact method of ageing.

Six Sherry styles to know

Fino is made from the white Palomino grape (see above) and fortified soon after fermentation to 15% abv. It is then aged under flor in a solera, for a minimum of two years. The resulting style of Sherry is fresh, pungently aromatic and very dry.

Manzanilla is initially made in the same way as fino. The difference is that it has to be aged in a solera in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Here the humid sea air encourages a denser layer of flor. Similar in taste profile to a fino though the sea adds a salty character to this delicate wine.

Amontillado starts life as a fino before undergoing further ageing without its protective layer of flor. For some Sherry lovers Amontillado offers the best of both worlds, combining the freshness of fino with more evolved textural, nutty and creamy notes.

Oloroso Full is is aged oxidatively (without its blanket of flor) producing a Sherry that’s full-bodied, relatively high in alcohol and packed with flavours. Olorosos are dry and savoury, but they can seem to show a hint of sweetness thanks to the ageing process.

Palo Cortado is one of the rarest Sherry styles, which is a product of natural deficiencies in the flor layer. Traditionally it begins life as a fino, but casks that fail to develop a complete covering of flor are fortified to 17-18% abv, then aged oxidatively like an oloroso. In style, palo cortado combines amontillado’s aromatics with the fuller structure of an oloroso. The results can be buttery and nutty, with a full body, dried fruits and a tang of salinity.

Pedro Ximénez or PX, as it’s also known, is an indulgently sweet dessert wine. Thick, luscious and syrupy, with flavours of Christmas pudding, it’s an after-dinner treat to be paired with chocolate, coffee or cheese. Or simply pour it over ice cream for a decadent dessert.

How to store Sherry

When a Sherry is bottled, it’s ready to drink. But it can be kept for future consumption. Fino and manzanilla can be kept in a sealed bottle for up to 18 months after purchase. Amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado for up to 36 months. And PX for up to two years.

Like other wines, unopened bottles of Sherry should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place. But unlike other wines they should be stored upright in order to minimise oxidation via contact with the cork.

Once you have opened a bottle of Sherry, it will keep for longer than a bottle of regular wine because it’s been fortified with spirit. But as with any wine, it will start to deteriorate once it has been opened, so reseal the bottle and keep it in the fridge.

Opened bottles of fino and manzanilla will keep in the fridge for a week. Amontillado and palo cortado for up to three weeks. Oloroso will last for up to six weeks. And PX for up to two months.

How to serve Sherry

Always serve Sherry chilled. Enjoy fino and manzanilla at 5-7°C. Amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado should be served at 12-14°C and PX at 14°C .

Finally, Sherry is a white wine, so serve it in a wine glass – particularly if you are drinking it with food. In fact Sherry is one of the most food-friendly wines out there, as well as being a great aperitif (fino and manzanilla) or dessert wine (PX).

Best Sherries to try

This selection of bottles covers the six styles mentioned above, with Sherries to suit every palate and pocket. Discover top-scoring expressions from leading producers such as Bodegas Barbadillo, Lustau and Hidalgo. Alongside some great value own-label bottles from supermarkets and specialist merchants, with prices starting from as little as £4.99 for Aldi’s Specially Selected Pedro Ximénez. Proof that Sherry is brilliant value for money!

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Despite being known around the world surprisingly few people actually know much about Sherry. There are many styles, ranging from the driest of dry wines to the complex ultra-sweet, and each has its own unique character. There truly is a Sherry for every occasion, making it an excellent gastronomic wine.

All Sherry wines have three things in common. Firstly, they all come from the area around Jerez de la Frontera in southwestern Spain, possibly the oldest wine-making region in the country, where vines have been grown since shortly after the founding of Cádiz by the Phoenicians three thousand years ago. Secondly, they are fortified (to varying degrees), with extra alcohol added in the form of distilled grape spirit. Thirdly, they are aged through the solera/criadera system, a way of maturing and blending wines of different ages in a large number of oak casks. The barrels are not completely filled, allowing the wine to be either exposed to the air and aged oxidatively or aged biologically under a protective layer of yeast (called the ‘velo de flor’). 

Sherry wines are also becoming popular as a lower-alcohol base for cocktails, often replacing gin or vodka. Try using fino for a twist on a Bloody Mary: to make a Bloody Sherry add 75ml fino, 200ml tomato juice, a pinch of salt and pepper and a splash of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce to a glass with ice and stir to mix. Or what about a Sherry Fizz? Fill a glass with ice, add 50ml amontillado, a splash of Italicus (or other citrus liqueur), lime juice and sugar syrup, then top with tonic water and stir to mix.

Two more simple traditional cocktails to try at home are the Rebujito (fino or manzanilla in a tumbler of ice topped up with lemonade, garnished with mint sprigs) or a Sherry Cobbler (cream Sherry over ice with a slice of fresh orange). 

The best glassware for Sherry, if you can’t find a large ‘catavinos’, is a standard white wine glass filled approximately one third, giving the wine room to breathe. 

Here we take you on a virtual Sherry and tapas tasting. Much more than just an aperitif, the diverse range of styles and flavours of Sherry wines can take you through an entire meal from start to finish – and we include a few, possibly surprising, non-Spanish pairing suggestions. 

Fino

The name says it all – an elegant, crisp dry wine, one of the driest white wines in the world. The biological ageing process, under the protective velo de flor, means that the wine is not in contact with the oxygen above it in the cask; as yeast is a living organism and needs to eat, most of the residual sugars and glycerine are gone before the wine reaches the solera barrels (the level of the system containing the oldest wine). Its natural salinity and light acidity make fino a perfect partner for anything salty.

Pairings: Ibéricos are classic, as are cheeses, shellfish and baked or fried fish dishes, but fino is also an excellent match for ceviche or fish and chips. 

Try: Gonzalez Byass, Tio Pepe En Rama, Jerez, Spain, 2020

Manzanilla

This wine of the sea can only be made in one town, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, nestled in a nook near the mouth of the Guadalquivir river. Due to its particular mesoclimate, temperatures don’t get as hot in summer or as cold in winter as in other Sherry-producing areas. As a result, the all-important velo de flor stays robust all year round, imparting its unique, distinctive characteristics to this delicate and nuanced pale dry Sherry.

Pairings: Tortillita de camarones, grilled prawns, clams in garlic sauce, cured or tinned fish, olives, seafood paella, white fish, sushi and sashimi.

Try: Bodegas Hidalgo, La Gitana Manzanilla En Rama 2023 Release, Jerez, Spain

Amontillado

This is a Sherry that has lived two lives, starting off as a fino or manzanilla ageing under yeast before being switched to oxidative ageing. This makes for a very versatile Sherry with characteristics from both processes, and it is particularly good for pairing with ‘difficult’ vegetables such as artichokes and asparagus. In fact, amontillado matches well with anything you would normally pair with finos or olorosos, and it is also a great substitute for brandy in cooking.

Pairings: Braised artichokes with jamón, asparagus, spinach with garbanzos (chickpeas), charcuterie, mature cheeses, salted almonds, blue fish and spicy dishes such as curries.

Try: Williams & Humbert, Don Zoilo Collection Dry Amontillado 12 years old, Jerez, Spain

Oloroso

In days past, the gentlemen of Jerez would sprinkle oloroso on their handkerchiefs like cologne (‘olor’ means aroma in Spanish), and to this day it is still referred to as a ‘handkerchief wine’. Oxidatively aged, rich, round and robust, you will want to pair this fragrant dry Sherry with hearty meat dishes and stews or even your Sunday roast. 

Pairings: Braised oxtail, game, braised meats, onion soup, duck confit, sweetbreads, grilled tuna and strong cheeses.

Try: Bodegas Barbadillo, Reliquia Oloroso, Jerez, Spain

Palo Cortado

Known as the ‘mystery Sherry’, palo cortado can be most simply described as a more elegant oloroso that began life as a fino or manzanilla, typically made from the first pressing and finer grape juices. With no (or negligible) yeast contact, it is moved straight into oxidative ageing, resulting in a full-bodied yet delicate expression of this dry Sherry style.

Pairings: Mushroom and idiazabal cheese risotto, traditional rabbit paella, grilled octopus, tuna tartare, croquettes, mature cheeses and roast chicken.

Try: Cayetano del Pino, Palo Cortado Solera, Jerez, Spain

Cream

Grannies everywhere have been blamed over the years for abusing cream Sherry by opening it and leaving it in pantries for months on end, but I for one would be happy to see the end of this trope, if only because all sherries can be ruined this way. Cream Sherry is a blend of approximately 75% oloroso and 25% Pedro Ximenes (percentages vary between bodegas): the result is a light, naturally sweet wine that pairs exceptionally well with either savoury or sweet dishes, from grilled foie gras to trifle.

Pairings: Figs with payoyo cheese and jamon de pato, paté, grilled foie gras, soft cheeses, lemon tart and fresh fruit salads.

Try: Equipo Navazos, La Bota 79 Bota NO, Cream, Jerez, Spain

Pedro Ximénez

Christmas pudding in a glass. Naturally sweet due to the Pedro Ximénez grapes being picked late and then sun-dried, this is pure raisiny-figgy joy, and can pair with sweet or strongly savoury foods. The most classic dessert option is simply pouring your PX over a dish of vanilla ice cream (even better, soak some dried fruit in the Sherry first), and many agree that it actually makes a perfect dessert on its own. 

Pairings: Dark chocolate and dark chocolate desserts, cheesecake, fruitcake and sharp blue cheeses like Stilton or Cabrales.

Try: Morrisons, The Best Pedro Ximenez, Jerez, Spain

Storing Sherry

One of the most common misconceptions about Sherry is that, being fortified, it can be kept almost indefinitely after opening. While there is some debate about how long to keep unopened bottles, it is recommended that all open Sherry wines be stored upright in the fridge. Storage times vary. 

Fino / Manzanilla

Open bottle: 1 week

Serving temperature: 6-8ºC

Amontillado

Open bottle: 2-3 weeks

Serving temperature: 12-14ºC

Oloroso / Palo Cortado

Open bottle: 4-6 weeks

Serving temperature: 12-14ºC

Cream

Open bottle: 4-6 weeks

Serving temperature: 10-12ºC

Pedro Ximénez

Open bottle: 1-2 months

Serving temperature: 10-12ºC

The many styles of Sherry: Seven to try

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Christopher Bates is a Master Sommelier and co-owner with his wife Isabel Bogadtke of FLX Hospitality – a family of hospitality-focused businesses, including F.L.X. Wienery, F.L.X. Table and Quincy Exchange, as well as wineries and breweries, including Element Winery, Colloquial Wines and F.L.X. Culture House. In 2012, Bates won Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’ Best Young Sommelier of the Year competition, and won the TopSomm national competition the following year.

Let me tell you a secret… Sherry may be the most food-friendly, versatile, diverse and delicious wine in the world. Want something to sip on before a meal to get the juices flowing? Sherry (fino). Something for lighter first courses, raw fish, snacks and shellfish? Sherry (manzanilla). Roast chicken, pork, root vegetables and anything fried? Sherry (amontillado). Richer meat and game dishes, braises, stews and mushrooms? Sherry (oloroso). Fruit- or cream-based puddings and desserts? Sherry (Moscatel). Chocolate, caramel or rich desserts? Sherry (cream or PX). A nightcap after dinner? Sherry (the extremely old Sherries known as VORS). Alongside Champagne and Riesling, Sherry is one of the few wine styles that can pair through an entire menu so gracefully.

So, the time has come to drop the stigma and see past the name – it’s time to treat Sherry like a wine and not a spirit, or worse ‘a fortified wine’. Sherry is so much more than that.

A little on the geeky side: Sherry comes from southern Spain, near Cádiz, and is a wine defined by its place, from the chalky, barren white albariza soils to the hot, dry Levante wind blowing from inland Spain, to the cool, humid Poniente wind bringing oceanic influence. It’s made (nearly entirely) from an often overlooked white grape called Palomino. Much like Champagne, though, these wines really come into their own through their winemaking. The story of most great wines starts and stops with the grape variety(ies) and where it was grown, yet when we talk about Sherry (and Champagne), that’s only the beginning of the story.

Explore the styles

There are three major styles of Sherry: dry white (fino and manzanilla), dry mahogany (palo cortado and oloroso) – yes, I said dry – and sweet, dessert wines. All three are ‘fortified’, but don’t think of it as a fortified wine… these wines are meant for the dinner (and lunch) table! The dry white style usually sits at about 15% alcohol – along with many Californian, Australian and Spanish table wines – and the other styles are only a few degrees higher.

Unlike most wines, Sherry is stored for years, decades even, in large barrels that aren’t filled to the top, creating a surface area that is directly in contact with oxygen. Because those destined for fino and manzanilla are only fortified to 15%, a blanket of flor (yeasts) forms on the surface of the wines, protecting them from oxygen, keeping them light in colour and enhancing their youthful flavours. These white wines are among the world’s driest, saltiest, most savoury and yeastiest wines. With aromas of green apple, Marcona almond, chalk, white flowers, bread dough, sea spray and crushed shells, these wines define the power of yeast.

Those wines destined for the richer mahogany styles (palo cortado, oloroso) are fortified to a higher alcohol level, at which flor cannot survive, which means the wine can breathe in the oxygen, deepening the colour and giving darker, richer, nuttier flavours. These are deep, roasted, powerful wines that smell of baked pears and quince, pecans and walnuts, caramel, leather and old wood. Giving voice to the influence of oxygen, these embody the passing of time.

And then there is amontillado, gracefully exuding the best of both styles, a wine that spends the first half of its life protected by flor, and the second half unprotected, exposed to the influence of oxygen.

And, for those who like a wine with sweetness, PX is unforgettable… a wine squeezed, literally, from raisins – the Pedro Ximénez grapes shrivel in the hot, dry sun before being pressed and fermented. Beyond unctuous, it offers flavours of treacle, dried fruits and spice, making it one of the world’s most individual dessert wines.

Great-value wine

So, grab a bottle of fino or amontillado and open a tin of sardines or anchovies, grab a bowl of nuts and green olives, open a bag of potato chips (no, really…) and invite friends over. Pour it into proper wine glasses, and pour like you would a white wine: 125ml pours, so, five or six glasses to a bottle. And finish the bottle – it’s a wine, not a spirit.

One last reason to buy? Well, Sherry may also be the world’s most undervalued wine. These wines spend five, 10, 20 even up to 30 years or more in barrel, developing and concentrating, and are delivered to you, ready to drink and in their prime, for prices that often equate to less than two dollars (or quid) per year spent ageing in barrel… You won’t find wines of this age, at this price, from any other region.

Discovering Sherry: Bates’ top picks

Let’s start with one of the most important finos in the world, Tio Pepe (widely available). Aged for an average of four years in the solera system at Gonzalez Byass, this fino is light, fresh, salty and yeasty: the perfect aperitif. Then, to better understand the styles, the best thing to do is try them side by side, from the same producer.

From Valdespino, grab a bottle of Inocente Fino (£19-£22.99 via independent merchants) and Tio Diego Amontillado (similarly available) – these are the same wines, aged for 10 years side by side. The only difference is that whereas Inocente ages under its yeast flor for the entire 10 years, in Tio Diego the flor is extinguished after about five years, letting the wine interact with oxygen. When you are ready to splash out, grab a bottle of VORS (‘Very Old Rare Sherry’ in English) from the ranges offered by Bodegas Tradición, Gonzalez Byass or Lustau, and see what these different styles become at 30, 40 or 50 years.

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These styles are produced via biological ageing, which involves the formation of a veil of flor yeast on top of the barrel during maturation. Such flor is responsible for the development of these wines’ unique flavours and texture and is therefore generally understood to be an integral part of their terroir expression. ‘We have dual terroir,’ said Barbadillo vineyard manager Catina Aveledo, ‘the vineyard terroir and the bodega terroir, which is about the air (temperature, humidity and circulation) so maybe “aeroir”. Both are important for Sherry. The latter, vitally important for Manzanilla.’

The study points out that traditional ‘cathedral’ Sherry wineries are ‘good examples of nearly zero-emission buildings (NZEB)’, as their design provides the necessary levels of humidity and temperature for the flor to develop and thrive without the need for energy intensive cooling systems.

‘Jerez’s cathedral warehouses were built over 100 years ago and since then they’ve worked perfectly,’ César Porras Amores, who was involved in the study, told Decanter. ‘We know that climate change is a reality and the temperature in the world is increasing,’ he continued, ‘and for that reason we have simulated the indoor conditions in a futuristic scenario… to understand how the winery will behave in that scenario.’

According to the research paper, temperatures in the region will rise by an average of 2.3°C by 2050, and up to an astonishing 4°C in the summer of hot years. Some cathedrals would struggle to absorb such a shift, meaning that they might fail to provide the necessary conditions for the production of biologically aged Sherries. ‘If the climate change estimates presented in our research are confirmed in the future, [wine] companies will have difficulties retaining the comfort temperature inside the warehouse [such as] high natural ventilation.’

Fermín Hidalgo, owner of leading Sanlúcar de Barrameda-based Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana, highlighted how the yeast required to ferment and mature Manzanilla wines is particularly sensitive to heat. ‘Climate change will affect biological ageing in many wineries. However, all of our wineries are built in the best possible way… one of our wineries is the tallest cathedral-style winery in the Sherry area, 14.5 metres high.’

Alongside height, Hidalgo argued that proximity to the sea offers a further mitigating element. ‘All of our wineries are located in the low part of Sanlúcar, less than 500 metres from the sea. Therefore, so far, we have not needed to implement anything in our wineries.’

He admitted however that some bodegas, particularly those with lower ceilings, surrounded by buildings, or far from bodies of water will indeed suffer the effects of the warming climate.

‘The temperature in those wineries will increase. A way to try to reduce that increase in temperature may be by installing watering systems in the soil at wineries. However, the watering systems will not reduce 100% the increase in temperatures.’

The team of researchers at UPM is now working on the development of a new NZEB building specifically designed to absorb the forecasted temperature rise by employing new ‘intelligent’ construction materials, esparto blinds – which stimulate ventilation while minimising sun radiation – and innovative heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

‘We would like to have results as soon as possible as the wine sector is asking for them,’ said Porras. ‘We want to take it easy, but I think in probably one year, or something like that, from now we will provide the wine industry with new solutions in terms of construction materials that can help build cathedral warehouses suitable for the future climate.’

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Whisky is emphatically a product of place. The flavours in the glass conjure images of the spirit’s origin, from an Islay malt’s distinctive peat smoke to the exotic perfume of a Japanese blend.

Traditionally, however, that local accent is lost when spirit is filled into cask. The vast majority of Scotch malts and blends, for example, are matured in oak sourced from thousands of miles away, and previously used to age bourbon or Sherry.

Some whiskies might venture into more exotic territory. Think rum casks, perhaps, or Madeira, Port or red wine. Fewer still are exploring the possibilities of native oak casks sourced from their own locale. But here the results, in terms of both provenance and flavour, are increasingly impressive.

Going local

So impressive, indeed, that Aberdeenshire distillery Fettercairn has planted 13,000 oak saplings on nearby Fasque Estate. The project is an effort to create a local and sustainable source of Scottish oak casks for the future. And we do mean the future – it might be 200 years before the fully mature oaks are ready for felling.

In the meantime, we have the newly released Fettercairn 18 Year Old (see below). This single malt is finished in Scottish oak casks, which are sourced from three sustainably managed forests in Ross-shire, Stirlingshire and Perthshire.

Beyond the back-story, what’s immediately impressive about the whisky itself is the full-on flavour. This is a richly spiced and structured whisky; the oak adding a fresh dimension to the distillery’s tropical fruit signature.

Scottish signature

Partly that’s the result of predominantly using ‘virgin’ casks – oak that hasn’t been softened by a previous maturation (as is the case with ex-bourbon or ex-Sherry wood). But it’s also clear, even at this early stage, that Scottish oak has a flavour identity all of its own.

So assertive is this character that Fettercairn master whisky maker, Gregg Glass, decided to ‘condition’ some of the casks with a pre-maturation of new make spirit for six months, just to tone it down a little. Glass is the driving force behind distillery owner Whyte & Mackay’s Scottish oak programme.

Glass’s approach won’t come as any surprise to Royal Salute master blender Sandy Hyslop, given his experience in creating Royal Salute 26 Year Old Kingdom Edition Scottish Oak Cask Finish. So concerned was Hyslop by the speed of maturation that he and his team were checking the casks every two weeks. The fear was, in Hyslop’s words, that the blend might become ‘too strong, too powerful, too dark’.

He explains: ‘After four months, it was beginning to freak me out a little bit. Are we going to have to sample it every week or it’s going to fall over? It was all about experimentation in the end – and fortunately this one absolutely worked out perfectly. But I’ve never seen a take-up of flavour like that.’

Sustainability focus

As the example of the Fettercairn forest illustrates, these native oak projects are often as much about sustainability as flavour. It’s a recognition of the fact that Scotland – and indeed, the UK in general – simply doesn’t have the culture of managed forestry that has been in place in France since Napoleonic times.

As in Scotland, Ireland’s oak population has been exploited and decimated over the past millennium or more. Forests have been stripped for agriculture, ships and construction. The pendulum is now slowly swinging back as replanting occurs in places such as Kylebeg Wood in County Laois, boosted by the investment of private sector operators such as Irish Distillers.

Kylebeg is the backdrop for the latest chapter in the Midleton Dair Ghaelach project that began in 2009 (‘dair ghaelach’ means ‘Irish oak’). The Midleton Very Rare Kylebeg bottlings take provenance to a new level. This is a range of seven blended whiskeys, each matured in American oak for 13 to 25 years, then ‘finished’ for 15 months in Irish oak casks. Those casks are made using the wood of seven specific oak trees felled at Kylebeg.

‘Every bottling is traceable to a single tree,’ explains Midleton master distiller Kevin O’Gorman. And every tree plays a slightly different tune… Tree 7 combines plummy fruit with pot-still spice. While Tree 1 shows an elevated sweetness: black banana, caramel and crème brûlée.

‘There are subtle differences, tree to tree,’ says O’Gorman. ‘And you have to pick the right whiskey to go into these Irish oak barrels, because Irish oak matures quite fast and has lots of tannin. They’re heavy hitters… We’re definitely learning as we go.’

Around the world

Ireland and Scotland are not the sole pioneers here. Japan’s distillers have long been exploring the fragrant, exotically spiced nature of their own mizunara oak (Quercus cispula). Meanwhile in the Pacific Northwest of the US, the Westland distillery is enhancing its own story of provenance, with a series of single malt whiskeys matured in locally sourced Quercus garryana oak.

At their best, these ventures do more than just create exciting new whiskies for drinkers to enjoy. The oak replanting programme at Kylebeg has lured pine martens back to the surrounding forest. And pine martens, it turns out, like eating grey squirrels, in turn allowing red squirrels to return. Trees, it appears – rather like whiskies – are powerful things.

Whiskies aged in native oak to try

Fettercairn 18 Year Old

Known for its tropical fruit character, Fettercairn is lured into darker, forest fruit territory by a finish in virgin Scottish oak. Wonderfully textured and punctuated with oak tannins and an array of spices – ginger, cinnamon, clove – plus a roasted arabica note. Alcohol 46.8%

Midleton Very Rare Dair Ghaelach Kylebeg Wood Tree 2

The seven bottlings in this series – each matured in casks that were coopered from a different tree – are all fascinating. But Tree 2 is my pick: mouthfilling and creamy, with an elevated, fragrant mix of spice, anis and white pepper. Hard to find, but worth seeking out. Alc 56.1%

Royal Salute 26 Year Old Kingdom Edition Scottish Oak Cask Finish

A muscly, structured Salute blend that marries fleshy berry fruits with darker scents of treacle and molasses. With a whisper of smoke from Caperdonich peated malt – and from the Scottish oak – this is densely packed, but lifted by Longmorn’s juicy fruit. Alc 40%

The GlenAllachie 15 Year Old Scottish Virgin Oak

Another Scottish oak ‘finish’, this is a ripe and satisfying dram, with stewed plums and candied orange peel alongside dark honey and black banana. There’s also zesty citrus fruit and butterscotch mingling with treacle toffee and white chocolate notes. Alc 48%

Westland Single Malt Garryana 5th Edition

This single malt from Washington State has the highest proportion yet of whiskey matured in locally sourced Quercus garryana (aka Garry oak) casks. Sawmill aromas vie with zesty lemon, caraway, cinnamon and feral smoke from some peated spirit. Alc 50%

Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve

A vatting of Bordeaux wine, Sherry and mizunara casks makes for an über-fruity whisky, full of ripe strawberry and white chocolate. Mizunara oak brings a lovely fragrance – dried flowers and sandalwood – and it’s a lot more affordable than a fully mizunara-matured Yamazaki 18. Alc 43%

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The fifth of Redbreast’s Dream Cask offerings, released to mark World Whisky Day tomorrow (Saturday 21st May), is a 30-year-old single pot still whiskey produced by Irish Distillers at its Midleton Distillery in Co Cork.

Unlike previous single-cask releases, this year’s Dream Cask combines two casks chosen as their favourites from Midleton’s vast inventory by master blender Billy Leighton and blender Dave McCabe.

Leighton’s cask is a first-fill Oloroso Sherry butt filled in May 1990, while McCabe’s is a first-fill ex-Bourbon barrel filled in November 1991. The two were then married to create the final whiskey.

‘The Dream Cask collection has always been about sharing our most rare and special casks with Redbreast fans around the world, and we are thrilled to showcase two distinct casks with this release,’ said Leighton.

McCabe added: ‘The traditional Redbreast style is so often associated with the influence of Sherry casks that we sometimes overlook the role Bourbon casks play in its composition.’

In all, 714 bottles of Redbreast Dream Cask Double Cask Edition will be available exclusively via an online ballot from 23-30 May on Redbreast’s online members’ club, The Birdhouse, priced at €550 for a 50cl bottle.

The ballot is open to entrants from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, England, Scotland and Wales.

Tasting notes

Rich, dark aromas of plum, blackcurrant and damson leap from the glass, undercut by zesty mandarin. There’s vanilla and nutty toffee, fig and a herbal undertone reminiscent of tobacco leaf. Sherry-forward with lots of dried fruit, polished leather and baking spices, along with a healthy pinch of aniseed. Big, bold, but balanced, this may just be the finest Dream Cask yet released.

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Only 3,600 bottles of Tobermory 24 Year Old Oloroso Cask Finish will be available, following last year’s release of a 23-year-old Hebridean Series single malt from the same batch.

Bottled at 52.5% abv, Tobermory 24 has spent the last nine years in Oloroso Sherry casks sourced from González Byass.

The series is part of a new focus on aged Tobermory releases under Brendan McCarron, master distiller for parent company Distell, master blender Julieann Fernandez and Tobermory manager Cara Gilbert, 28, said to be the world’s youngest distillery manager.

As a result, Tobermory’s core expression has moved from 10 to 12 years old. ‘There’s a feeling that Tobermory gets better with age,’ said McCarron. ‘I think those two years create a lot more value in terms of flavour and depth … It just takes time and patience to turn into something special.’

Tobermory’s whisky is relatively scarce, with the distillery producing only 700,000 litres of pure alcohol a year. Half of this is accounted by peated single malt Ledaig, which is increasing production, while fewer batches of Tobermory are being processed because of longer fermentation times.

The distillery only operates five days a week, and expansion is unlikely because of its cramped location between a sheer cliff face and the sea. ‘We are going to make far less Tobermory,’ said McCarron. ‘Older whiskies will be the focus.’

The Hebridean Series will comprise five single malts in total, all from the same batch of casks, including 25-, 26- and 27-year-old releases over the next three years.

Tobermory 24 Year Old is available exclusively from Berry Bros & Rudd for £320 a bottle for the next two weeks, before launching on Tobermory’s website on 10 March.

TASTING NOTE:

Tobermory 24 Year Old Oloroso Cask Finish: The plush citrus and honeyed sweetness of last year’s 23-year-old release moves into darker territory here, with more depth and breadth – partly thanks to its higher abv. There’s dark honey and a hint of coffee bean, but the fruit is the star: blackberry and black cherry, undercut by notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. A rich and rounded Tobermory to savour.

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Prices on Port and Sherry could increase by around 13% in the UK if the government presses ahead with its duty tax reform as planned, according to industry leaders.

Producers and merchants have been left incensed by the plans, said the Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) today (9 December), following a meeting with members connected to fortified wine.

‘If you like a glass of Port or Sherry at Christmas we suggest you make the most of it this year [because] it might be priced out of your Christmas shop in the future,’ said Miles Beale, the WSTA’s CEO.

Industry bodies recently praised the government for freezing duty tax on alcohol, but there has been rising disquiet in the wine trade about duty tax reform. A key tenet of the new ‘simplified’ system would be the basic principle of ‘the stronger the drink, the higher the rate’, ministers have said.

Sparkling wine would see its tax burden reduced but some other wines could see their tax bill rise. A government consultation has opened on the plans, which would be implemented from February 2023.

‘I do believe that the politicians drawing up these proposals have no intention of damaging the fortified category, but if the proposals remain unchanged it will result in the retail price of a bottle of Port increasing overnight by £1.09,’ said Steve Moody, MD and chairman of importer Fells.

‘That’s an immediate increase of more than 13%,’ he said. Fells imports Symington Family Estates Ports, such as Graham’s and Dow’s, as well as Blandy Madeira, Pellegrino Marsala and Barbadillo sherries.

Andrew Hawes, MD of importer Mentzendorff, said, ‘Local wine merchants up and down the country are aghast at the suggested tax rises which will see their popular Port and Sherry brands, such as Taylor’s and La Gitana, take on the largest single alcohol tax rises in UK history.’

Melissa Draycott, MD of González Byass UK, said, ‘As passionate producers we have been working hard to pass on the sector’s rich heritage and introduce a new generation to the joys of a beautifully crafted Sherry, through its use in lower alcohol cocktails or served alongside food.

‘However, the proposed duty rise would create a significant barrier to purchasing this festive favourite which has enjoyed a strong role in British culture for centuries.’

She added, ‘Although Port and Sherry have a higher abv than wine they are traditionally enjoyed in smaller measures on special occasions as an aperitif or at the end of a meal.’

Port sales at retailers in the UK – the so-called ‘off-trade’ – were set to rise by 4% in 2021, to 8.8m bottles, the WSTA said.

The consultation period for the proposed duty reform ends on 30 January.

Introducing the consultation document, Helen Whately MP, exchequer secretary to the Treasury, wrote, ‘The system we are setting out today represents a pragmatic balance between the social, economic and fiscal considerations that affect alcohol duty.’ She said the proposed system was based on logical principles.

In particular, the government has been keen to highlight its efforts to support pubs and the wider hospitality sector. Final plans were due to be set out next year.

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We tend towards an innate conservatism when considering dishes to match our wines. The first place we usually look for a happy culinary marriage is in the gastronomic traditions of a wine’s region of production, and we’re rarely tempted to push beyond those boundaries. As a result, the default option for Sherry is to reference either tapas or seafood, and then to explore no further.

The truth is that Sherry, with its diversity of styles and flavour profiles, is actually a far more versatile ‘food wine’ than the obvious pairings might suggest. Nowhere is that made clearer than when you consider its ability to keep pace with the dishes of Asia, a continent whose complex, varied flavours will challenge the imagination of most wine lovers.

A taste of Japan

Take fino and manzanilla. These biologically aged Sherries (those matured under flor) have long been acknowledged as the perfect partners for all kinds of Spanish seafood, so by extension they should be a match for Japan’s sushi and sashimi. Be aware, though, that to perfectionist Japanese palates, there is no one-size solution.

Raku Oda, currently at The Fat Duck (Heston Blumenthal’s three-star Michelin restaurant in Bray, Berkshire), was formerly head sommelier at Yashin Ocean House, one of London’s premier sushi destinations. He enthusiastically endorses the match between Spanish Sherries and Japanese raw fish dishes: ‘The slight saltiness of fino and manzanilla, as well as the green apple character, works particularly well with delicate white fish. If, on the other hand, you have sushi made with aged tuna (particularly if the rice is seasoned with a more robust red vinegar), you need to match it with an amontillado. The richer, more complex flavours of the sushi need the weight and intensity of amontillado for perfect balance.’

Momoko Izumi, who works at Tokyo’s Sherry Club (which has one of the broadest Sherry lists in the world), is also a fan of pairing Sherries with sushi, claiming that they are ‘even better than saké’ at bringing out the umami of the ingredients and cleansing the palate.

Although she agrees that finos and manzanillas work well with most types of fish, she strongly recommends pairing palo cortado with sea urchin. ‘The rich taste of sea urchin is balanced perfectly by these Sherries, which combine the delicacy of amontillado with the rich flavours of oloroso,’ she says.

Izumi also advocates matching grilled eel nigiri with oloroso. ‘The salty-sweet sauce used to flavour juicy roast eel goes so well with the oxidative flavours and the rounded glycerol palate typical of oloroso,’ she explains, pointing out that oloroso is also a terrific partner for glazed yakitori skewers – whose ‘tare’ sauce has a similar sweet/savoury richness to the sauce used for the eel nigiri.

Sherry can be used to cut through the fattiness of deep-fried dishes, too. Izumi suggests that the dry salinity of fino and manzanilla can act like a squeeze of lemon, offsetting the slight oiliness of tempura batter. Oda agrees but believes that the kind of Sherry you should pair with tempura changes with the seasons. ‘Chilled fino or lighter amontillado works well with fresh vegetables and fish, but when the seasons turn to autumn and you’re deep-frying rich sweet potato or mushrooms, oloroso works better,’ he explains.

Chinese cuisine

The ability of Sherry to act as a foil for rich flavours doesn’t stop with Japanese dishes. ‘Fino enhances the flavour of dim sum in the same way as a little pinch of salt makes flavours pop,’ observes Jan Konetzki, director of wine at the Four Seasons Hotel at Ten Trinity Square in London’s Tower Hill, where he oversees the wine list for Mei Ume – a restaurant that unites Japanese and Chinese flavours on its menu.

Konetzki is a fully committed Sherry enthusiast when it comes to the wines’ ability to handle the often-extreme flavours of Chinese cuisine. ‘Chinese cooking can be far more dramatic than classic French or Italian cooking, with high acidity and sweetness, as well as spice from chilli or black pepper,’ he comments. ‘The fortification of Sherry makes it more robust, and an ideal bulwark against the dramatic flavours of the food.’

Reeze Choi, a Hong Kong-based sommelier and consultant, agrees, referencing oloroso’s richness and complexity when it comes to providing the perfect foil for many of China’s most renowned dishes.

‘Hairy crabs, which are in season from August through to October, are very rich and intense, with lots of umami, and we usually dip them in vinegar, too. The resulting dish, which might prove challenging to most wines, goes perfectly with oloroso, thanks to its intense flavours,’ notes Choi. ‘Come winter, we have claypot rice, studded with dried sausage and black beans. Red wine is good for it, but oloroso is even better. The intense savoury character of the cured meat, the black beans and the soy is perfectly matched by the intensely savoury Sherry.’

Michael Peng at Hunan, a long-running regional Chinese restaurant in London’s Pimlico, is a big fan of pairing palo cortado with the punchy, flavoursome dishes served in his dining room. ‘It’s a great all-rounder,’ he explains, adding that his favourite match for this style of wine is pan-fried chicken with a fermented red-bean dressing. ‘It’s a really big dish with big flavours, and the roundness and richness of palo cortado, as well as its elegance, just hits a sweet spot with its robust flavours.’

Konetzki, on the other hand, prefers to drink his palo cortado with Peking duck. ‘The hazelnut and dried plum notes you find in a great palo cortado make it an epic match for the gamey, fatty duck and sweet, rich plum sauce. The cucumber and spring onion served with the dish usually throw pairings off as they can mess around with more delicate wine flavours, but with palo cortado there is no risk that the wine will be overwhelmed.’

India and beyond

With its rich sauces and complex array of spices, the Indian sub-continent offers a different set of pairing constraints. Laurent Chaniac, wine consultant for the Cinnamon Collection group of restaurants, believes Sherry is more than capable of rising to the challenge, but he cautions that some styles of Sherry fare better than others.

‘Biologically aged Sherries are incredibly dry, with firm acidity, which raises the heat factor in Indian food – so definitely not the way to go,’ he states firmly. ‘Look instead to olorosos and palo cortados, especially those with a bit of sugar, which lends viscosity to the wines. The glycerol in these wines wraps itself around the spices in the dish, helping to soften their heat rather than raising the temperature.’

In addition, the core Indian spices of cumin, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns find aromatic echoes in the oxidative styles of Sherry. ‘What makes Sherry such a good match for Indian food is that it has layered flavours. The fact that there are so many things to taste in a glass of Sherry is what allows it to pair so well with complex Indian flavours, creating harmony rather than contrast,’ observes Chaniac.

Sherry’s ability to partner Asian cuisines other than those of China, Japan and India is, perhaps, less well tested. Nevertheless, Konetzki suggests that beef rendang, one of Malaysia’s classic dishes, could find a match in dry oloroso. ‘The sticky sauce, with its rich spicing and intense beef flavours would work really well with the meaty, nutty flavours you find in dry oloroso.’

In a similar way, the nutty flavours, mild spicing and smoky grilled notes in a satay dish can harmonise well with the equally nutty notes of an amontillado.

Choi points out that the fermented fish sauce nam pla that is so ubiquitous in Vietnamese and Thai dishes finds echoes in salty manzanillas.

Recent home experiments, conducted in light of his comments, suggest that manzanillas and finos do indeed work well with lighter seafood stir-fries spiked with nam pla. Be wary of pairing the Sherries with spicier Thai offerings, though, as the fiery chillies fight with the alcohol in the wines – with unpleasant consequences.

Regardless of the occasional blind alley, it’s clear that there are rich rewards awaiting anyone willing to explore beyond the safe confines of the Iberian peninsula for dishes to pair with their favourite Sherries.

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Four months after an initial agreement was signed, the Consejo Regulador of D.O. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry has now finalised and validated a document approving several important changes to its core rules. Many of the contents of the agreement represent historic developments in the 86-years of the denomination.

The decision happens against the backdrop of an enduring conflict between Jerez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda around matters of production and representation of Fino and Manzanilla. Yet, the agreement goes well beyond the settlement of the ongoing feud and introduces important steps towards greater diversity and commercial competitiveness.

Commenting on the changes, Sarah Jane Evans MW, renowned Spanish wine expert and Co-Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards, said that the changes are encouraging and ‘reflect the fact that Jerez is diverse and dynamic.’

She believes the new set of rules ‘at last gives Jerez the chance to talk about grape varieties, soils, diversity, wine making.’ By reflecting historical practices in Jerez, the agreement is ‘a welcome return to some of the old ways,’ Evans concludes.

César Saldaña, president of the Consejo, confirms, ‘These elements need to be integrated into the DO regulations to allow us to enforce diversification.’

Here is an overview of the main Sherry regulation changes, now approved and set to come into force in November:

New (old) grape varieties authorised

Several indigenous white varieties, widely planted in Jerez before phylloxera devastated the region’s vineyards, will now be allowed in the Sherry DO alongside Palomino, Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez.

Mantúo Castellano, Mantúo de Pilas, Vejeriego, Perruno, Cañocazo and Beba fell into oblivion but will hopefully now be reintroduced. Some producers have already started experimenting with these forgotten grapes without being able to label the wines under the DO’s stamp – until now.

Unfortified wines

Wines can now be labelled as Fino and Manzanilla even if they are not fortified. The other requirements of the production process – namely a minimum of two years ageing under floor – remain unchanged, as does the requirement of a minimum alcohol strength of 15º. (An indirect consequence of this decision is that Sherry can no longer be generally classified as a fortified wine).

Pagos: an updated map

Along with the new rules, the Consejo will release an updated and more extensive map of the Jerez pagos. These identify groups of vineyards with specific and differentiating micro-terroirs.

Single production and ageing zone

Arguably the most disruptive of the new rules: the end of the iconic Sherry Triangle. Until now, young base wines could be produced across the wider Jerez production zone, but the maturation of Sherry was restricted to the towns of Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria. Going forward, Sherry can be aged throughout the entire production zone, with a much larger number of bodegas now able to label their wines with the DO stamp.

Manzanilla Pasada and Fino Antiguo

While these two categories are not new, the new regulations now set a minimum of seven years ageing for both.

Fino de Sanlúcar: an end to the ambiguity

Some Sanlúcar producers, such as Barbadillo, historically produced a full-bodied biologically aged wine which they labelled as Fino, due to its structural characteristics, rather than the expected Manzanilla. This was at the core of the conflict between Jerez and Sanlúcar, and was also questioned by the European Commission (i.e. the use of of the term Fino for a wine with the same technical specifications as Manzanilla, within the Manzanilla area). The new agreement defines that Fino can only be produced in Jerez and El Puerto. And all biologically aged wines produced in Sanlúcar can only be called Manzanilla. There will be a transitional period of 10 years to phase out existing Fino de Sanlúcar stocks.

Tabancos and despachos – regulating informal bulk sales

Sales directly from the barrel, or in tavernas, restaurants, shops within the bodegas (despachos) and Jerez’s unique Sherry bars (tabancos) have been a long-standing informal practice. The wines were sold without any labels or technical information. The new agreement will now authorise and regulate this traditional local supply-chain, allowing establishments to sell and fill two and five-litre PET containers.

Other, perhaps more anticipated measures, such as the incorporation of white still wines (not aged, unfortified and below 15% ABV) and the creation of a premium Jerez Superior category, were left pending for now.

However, Saldaña remarked that these Sherry regulation changes are ‘a big step and a first step’ and that other changes could well be on the horizon.

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It’s very difficult confidently to identify a wine as a Fino or a Manzanilla in a blind tasting as the differences between the two are incredibly subtle.

Both are made in the same way, and the most profound influence on their character comes from ageing under a veil of flor (yeast cells that float on the surface of the wine in barrel, protecting it from oxidative influences). The differences between Finos and Manzanillas can be ascribed to the locations in which the wines are aged.

Fino is matured slightly inland, in cellars in Jerez and El Puerto de Santa Maria, while Manzanilla is made only in the coastal town of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The greater exposure to cooling, humid breezes in Sanlucar helps to maintain a deep layer of flor year-round, while the drier, hotter conditions elsewhere in the Jerez region means that the flor waxes and wanes over time, exposing the wines to a touch more oxygen during the ageing process.

As a result, Manzanilla is usually that little bit brighter and fresher than Fino, and often has a distinctive salty note and a hint of green apples. Fino, in contrast, tends to be richer and broader on the palate, with a gently savoury character.

When it comes to matching these wines with food, by and large they both go down incredibly well with the kinds of finger food you’d enjoy in Andalucia’s tapas bars. The saline freshness of these wines makes them terrific partners for all kinds of shellfish – deep-fried calamari rings and gambas al pil-pil (prawns sauteed in garlic and chilli) are two of my favourites.

And who can resist a plate of pata negra, especially when you realise how well the deep umami flavours of the ham chime with the yeasty richness of the sherries?

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Exploring en rama Sherry

Founded in 1821, Bodegas Barbadillo is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year with the release of four exceptional old Sherries.

The Reliquia range includes an Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado; just 81 numbered half-bottles of each are being released, alongside 17 half-bottles of Pedro Ximénez.

Scroll down to see the tasting notes and scores for Barbadillo’s limited-release Reliquia range

Drawn from soleras that have been maturing in the Barbadillo cellars in Sanlúcar de Barrameda for centuries, the selection has been curated by winemaker Montse Molina. ‘These wines are very special. They’re a way to taste the 200 years of Barbadillo history,’ she comments.

Acquired by Bodegas Barbadillo in 1939, the 18th-century La Casa de la Cilla (The House of Cilla) contains the ‘Reliquias de Barbadillo’ (relics of Barbadillo) – a number of Sherries dating back to the company’s 19th century origins. The Amontillado and Oloroso Reliquia casks rest in a small cellar alongside family reserve single-cask Sherries. Meanwhile the extremely rare Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximénez Reliquias are aged in a special section of the cellar called the La Sacristía (The Sacristy).

With no detailed records, the exact origins of these Sherries is shrouded in mystery. ‘We don’t know the vineyard source or the origin of these wines,’ explains Molina. ‘We know the butts go back to the 19th century but we can’t even guarantee that it’s the Palomino grape inside.’

Barbadillo’s international area director, Tim Holt, adds: ‘It’s not possible to know exactly how old these wines are, but it’s around 100 years. The Oloroso is the oldest.’ Technically the Sherries would be categorised as VROS (wines over 30 years) but as they are so much older than that – essentially placing them in a category of their own – Barbadillo has eschewed the appellation label.

Individual character

The Reliquia Amontillado traces its roots back to Barbadillo’s Pedro Rodriguez winery in the 1870s. In the 1920s it was blended with Soberana Amontillado and an 1890s Amontillado called Hindenburg. ‘We keep the casks completely full, so oxidation is light,’ says Molina. With acidity at 10g/litre and 22% abv, it’s an intensely concentrated wine that reveals a hint of salinity from its distant biological ageing as a Manzanilla.

Reliquia Palo Cortado originates from the 1850s, when Barbadillo purchased a number of old wines from Don Manuel Argüeso – paying 14,000 pesos per butt at a time when a single butt of Manzanilla cost just 1,200 pesos. These casks contained wine from Sanlúcar de Barrameda’s most prestigious wineries and formed the basis of Barbadillo’s first Palo Cortado solera. They are now at the last stage in a slow-moving nine-cask Palo Cortado solera.

‘It’s really an oloroso, made by oxidative ageing,’ comments Molina. ‘The humidity of Sanlúcar helps a lot; it’s a good place for this slow ageing.’ Also at 22% alcohol, but with 12g/litre acidity, this mahogany-coloured wine is less dry than the Amontillado, but equally concentrated in terms of its flavours and aromas.

See all Decanter Barbadillo tasting notes and scores

The origins of the oldest Sherry, Reliquia Oloroso, can be traced back to the death of Antonio Barbadillo Ambrossy in 1921. His will included a number of wines that were noted as belonging to ‘the grandfather’. His grandfather was Benigno Barbadillo Hortigüela, who founded the winery in 1821. These wines continued to be passed down through the family for over 150 years, until they reached today’s sixth generation.

‘The oloroso is really, really old – you can taste this age in the wine and the nose is very different,’ notes Molina. ‘This wine is concentration, concentration, concentration!’ With 15g/litre acidity, it has an intense and powerful palate.

Released in tiny quantities, Reliquia Pedro Ximénez originates from casks of PX that were left to Don Antonio Barbadillo Ambrossy at the end of the 19th century, making up a solera established in 1921 in the Potro winery. With 350g of sugar, the sweet, opulent palate is intensely dark and viscous.

Lasting impression

All of the Reliquia Sherries offer a unique tasting experience, thanks to their phenomenal concentration. ‘Stay with these wines for half an hour, an hour,’ advises Molina. ‘They have a lot of complexity, so find a moment to taste just a sip.’ After six hours in the glass, these wines are still opening up and offering more nuanced flavours and aromas: a little certainly goes a long way. ‘An open bottle can last for months,’ adds Molina.

Barbadillo’s previous Reliquia releases were packaged in distinctive decanter-shaped bottles, but due to both practical reasons (these bottles are no longer produced) and to place more emphasis on the liquid than the packaging, the range has a new look. The traditional Sherry bottles are wax-sealed, with distinctive labels by Spanish calligraphy artist Goyo Valmorisco. The label for every numbered bottle is drawn by hand. ‘Each bottle is individual and unique in this sense,’ says Holt.

Given the scarcity and age of these wines, it’s no surprise that they are being sold on allocation, mostly in Spain but also to key markets such as Japan and the UK. London retailer Hedonism will be taking most of the UK allocation, with individual half-bottles retailing for around £365 each. ‘Compared with similar-aged wines, it’s great value,’ believes Holt.

See below for full tasting notes and scores for the 2021 release of Barbadillo Reliquia by Simon Field MW…

See the tasting notes and scores for Barbadillo’s limited-release Reliquia range

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Rare Sherry Versos 1891 released at £8,000 per bottle

The release each May of the year’s new en rama Sherries has become an annual indulgence for Sherry lovers, as it provokes a restrained frenzy of activity to track the bottlings down. Yet this is one of the most misunderstood categories of wine.

‘En rama’ means ‘from the branch’, as in ‘the fruit picked from the tree’. As a result, ‘people say it’s completely unfiltered and unfined’, says Natasha Hughes MW, who wrote her Master of Wine dissertation on en rama in 2014. ‘But they don’t stop to wonder if that’s the case, why are there no cobwebs or dead yeasts in the bottles?’

All the same, en rama fits perfectly with our contemporary desires for artisanship and low intervention. No wonder some marketeers like to use the slogan ‘Real Sherry’ to describe the style. These wines are a reminder of how fino and manzanilla used to be.

Looking back

Eduardo Ojeda, technical director at Grupo Estévez, dates the beginning of the modern era of en rama to the 1970s, when the practice of clarifying became common. The 1980s saw the introduction of more aggressive clarifications to make the wine much paler. ‘Consumers fled from the roundness of the finos, which were typically older than manzanillas and bottled with higher alcohols.’

Ojeda explains that the striking conversion of these expressive wines into watery, pale versions was started by Rumasa, the once-powerful holding company that had interests across Spain and particularly in Sherry. ‘Rumasa introduced a younger fino, very pale in colour and at 15% [the minimum alcohol level permitted],’ he says. ‘Manzanillas followed, and almost all of the rest of the more commercial finos joined in. They were all made in this younger style and bottled at 15%.’

These light, refreshing wines went on to become the textbook styles that students learned about in wine classes. Ojeda is a partner in Sherry specialist Equipo Navazos, which came early to the practice of bottling from the butt. The recognised pioneer in en rama, however, was ‘Toto’ Barbadillo, the late, famed head of Barbadillo in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. He decided to launch en rama wines, says Tim Holt, Barbadillo’s area director for the UK and Asia-Pacific, ‘in a reaction against the carbon-filtered manzanillas – he wanted to offer something more authentic’. Barbadillo’s half-bottles, with their elegant bird labels, continue to this day.

En rama’s most recent incarnation owes much to The Wine Society in the UK, and its former Sherry buyer Toby Morrhall. He had the inspired idea 10 years ago to introduce en rama to his list and worked with González Byass and its Tío Pepe Fino solera to do so. En rama quickly created a market in the UK and has spread internationally.

Drink now or keep?

Nevertheless, en ramas have suffered from negative publicity: I used to be told repeatedly by the wine trade that en rama must be drunk on purchase as it would rapidly spoil. In fact, whether to drink or keep is a personal choice. Ojeda says: ‘Not all en rama wines necessarily improve, although the best wines age really well and last many years.’

I agree. At a 10-year tasting of all the Tío Pepe releases, I found some older wines had aged beautifully. Tío Pepe winemaker Antonio Flores makes his saca (the withdrawal from the cask, or butt) in April when the flor – the layer of yeasts protecting the wine from oxygen and giving the wine its characteristics – is at its most abundant. Before bottling, it goes into a stainless-steel tank for a week to settle. There’s no clarifying or filtering, only a metal mesh to collect the larger matter.

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While the ‘regular’ Tío Pepe is a blend of many butts to create a consistent style, the en rama is a selection of specific butts – this is why each year’s release can differ from the last.

In his selection, Flores looks for the vineyard character with its albariza soil: tiza (chalkiness); agarre, or persistent grip; and sapidez (saline intensity). He also wants flor character: pungency, almonds, baked bread, citric notes, and a brisk, creamy palate.

Unexpected flavour

According to Flores, there are more than 300 volatile components that come from the soil, grape and ageing. Cold stabilisation and sterile filtering remove yeasts, proteins, flavones, acetaldehyde, ketones, terpenes and more. It may sound like a chemical textbook, but this is what makes these styles of wines memorable.

Since it comes from the butt, I suppose en rama is fresher? Ojeda disagrees: ‘Most consumers would say that the “regular” bottling is fresher. After all, the en rama has a deeper colour, and colour has a strong influence on perception. Also, the flavour is unexpected because it’s rounder and definitely has more body.’

For all their fame among Sherry lovers, en rama wines are bottled in tiny quantities and are remarkably discreet. Many don’t declare their category at all. Remember, too, that it’s not just fino and manzanilla Sherries that can be bottled en rama. Take the Williams &Humbert vintage range. The fino, amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado are all en rama, as well as the 20- and 30-year-old VOS and VORS bottlings. ‘When I select for en rama, I’m looking for something that moves me, which provokes feelings,’ says Williams & Humbert head winemaker Paula Medina. ‘The job is to capture those feelings and bottle them so that the consumer can enjoy the wine.’

No wonder that one of Hughes’ conclusions back in 2014 was that we urgently need a clear definition of en rama. Six years on, there is none. The latest news from Sherry’s Consejo Regulador is that they are working on it, and it will be included in the next regulations.

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The ranking of these wines shows you exactly where my enthusiasms lie when it comes to manzanilla. I like wines with intensity and an appetising astringency. Unfortunately there is plenty – too much? – manzanilla in the marketplace that is watery in colour and in taste. These are inoffensive wines that have had the character and colour filtered out, so they won’t frighten off nervous Sherry drinkers. This light, summery white wine was meant to lure in new drinkers. In the end, though, those people chose Sauvignon Blanc, or even Pinot Grigio. Anything with a bit more flavour.

Manzanilla has characteristics which make it different from typical ‘dry Sherry’. There’s the humid influence of the confluence of the Atlantic and the legendary Guadalquivir river. The poniente wind emphasises this humidity. Sanlúcar knew of a saline character in wine before the rest of Europe had even thought about it.Manzanilla wine was first mentioned in a document from the second half of the 18^th century, and the first text written on manzanilla winemaking came in 1806. Nowadays manzanilla has its own DO, Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda, though confusingly it shares the same production area, production method, controls and regulatory body as the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO.The defining factor for manzanilla is that the ageing under flor has to take place in Sanlúcar itself. The maritime microclimate, cooler with higher humidity, ensures a different character to the flor yeast, which protects the wine from oxygen. The fact that there are two parts to the town, the lower sea-level part and the upper part on the hill, also creates stylistic differences.

This was a blind tasting with two styles: the young, light manzanillas; and the manzanilla pasadas, wines with eight or so years of age – the flor begins to die and oxidative, amontillado-like characters appear, as well as more golden colours. In both categories there were en rama examples: wines taken almost straight from the butt.

My highest praise went to the characterful individuals. One of them was a rare vintage wine; another had a well-balanced 17% alcohol. I do recognise that they won’t please everyone. So in this selection you will also find subtler styles, with typical notes of apple, almond and camomile. The notes make clear which style you will find.

The regulatory body recommends serving these between 6°C and 8°C. Stored in the dark, in consistent temperatures, the pasada wines can last for a couple of years. The lighter styles are best drunk in the short term and, once opened, finished within the week.

Evans’s top 18 manzanilla picks

Spanish wine specialist Sarah Jane Evans MW talks you through the key styles of Sherry. Also see top Sherry recommendations from Decanter's tastings team...

Sherry: Quick facts

Production zone 10,000ha

Ageing zones Jerez, El Puerto and Sanlúcar de Barrameda only

Bodegas 59 registered with El Consejo Regulador

Continue reading below

TRAVEL: Jerez de la Frontera

Decanter’s guide to Sherry styles:

Top-rated Manzanilla Sherry

Fresh and salty...

Top-rated Fino Sherry

Aromatic and dry...

Credit: Bon Appetit / Alamy

Top-rated Amontillado Sherry

Arguably the best of both worlds, Amontillado starts life as a Fino...

Top-rated Palo Cortado Sherry

A product of natural flor deficiencies, this is one of the rarest Sherry styles...

Top-rated Oloroso Sherry

Full bodied and relatively high in alcohol...

Top-rated Pedro Ximénez Sherry

Best paired with chocolate or coffee, or poured over ice cream for a really extravagant treat...

The rolling landscape with its brilliant white soils – this can only be Sherry country. Other countries may have tried to make a fortified wine in the style of Sherry but none can reproduce the terroir found in this corner of Spain.

The albariza soil is up to 40% calcium carbonate, acting like a sponge for the rains. The average rainfall is 620-litres per square metre.

Another key aspect of the climate is the winds. The Poniente is the humid west wind. The Levante is the south-eastern wind, hot and dry, and renowned for driving the residents of Tarifa further down the coast road. Best to stay indoors when the Levante blows and whips up the sand and grit.

The third factor is water. The region is bounded by the Guadalquivir River on one side, and the lesser Guadalete on the other, and to the west, the Atlantic. Sanlúcar, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, shows the maritime influence most strongly with its pungent but delicate wines. Jerez finos are bolder, more structured, reflecting the more intense climate and the distance from the sea. El Puerto lies beween the two, geographically and stylistically.

Centuries of change

Winemaking began with the Phoenicians at ‘Xera’. Then came five centuries of prohibition under Islamic rule, dating from 711 AD. In the city then known as ‘Sherish’ grapes were used for raisins, for distillation for perfumes, and for ‘medicinal purposes’, though some wine was consumed. Five centuries later King Alfonso reconquered the city. As it was at the frontier it acquired the name Jerez de la Frontera.

The wine trade with England and the Low Countries prospered. In the late 19th century phylloxera interrupted supply. With the replanting, the diverse range of varieties narrowed to the three that prevail today, mainly Palomino (with some Moscatel and a little Pedro Ximénez, both used for sweet wines).

The next challenge was commercial. Inevitably, perhaps, it came from the British. They fostered the Empire’s imitations: from Cyprus, South Africa, Australia, as well as ‘British Sherry’. It was a number of decades before Sherry was able to defend its right to its own name. Its regulatory body, the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry Consejo, is the oldest in Spain, established in 1933. Manzanilla was officially recognised in 1964 with the creation of the Denomination of Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

Finally came the long years of decline as drinkers moved to other wines. The vineyard area diminished substantially. Too many wheat fields now stand where once were vineyards.

With the 21st century there is a renewed interest in the dry Sherries. Individuality and artisanship are in demand. Each butt in a solera differs slightly from its neighbour, depending on how close it is to an outside wall or the end of a row. Producers have begun to bottle individual butts. Some have developed seasonal bottlings en rama; others aged wines that are practically amontillados.

In the glory days of Sherry production, there was no need to provide limited editions. Today, the need to find new consumers is uncovering treasures.

En rama

Meaning ‘raw’; en rama Sherry is taken directly from the butt and bottled ‘unfiltered’. The result is a richer colour and flavour, as if tasted in the cellar itself. Currently there are no regulations about what en rama means; most producers actually filter out the largest particles.

Storing Sherry

Even the aromatically delicate Finos and Manzanillas can be kept for 12 to 18 months. Some aged Finos can develop further in the bottle. Once opened, recork the bottle and store it in the fridge for up to a week.

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Choose one of these dry Sherries to drink with olives, ibérico ham, caramelised nuts or seafood this summer...

Originally published in Decanter magazine's March 2014 issue and now available online in full, with tasting notes exclusively for Premium members

• 71 wines tasted with seven rated Outstanding

• The panel tasters were: Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW, Sarah Jane Evans MW & Nick Room

Depth of flavour (and colour) and the range of styles were undoubted highlights, though the en rama wines, while exciting, were uneven in quality and freshness, says Sarah Jane Evans MW…

The results are excellent news for Jerez. They make clear what Sherry lovers have long known – that among the finos and manzanillas there are exceptional wines.

The first interesting feature of this tasting is depth of flavour. Until recently – and still on far too many wine lists and retail shelves – dry Sherries have been about watery pale colours, and wines that have had life and soul filtered out of them. Yet the top seven scorers in this tasting all have colour and character. Just look at the tasting notes.

The second feature of interest is the range of styles. There’s more to dry Sherry than ageing in a solera under flor. This tasting did include ‘regular’ Sherries, but there were also pasada and amontillado versions, as well as en rama wines.

Scroll down to see the top wines from this panel tasting

The judges clearly preferred the more mature Sherries with their added complexity: hence their votes for Hidalgo-La Gitana’s Napoleon, as against the consumer favourite La Gitana. This much is clear: there is something for everyone in Jerez – floral or pungent, salty or mild, sunshine or tempest, there is a wine to match.

Quick link: View the tasting notes & scores

En rama

The third point relates to en rama. This has undoubtedly been the latest fashion among UK aficionados. However the performance of the en ramas was uneven. They mainly showed bolder flavours and deeper colours but were also more extreme: we marked them up for expression, but frequently down for astringency or bitterness.

It’s worth noting that these en ramas also came from different seasons, so some were definitely fresher than others. Perhaps for this reason en rama did not always come top against its own brand: Valdespino Deliciosa, for instance, did much better than the En Rama Deliciosa.

Were there any surprises? In general most of the top producers figured among the Highly Recommended and Outstanding wines. Any of Equipo Navazos, González Byass, Fernando de Castilla or Emilio Hidalgo could have made the top seven, but just missed out.

Some producers are more famous for oxidatively aged wines, and so did less well overall. Fernando de Castilla is one of these – a regular DWWA award winner, but usually for the non-flor wines.

No Sherry producer wants to be told that their wines are great value or a bargain. They’d like to be in a situation to charge more. But in the meantime, and before the rest of the world wakes up to these pleasures, snap them up!

The scores

71 wines tasted

Entry criteria: Producers and UK importers were invited to submit fino, manzanilla or amontillado Sherries.

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 7

Highly Recommended 12

Recommended 37

Commended 0

Fair 14

Poor 0

Faulty 1

The results

Our judges were impressed by the experimentation and complexity among these finos and manzanillas – particularly with older wines – showing the how far this category of Sherry has come. Tina Gellie reports…

For those who thought fino and manzanilla were only pale in colour, light in body, dry, simple and meant to be drunk young, this panel tasting will make you think again. Our tasters were amazed at the diversity – and consistency – of this Sherry category. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever marked so highly,’ said Nick Room. Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW agreed: ‘Of all the wines, there were only about four that were really poor. This would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.’

Ballesteros Torres said Sherry producers had worked hard to improve the quality of their finos and manzanillas. ‘There has been lots of experimentation: with the lees, with ageing, exposure to oxygen… It’s proof that while producers are trying to preserve the real core of Sherry, they are also adapting to the needs of the consumer.’

Room agreed, but said there was a danger that such a plethora of styles might be confusing unless merchants and sommeliers did more to explain and promote them.

The only experiment not appreciated by our judges was where the Sherries were overwhelmed by oak. ‘I’ve never seen this before with Sherry,’ said Ballesteros Torres. ‘And now I know why.’

The most popular new style is en rama, which is bottled without fining or filtering. ‘It’s an interesting trend,’ said Sarah Jane Evans MW, ‘but at the moment there isn’t a precise definition of it. These wines should be bottled straight out of the barrel, but some may be more processed than others. Some taste like they’re on steroids!’

Evans said it has been remarkable to see the progression in manzanilla. ‘ For 10 years or more we’ve had these very processed wines: a pale, cool drink for summer without much flavour. Now, while some are still producing these anodyne wines, others recognise that there is a demand for more flavour and complexity.’ For example, the manzanilla pasadas (where longer ageing means it becomes more like a nutty amontillado) were ‘absolutely delicious’.

She ‘expected more’ from the finos, which the panel agreed were not as consistent as the manzanillas. Again, quality came down to length of ageing: ‘Fino and manzanilla now can be just two years old – it used to be a minimum of three years in the solera,’ she said. ‘There were some good young wines, but undoubtedly the better ones had four years of age. It’s only that way that you’re going to get the complexity.’

Our experts all remarked on the ‘rainbow’ of colours of these Sherries, from water-white to amber with red highlights, thanks to the different expressions. Equally, the traditional apple, almond and chamomile hallmarks of manzanilla and fino progressed through to bread, oak, sulphur, mushrooms and walnuts, depending on the ageing and solera treatment.

Fino and manzanilla can have alcohols between 15% and 17%, but Ballesteros Torres was impressed with producers’ moves to stay at the lowest end of the scale. ‘The consequence is that now many table wines are higher in alcohol, which make fino and manzanilla much more suitable to go with any food and with any occasion.’ The increase in the number of 500ml and 375ml bottles also benefitted this, he added.

Sherry is ready to drink on release, so none of these wines would benefit from further ageing. ‘You should drink en ramas within three months,’ said Evans, adding that many producers were now adding bottling dates to labels to aid this. Once your bottle of Sherry is open, drink it within a week.

While limited quantities mean some of these Sherries are hard to find, Ballesteros Torres urged readers to persevere. ‘It’s a taste of something great and unique,’ he said. ‘It’s impossible to find wines with this expression anywhere else.’

Our tasters each pick their top 3 wines from the tasting:

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW

‘First, in these times of increasing standardisation, few wines provide as acute a sense of place as fino and manzanilla. I do not know any other wines that, at astonishingly affordable prices, deliver so much character.

‘Secondly, most classic finos and manzanillas are fortified to 15%, instead of 15.5% as in the past. Because of climate change and other reasons, this is the alcohol content of many table wines. But at 15% these tend to be heavy and alcoholic, with overripe aromas, while fino and manzanilla show lightness and freshness. At table, their restrained aromas, with little primary fruit, exalt the expression of subtle food, such as raw fish and fusion cuisine.

‘Third point: the degree of variation, emulation and experimentation among producers is amazing. The best wines come from the self-confidence of relying on one almacenista or even a single 500-litre butt. Many others rediscover the complexities of pasado and amontillado, the purity of en rama wines (not always evident), and vintage and terroir-specific wines.

‘The sad period of the 1980s is definitely over. Nevertheless, I would not advise to buy blindly. Recognised fino and manzanilla brands and producers deserve much confidence and our selections are sound recommendations.’

Bodegas Hidalgo, Napoleón, Manzanilla Amontillada

One of the few remaining family-owned bodegas, whose grapes come only from its own vineyards, in pagos close to the sea. The wine is a rare example of a true amontillado, keeping the freshness and salinity of the original manzanilla while taking on the weight and dry nuts aromas of non-biological ageing. 96/100

Williams & Humbert, Fino En Rama 2006

This house has a long tradition of setting some butts aside from the solera system, with gorgeous results. But I did not know this en rama style – terrific! One for delicate fish dishes. 96

Equipo Navazos, La Bota No 35 Marcharnudo Alto, Fino

A terroir wine by one of the most creative teams in the world. Each of the wines by Equipo Navazos is a story in itself, something deeply original while firmly classic. Share with friends that know when silence is the best word. 93

Sarah Jane Evans MW

‘The tasting promised to show a number of young, polished, super-light Sherries (the minimum permitted age of fino and manzanilla at bottling has been cut to just two years). They surely would have been indistinguishable. As it turned out there was a deliciously diverse selection – more than 78% scoring Recommended or higher, including seven Outstanding wines.

‘The real excitement was undoubtedly in the increasing category of Sherries aged under flor which are being released at eight, 10, 12 or more years when the protective flor coat is fading fast. Manzanilla amontillada may no longer be a legal category, but goodness it can be delicious.

‘It’s good to see more bodegas following the trend pioneered by Equipo Navazos and Fernando de Castilla of selecting specific barrels. Their bold character is a welcome contrast to the consistently reliable but unsubtle brands. The most recent fashion is en rama, freshly bottled Sherries with little or scant pre-bottling treatment. The ones we tasted all scored highly, and proved that en rama is not just a fashion, but a pleasure, tasting (more or less) as Sherry would if you were in the bodega.’

Bodegas Hidalgo, Napoleón, Manzanilla Amontillada

From the Sanlúcar producer renowned for the super-refined stripling La Gitana and for Pastrana, the most famous Pasada. Yet there are all sorts of more mature pleasures hidden in its cellars. This seductive Napoleon shows age triumphing over youth brilliantly. 96

Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo, La Panesa, Fino

This small producer in Jerez does not seek publicity but is worth tracking down. All the wines are excellent and several exceptional. The complex La Panesa is one for the grown-ups, at the very limit of flor ageing, at an average 15 years old. 95

Equipo Navazos, La Bota No 35 Marcharnudo Alto, Fino

Equipo Navazos’ Sherries are single-cask bottlings from different cellars. No 35 is a single-vineyard wine from the Macharnudo Alto, and comes from Valdespino’s famed Inocente solera. Typically Sherries are blended; by contrast here’s a vividly individual fino. 93

Nick Room

‘I was impressed with the wines shown in this tasting but there were a few that did not hit the spot. Excess sulphur was a remark for a handful, then there was a curious use of oak on a couple; and the perennial problem of oxidation appeared on one or two samples. Now, having dispensed with the negatives, I can enthuse about the remainder.

‘Sherry is a unique product made (in this case) from one solitary and relatively neutral grape variety, but boy can it turn out some gorgeous results. I was struck by the variation in the styles of manzanilla and fino: pale, water-white examples showing moderate character and weight, to amber coloured, deeper, more complex, richer wines that were hugely satisfying. The divergence of styles can be fantastic for the adventurous consumer, or could be utterly confusing for the novice Sherry drinker.

‘For those in the know, the scope here was captivating, and I’d urge those familiar with the excitement Sherry can bring to urge their friends to try a cross-section of the more successful wines in these flights.’

Bodegas Hidalgo, Napoleón, Manzanilla Amontillada

This wine met all my expectations of a true amontillado. It’s the purity that marks this out; delicate yet concentrated, pungent yet very fine. There’s such a lot going on in this glass – truly bone dry, toffee and roasted nuts with underlying saltiness that makes it uniquely manzanilla. 95

Lustau, Papirusa, Manzanilla

Lustau’s position as a premium Sherry producer continues and this manzanilla was a fabulous example. Stylish, perfectly integrated, with wonderful balance; fresh, layered, superbly textured, and very long on the finish with a fine apple and fresh-baked bread flavour. 95

Valdespino, Deliciosa, Manzanilla

It’s often remarked that Grupo Estévez has respected Miguel Valdespino’s style when the latter sold his stock on retirement to this much larger company. So hats off again to Estévez – this wine exemplifies Miguel’s searing style. In my notes I said this wine makes an enthusiastic ‘statement for Sherry’; yes, it does. 95

Sherry: the facts

Production zone 10,000ha

Production (2013) more than 80 million kg

Ageing zone Jerez, El Puerto and Sanlúcar only

Bodegas 64 exporters, plus 30 or so who do not export, including almacenistas (wholesalers)

Top scoring dry Sherry from the panel tasting

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Jefford on Monday: The coming of Jésus

It appears that Sherry has helped to oil the wheels of diplomacy between the UK and Spain after royal families from both countries enjoyed a glass at this week's state visit.

Buckingham Palace hosted a state banquet for the King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain this week.

King Felipe was quoted afterwards as saying that he was sure that Britain and Spain could overcome their differences. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has amplified a dispute over the future of Gibraltar.

And it appears that a discussion about Sherry might have helped the two sides find some common ground.

Guests at the Palace were served a glass of ‘Laureate’s Choice’ Manzanilla Sherry, although it is common knowledge among royal servants and correspondents that the Queen is not normally a wine drinker.

It is just over three decades since Spanish Sherry producers revived a centuries-old tradition of giving England’s Poet Laureate a butt of Sherry, equivalent to around 720 bottles.

The Sherry served yesterday came from the butt handed to current Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II, Professor Dame Carol Ann Duffy, who also wrote the poem ‘At Jerez’ after visiting the region.

It is a custom that began in 1619 with Poet Laureate Ben Jonson, but the tradition temporarily stopped in 1790 when Henry Pye, the Laureate of the day, decided that he would rather take the money instead – agreeing £27 per year from the crown.

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Inverness-based wine store, WoodWinters Wines & Whiskies will be promoting seven winning Sherries from the Decanter World Wine Awards this summer

Located just a stones throw away from the River Ness, WoodWinters boasts an extensive wine list to suit every palate and pocket.

From 19 June to 31 of July WoodWinters will be promoting a special selection of award-winning sherries from this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards. Customers will have the chance to buy these fantastic wines and receive double loyalty points on every purchase.

Purchase the below award-winning wines and receive double loyalty points this summer:

• East India Solera, Cream, Sherry, Spain, NV
• Los Arcos, Amontillado, Sherry, Spain, NV
• Don Nuño, Oloroso, Sherry, Spain, NV
• San Emilio, Pedro Ximenez, Sherry, Spain, NV
• Puerto, Fino, Sherry, Spain, NV
•  Emilin, Moscatel, Sherry, Spain, NV
• Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla, Fino En Rama, Sherry, Spain, NV

Quick – don’t miss out an opportunity to taste some of Spain’s finest sherries!

Promotional period: Ends 31 July 2017

Website: www.woodwinters.com

Address: Bow Court, 74 Church Street, Inverness, IV1 1HB

Spanish wine company González Byass has made a first foray outside its homeland with the purchase of a controlling stake in Chilean winery Veramonte.

• Gonzalez Byass Chile deal a first for company outside of Spain
• Veramonte owns 600 hectares of vineyard land
• Set to boost Spanish firm in US wine market

Jerez-based Gonzalez Byass has bought the Huneeus family’s controlling interest in Veramonte, owner of brands including Neyen, Primus, Ritual and Veramonte. The Rojas family retains its existing, minority stake in the company.

Veramonte, which exports to 37 countries and is a market leader in the US, owns two wineries and 600 hectares of vineyard land across Chile, including plots in the Casablanca Valley and the Colchagua Valley, as well as the latter’s Apalta Valley enclave.

‘By taking this step out of Spanish wine production, we are reinforcing our strategy towards the internationalisation of the company, whilst strengthening both our portfolio of brands and international distribution operation,’ said the González family.

The presence of Veramonte will particularly boost the company’s American distribution operation, González Byass USA.

The Veramonte acquisition follows González Byass’ recent purchase of the Pazos de Lusco estate in Rías Baixas.

As well as its historic Sherry and brandy de Jerez business, the company owns Spanish wineries including:

• Bodegas Beronia (Rioja and Rueda)
• Cavas Vilarnau (Barcelona)
• Finca Constancia (Castilla)
• Finca Moncloa (Cádiz)
• Viñas del Vero (Somontano)
• Pazos de Lusco (Rías Baixas)

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Andrew Jefford meets a saviour of the Sherry world, and tastes some of his selections.

Just over a month ago, I wrote in this blog about Sherry’s tragic decline, and about some of the new unfortified, terroir-based approaches of younger producers in this distinguished, chalk-soiled region of southern Andalucia. What, though, of Sherry itself? Moribund?

Anyone who’s had a chance to taste the greatest, purest Sherries will fervently hope not. For the last three decades, though, the challenge has always remained the same: renovating the wine’s image, and making it a source of youthful gastronomic curiosity. Many have tried; most failed.

Not, though, Jesús Barquín, and his collaborators in Equipo Navazos, a singular Sherry bottling and exporting company which only celebrated its tenth birthday last December, and yet which may now sell more bottles of old, pure, unblended Sherry than any rival. (Singular, not least because it actually buys the sherry from those rivals.)

A word on intriguing names, first of all. Jesús (who has long been an atheist) points out that his own first name is a common one in Spain, and carries no more religious overtone than does ‘Mary’ in English. Navazos, meanwhile, is the traditional name used for vegetable allotments in Sanlúcar de Barrameda whose sweet ground water is lifted up through the sandy soils, unlikely as it may sound, by tidal pressure. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short story ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, moreover, the primary Equipo Navazos series of releases has been called ‘La Bota de …’. The Navazos approach may be innovative, but the great historical and cultural traditions which lie behind sherry and the Jerez region is very important to Barquín and his collaborators (the Equipo).

Every wine region needs a few extraordinary individuals to champion its cause, and Barquín is one. His family background was in gastronomic grocery stores, and he grew up going to restaurants with his parents and eating well. His keen intelligence, though, swiftly propelled him through university law studies to a professorship, though he might easily also have pursued scientific studies. He’s a criminal lawyer who has written two books on torture and mistreatment, who is interested in the limits between torts and crime, and who has recently been researching alternatives to prison.

Along the way, he spent a lot of time in Brussels, Strasbourg and Florence, researching the relationship between Spanish law and European law … and visiting French and Italian vineyard areas. He became, in other words, a wine fan in the kind of deeply committed, comprehensive and scholarly way you might expect of a law professor.

Since his University base was in Granada, it wasn’t long before he emerged as one of Spain’s leading experts and writers on sherry – a wine which, with all its complicated austerities, has always seduced the academic mind and palate. He also forged a close friendship with Eduardo Ojeda, one of Jerez’s leading tasters and blenders, who works for the notably successful Estévez group, owners of Valdespino and La Guita Manzanilla.

One day early in December 2005, Ojeda had to drive over to Sanlúcar to taste 400 casks of Manzanilla at the small bodega of Sánchez Ayala, and he invited Barquín to go with him. After they had cantered through the Manzanillas, they started tasting other things in the cellar, and discovered a ‘shrinking’ Amontillado solera which had been untouched and unrefreshed for 20 years.

“The casks were beautiful,” Barquín remembers. “But since there was no market for Amontillado, the owner had instructed that instead of refreshing the angel’s share, the solera should be topped up from existing stocks, so the original 74 casks were now 69 or 65, I can’t remember.” Forty years of crisis had left Jerez and Sanlúar littered with treasures of this sort. That was when the idea dawned on Barquín: why not buy a cask? He and Ojeda could then sell the bottles to their friends. The owner, cement producer José-Luis Barrero, wanted to give Barquín and Ojeda the cask, but they insisted on paying for it. In the end, they bought two, and that became Equipo Navazos’s Bota de Amontillado No. 1.

Now we’re well into the 60s in the Bota de … series, and there have been copious other releases via the ‘Manzanilla I Think’ range (the name a homage to Charles Darwin), plus unfortified Montilla in the Ovni range (an extraterrestrial reference, but also an anagram of ‘Vino’), plus Spanish brandy (Navazos-Palazzi), plus Cava whose production methods involve some use of flor yeasts and sherry wines in the dosage, made with the boutique Catalan producer Colet. Phew! The complete range exceeds even that of Penfolds for numerical and conceptual complexity, and you probably need to be a professor of something or other to understand its nuances fully.

We have, in other words, come as far from Croft Original Cream Sherry as it is possible to go — which of course was exactly what Sherry needed. I review some of the latest releases below.

I was puzzled, though, as to why Sherry’s leading companies should be so happy to have Barquín and Ojeda siphon off, bottle and sell some of the greatest treasures in their bodegas. “We need the right sort of competition,” says, simply enough, Ojedo’s own employer, José Ramón Estévez. “It’s opened a lot of doors for us,” says Jan Pettersen, owner of the small, classy bodega called Fernando Castillo, another supplier. “It positions you as being a great producer of Sherry.”

How far will Equipo Navazos go? Both of its directors, after all, are moonlighting from their main jobs, and have (they say) no intention of quitting them. Academic life leaves Barquín some free time, and he’s prodigiously energetic (and a gifted salesman). He’s become a leading figure, thus, in the disaster-striken sherry world: someone with optimism, vision, drive and probity, as well as possessing an assured intellectual command of international fine wine culture, its needs and interests. Actors of this sort are rare. We will hear more, I’m sure, of Jesús.

A Taste of Equipo Navazos

A selection of the finest wines from two tastings, one in London in December 2015 and one in the Sherry region in February 2016.

La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 59, Capataz Rivas

Deep gold in colour, with scents in which the bready tide of flor has receded and settled into something harmonious and rounded, almost hinting at aniseed, honey and pollen. It’s genuinely and palpably saline on the palate, smooth, almost fat, alluding more to nuts than bread, with seaweed and umami notes, too: long, warming, intricate and deep. There’s a soft bite at the end. Eminently gastronomic. 94 points

La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada 60, Bota Punta

A ‘bota punta’ is the final, ground-level cask at one end of a solera: different by nature (since it is sampled more often, and may be exposed to different environmental conditions to the rest of the solera) and different by tutelage (often refreshed by the cellarmaster or capataz from the solera itself, rather than from younger criaderas). Absolutely grand, not so much in terms of its aromas, which are harmonious, arresting and tangy, but in terms of its concentrated, challenging and highly detailed flavours: fresh, mouthwatering and tongue-coating, a kind of Japanese banquet reduced to a single glass of wine, with a cascade of tuna flake, seaweed, ginger and green tea allusions. 96

La Bota de Fino 54

This single-vineyard Macharnudo Alto wine is a characterful clip from the Valdespino Inocente solera and second criadera. Resonant scents and flavours which evoke disparate notes (seaweed and green tea, but also mushrooms, sweet dust and wet plaster), bound up into a softly tangy, low-acid, nourishing and mouthfilling palate. 92

La Bota de Amontillado 58

A very fine, beautifully aged and refreshed Sanlúcar Amontillado: pale amber in colour, with penetrating dried apricot and dried cep aromas, then a strong, masterful, sword-waving palate: the concentration and aromatic refinement of the wine is such that we are approaching the limits of the sippable (a limit which many ancient sherries stride across, of course). This will send your salivary glands into orbit. 95

La Bota de Amontillado 61 Bota NO

A bota bearing the inscription NO is one that is not refreshed – because it has special qualities of some sort which the cellarmaster wants to preserve. This Amontillado, full of the thin, sharp character of Manzanilla which has gone beyond the age of flor, carries the heavenly cathedral scent of Sherry bodegas themselves: a combination of dried summer fruits, sweet dust and clean hessian fabric. On the palate, it is very beautiful but almost caustic in effect: a great sweeping scythe of saline acidity and dancing, firelit dust. Daunting but finally rewarding: a conversation stopper. 96

La Bota de Pedro Ximénez 56 Bota NO

Most PX wines seem better classified as food than wine, and you need an extraordinary fondness for sugar (or syrup of raisins) to enjoy them, so in general I’m not a fan – but then I tasted this. It incarnates the raisiny ideal with much more finesse than most, while on the palate it has such huge weight, purity and density of fruit as to be almost salty, almost tannic, and in general more satisfying for wine lovers than dessert addicts. 91

More Andrew Jefford columns on Decanter.com:

Jefford on Monday: The Jerez terroir challenge

The last three decades have been traumatic for Jerez...

Jefford on Monday: Kicking the hell out of Bordeaux 2011

Andrew Jefford makes a case for reassessing this ‘maligned’ year

Jefford on Monday: The Catalan scorpion

The new Maury Sec appellation is destined for greatness...

Jefford on Monday: The call of Crete

Andrew Jefford visits the high-altitude vineyards of Crete and finds an ancient wine culture in renaissance...

Jefford on Monday: A debate from Champagne’s sensual parliament

Wood or stainless steel? It's fundamental, says Andrew Jefford

Only 100 bottles of Barbadillo Versos 1891 Sherry have been released, with a price tage of £8,000 per bottle. Decanter's John Stimpfig was lucky enough to get a taste; here's what he thought.

In my experience, it’s pretty hard to spend a fortune on Sherry – however good it is and however hard you try. To many aficionados, it is one of the world’s most underrated wines and also one of the most attractively priced.

However, there’s almost always the exception to the rule. And right now, that honour unquestionably goes to Barbadillo’s recently unveiled Versos 1891 Amontillado, which has just gone on sale for a truly jaw-dropping £8,000 a bottle.

And no, that wasn’t a typo. The wine comes from a unique cask in Sanlucar de Barrameda which belongs to the Barbadillo family. From it, just 100 numbered bottles have been taken.

See the suitably glossy promotional video produced by Barbadillo to mark the occasion:

It is self-evidently a historic, rare and precious liquid asset in all sorts of ways. The cask was originally a gift to Manuel Barbadillo by his father as a christening present. Even then it was described as an old Amontillado. Manuel who was the winemaker at Barbadillo for more than half a century was also a poet and philanthropist and became Mayor of Sanlucar . He died in 1986, but the sherry clearly lives on.

How does £8,000 Sherry taste?

When I tasted it on Tuesday night, it was powerful, layered, pungent, nutty, spicy, and gloriously fresh, replete with rich extract and extraordinary length. The aftertaste went on for literally minutes. Barbadillo’s chief winemaker, Montserrat Molina, told me that, ‘ultimately, sherries are the result of time and patience. It has been my privilege to care for this exquisite Amontillado throughout my twenty years here.’

A first for Sherry

This is the first time that the Sherry category has attempted such a rare, luxury offering. Barbadillo are following a lead set by some of the Port Houses including Taylor Fladgate and the Symington group which have recently launched similar products. However, this is the most expensive fortified offering by some margin.

The bottle has been dressed to kill in a handmade crystal glass decanter in the shape of an ink well – a reference to Manuel’s status as a poet. The decanter is also adorned with platinum paint on the collar and has Versos etched into the glass in gold leaf. The whole ensemble comes in a beautifully crafted leather box.

Where can you buy it?

Bottles can be purchased from Bodegas Barbadillo and a number of select fine wine merchants around the world. One of them includes Hedonism in London, which confirmed to Decanter.com that it expects to have its allocation of bottles in store and on sale by next week.

Barbadillo is still 100% family owned and is the largest producers of Manzanilla in the Sherry region. It also specializes in Palo Cortado and produces a number of Amontillados and Olorosos.

• READ MORE: Andrew Jefford – The Jerez terroir challenge

Sherry doesn’t immediately spring to mind as a choice to pair with chocolate at the end of a meal. But Decanter’s associate editor Tina Gellie discovers that the different styles lend themselves to some exciting matches...

Sherry wine and chocolate

Chocolate and wine matching is rarely successful due to the (usually) high sugar content of the chocolate and the relative dryness of the wine – a few jammy, high-octane Shiraz wines aside. But the nature of fortified wines is the reason why Port (particularly LBV) and vins doux naturels such as Banyuls are traditionally our go-to choices for chocolate desserts.

While these fortifieds have some residual sweetness, most Sherries are dry. However, it’s their nutty, dried fruit characters which lend themselves perfectly to a range of chocolates. And what better way to find your perfect pairing than to get a selection of fine bars or individual pieces (no Quality Street please) and a few Sherry styles, and mix and match between them.

‘No right answer’

‘There is no right answer – it really is what you prefer, though some styles of chocolate and Sherry will naturally work better with one another,’ advises Sarah Jane Evans MW, the Decanter World Wine Awards regional co-chair for Sherry who wrote her Master of Wine dissertation on the wine style, and is also a founder member of the Academy of Chocolate.

Evans says the ideal approach is to have a sip of the Sherry and think about all of its components:

• flavours
• acidity
• weight
• length

Then take one square of chocolate and let it melt on your tongue and, as with the wine, appreciate its sweetness, the flavours, intensity and texture in your mouth. When the chocolate is about two-thirds melted, then have another sip of the Sherry and see how the two marry together.

Perfect after-dinner debate

It’s the perfect after-dinner debate: which Sherry goes best with which chocolate; who agrees with whom. And as Sherry can be kept recorked in the fridge for one to three weeks (the more oxidative the ageing the longer they should last), there are plenty of opportunities to try the experiment again with a different set of wines, chocolates – or dinner guests.

• SEE ALSO: Top Christmas Sherries

Mix and match: Suggestions for Sherry and chocolate pairings

1. Lighter styles of dry Sherry, such as fino or manzanilla, are probably better early on in the meal, either as an aperitif with cheeses and charcuterie, or with a starter course of fish or shellfish. But if you are daring, you could try anything leftover in the bottle with a smoky dark chocolate infused with chilli or almonds that should complement the fresh salinity of these wine styles.
2. Amontillados are naturally dry (less than 5g of residual sugar) but can be medium dry up to medium sweet (115g/l). These wines are finos that mature under a layer of yeast called flor. This flor is then killed off by a second fortification, and the subsequent exposure to oxygen gives the wine a tawny colour and rich, complex nutty flavours. This flavour profile lends itself well to milk or dark milk chocolate studded with almonds, hazelnuts or sea salt.
3. Palo cortado Sherries also start life off as finos but, unlike with amontillados, here the flor dies off naturally early on. The wine is further aged after fortification with exposure to oxygen, giving a Sherry that is traditionally said to have the nose of an amontillado and the taste of an oloroso: fine, dry and elegant with citrus peel, roasted nuts and tangy saline notes. These complex Sherries need a chocolate that is not too sweet – ideally a high-percentage dark chocolate with complementary nut and fruit notes. Florentines or dark chocolate-covered apricots or gingers would be a good choice.
4. Unlike amontillados or palo cortados, oloroso Sherries never see a layer of flor as they are fortified early in their life. This full oxidative ageing means these dry wines are dark in colour and richer and denser in flavour – think figs, dates, raisins, treacle and coffee notes. Chocolates with a caramel centre, pecan praline, nougatine or marzipan, or simple chocolate-covered raisins or coffee beans would work well. Cream Sherries – and there are very good-quality ones out there, not what granny has in her cupboard – are sweetened olorosos (115g/l-140g/l residual sugar) that have been blended with PX.
5. Pedro Ximénez (PX) Sherries are made from the variety of the same name (the others are from Palomino), where the grapes are sun-dried and then fortified to give a thick, inky-black nectar that is frequently described as Christmas pudding in a bottle. As PX is so sweet (between 212g/l and 500g/l of residual sugar), a bitter 85% to 100% dark chocolate would be a good counterpoint.
6. Moscatel, from the Moscatel de Alejandria grape, is made in a similar way to PX but is not quite as sweet (minimum 160g/l). While still quite dark in colour, its flavour profile is more honeyed, marmaladey and floral, making it an option for chocolate-covered citrus peels or plain dark chocolate.
   

   See also:

Fortified wines for Christmas

Celebrate the festive season with fortified wines.

Decanter’s tastings team picks out the best sherries to drink this Christmas...

Sherry and food matching advice:

Treat Fino and Manzanilla as you would a white wine and serve them as cold as possible alongside hard cheeses, cured meats or prawns in garlic as an aperitif.

Good Amontillado pairs just as well with turkey as it does with a bowl of mixed nuts, while richer Oloroso should be tried with hung game or mature cheeses. Serve both cool.

Pedro-Ximénez is Christmas in a glass – deliciously sweet and viscous, with raisined, fruitcake flavours. If you can stomach it, drink a glass (chilled) with Christmas pudding. If not, pour some over ice cream for an alternative treat.

Know your sherry styles

Christmas sherry recommendations:

You might also like:

Sweet wine for Christmas

Tawny Port recommendations

Proper Sherry has been enjoying something of a hipster-ish revival in London, partly thanks to a surge in popularity for tapas, its natural partner. Decanter's content director John Stimpfig picks out his top six London bars for you to visit in the run-up to Christmas.

Looking for a different venue for Christmas drinks this year? Sherry fell out of popularity in the 1980s, but it has since become increasingly regarded as one of the world’s most underrated and undervalued fine wines by those in the know.

And the best way by far for Londoners to get a taste for its many charms is to visit one of the growing number of Sherry and tapas bars which have popped up right across the capital.

The best six London Sherry and tapas bars:

Bar Pepito

Outside it might be grey and cold but walk into the bijou Bar Pepito and you could be in the heart of downtown Jerez. With knowledgable Spanish staff, Sherry-butt tables and pata negra hams hanging from the ceiling, owner Richard Bigg makes sure that drinkers get a truly authentic experience. It has been around since 2010, when Bar Pepito was named Time Out’s Bar of the Year. Biggs keeps the Sherry menu simple and limits it to just 15 Sherries. But they cover all the bases from fino to amontillado and oloroso with some well chosen labels. And you’ll find very good tapas too.

barpepito.co.uk

3 Varnishers Yard, London, N1 9DF.

020 7841 7331

Capote y Toros

In stark contrast to Bar Pepito’s small but perfectly formed Sherry menu, Capote y Toros has London’s longest Sherry list with over 100 available by the glass. The idea here is that punters can experiment with a dazzling array of different styles and tapas dishes. The whole ensemble is relaxed, authentic and utterly memorable. You certainly don’t need to be a Sherry expert to enjoy it. Located on the Old Brompton Road, this bar is part of the popular Cambio de Tercio group of restaurants in South Kensington.

157 Old Brompton Road, London, SW6 0LJ

020 7373 0567

Jose

Jose, which opened in 2011, is the renowned Spanish chef and restaurateur Jose Piazrro’s first London venture. Inspired by the traditional tapas bars in Andalucia and Barcelona’s Boqueria Market, this intimate, lively and busy bar in trendy Bermondsey should be on every Sherry aficionado’s itinerary. The food is as good as the superbly curated Sherry list and changes daily depending on what fresh ingredients are sourced at the market. It’s also worth noting that you can’t book in advance, so you may have to queue at certain times of the day.

josepizarro.com/jose-tapas-bar/

104 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UB

020 7403 4902

Copita

Copita is the Spanish name for the traditional Sherry glass and all the Sherries featured on its list are available by the glass in servings of 75ml or 100ml, with by the glass prices beginning at just £3.75. The list includes Sherries from Hidalgo, Regente and one of my favourites Fernando de Castilla. Try the latter’s Fino Amontillado or Palo Cortado or a super sticky Pedro Ximenez. There’s also a good range of Spanish wines to boot. The food menu rotates daily and the no frills décor works for the casual ambience.

copita.co.uk

27 D’Arblay Street, London, W1F 8EP

020 7287 7797

Rosita and the Sherry Bar

Now in its fourth year, Rosita provides three different Sherry flights to enable novice Sherry drinkers to experiment with its different styles and flavours. In total, it has 20 well-priced Sherries all available by the glass, including a good number made by smaller producers. The Spanish staff, close set tables and marble-topped bar add to the authentic Andalucian experience. And for those who want to learn more, Rosita also organize Sherry tastings.

rositasherry.net

124 Northcote Road, London, SW11 6QU

020 7998 9093

Barrafina

This brilliant offshoot of the now sadly closed Fino Restaurant first hit London’s Frith Street in Soho in 2007 and has been attracting full houses ever since. Since then, two more locations have followed in Adelaide Street and Covent Garden 2013. The Hart Brothers’ winning formula includes an open kitchen, great sherries and mind-bogglingly good and inventive tapas.

barrafina.co.uk

54 Frith Street, London, W1D 4SL

10 Adelaide Street, London, WC2N 4HZ

43 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5AJ

• After a dinner of Sherry and tapas, head out to one of these wine bars in London to while away the rest of the night.

A refined and distinguished amontillado, with an elaborate nose of smoked walnuts, fresh leather, dark chocolate, raisins, roasted nuts, dates and umami notes. Explodes with flavour on the palate, which is full in flavour, concentrated, long and very true to type. A top wine (21.5%).

£75 Berry Bros & Rudd, General Wine Co

THIS WINE IS perhaps the ultimate expression of the en rama craze which has gripped Sherry fans in recent years – the bottling of ‘raw’ Sherries straight from the barrel, without clarifying or filtration.

Since 1880, the winemakers and winery managers of González Byass in Jerez have been using chalk to mark the casks of maturing wine in the bodega in order to identify their contents.

Long before the advent of barcodes and computerised scanners, a glance at the chalk would tell them all they needed to know: a single line meant a fino Sherry, a circle an oloroso. But then there were the few casks adorned with one or more palmas: meaning palm tree, the mark is a single chalk line with horizontal ‘branches’ coming out.

These wines are developed finos that are characterised by a special refinement, delicate aroma and longevity. As they mature further, they accumulate more branches on the cask – uno, dos and tres – until the final stage in their lives at cuatro palmas.

This wine is a remarkable 48 years old, making it a venerable amontillado, sourced from one of only six remaining casks in a part of the bodega known as the Museo Solera. Needless to say, this is very much a finite resource, with just one cask of Cuatro Palmas – equating to only 1,000 bottles – bottled each year.

The range was first released in 2011, when Jancis Robinson MW was involved in the selection and final blending of the wines. Since then there have been three further releases, always bottled in the autumn. For this Trophy-winning 2014 blend, winemaker Antonio Flores was joined by wine writer and blogger Jamie Goode.

González Byass winemaker Antonio Flores has only released four editions of Cuatro Palmas

Tasted against

There were no other Regional Trophies tasted in this category.

Sherry producers need to help consumers understand more about the vineyards behind their wines, according to the president of the Sherry wine council, Beltran Domecq.

A snapshot of vineyards in Jerez, Spain’s Sherry wine region. Image credit: Sherry Institute

The prowess of the Solera ageing system that is centred on bodegas’ cellars needs to sit alongside greater recognition for the work that takes place in the Jerez region’s vineyards, said Beltran Domecq in an interview with Decanter.com in London.

He believes there is untapped consumer interest in the vineyards and their specific geological characteristics, and that this could be printed on more bottle labels.

‘50% of the quality of the wine comes from the vineyard,’ he said. ‘Vineyard distinctions are very important. We have the Solera system, but why not say if the majority of this particular Fino is from Anina, Carrascal or Macharnudo vineyards? It would help a lot.’

Some wineries have started doing this, and particularly for Manzanilla wines, he said. He added that the Jerez DO regulatory council is seeking to help producers by creating a central vineyard map as a reference guide.

‘We are writing to everyone who has a vineyard and asking which area they [think they] belong to.’

The amount of land under vine in Jerez has fallen significantly in the past three decades, from around 22,000 hectares in the late 1970s to 7,000 hectares now.

This reflects lower demand for the region’s wines in general, but Domecq re-iterated comments made to Decanter.com in March last year that the region has found a balance between production and consumption.

Those growers who remain have greater ability to invest in vineyard management, he added. ‘Over the last three years, vineyard owners have been receiving three to four times more than they were before,’ he said.

Domecq also spoke of his respect for the emerging trend for unfiltered ‘en rama’ Sherries, as well as the DO Council’s plan to continue to promote Sherry and food pairings – as long as the proper glasses are used. ‘No schooners, please, Sherry is a wine,’ he said.

See also:

• See the top-rated wines from Decanter’s recent Jerez and Montilla tasting
• Sherry producers shake off years of surplus

Written by Chris Mercer

Find out about our Decanter World Wine Awards 2014 Sherry & Spain judging panel with biographies of the Regional Chairs Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW and Sarah Jane Evans MW plus Allan Cheesman, Ana Maria Martinez Terol, Annette Scarfe MW, Antony Moss MW, Aristide Spies MS, Arvid Rosengren, Barbara Philip MW, Ben Henshaw, Ben Llewelyn, Beverley Blanning MW, Beverly Tabbron MW, Bruno Murciano, Chris Murphy, Christine Parkinson, David Round MW, Dominique Vrigneau, Ed Adams MW, Ferran Centelles, Helen McEvoy, Jamie Hutchinson, Jean Marc Sauboua, Jo Ahearne MW, Juan Carlos Rincon, Luz Divina Merchán Díaz, Maria Antonia Fernandez-Daza, Matthieu Longuère, Melanie Jones MW, Nick Room, Peter Nixson, Pierre Mansour, Rhys Pender MW, Rut Cotroneo, Simon Woods, Stephen Skelton MW, Tom Forrest and Ulf Sjödin MW.

Regional chair: Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW

Ballesteros Torres has studied around the world, including in the renowned wine regions of Jerez, Burgundy, Napa and Bordeaux. He holds a degree in agrofood engineering and a masters in viticulture and oenology. A columnist at Spain’s PlanetaVino and Vino y Gastronomía magazines, as well as Vino! in Belgium, Ballesteros Torres works in four languages and is active in promotion and education. He is also on the Council of the Institute of Masters of Wine, the governing board of the Spanish Taster Union, and the Wine Expert Committee of the Basque Culinary Centre.

Regional chair: Sarah Jane Evans MW

Evans is an award-winning journalist who began writing about wine in the 1980s. She started drinking Spanish wine when a student at Cambridge University, which began a love affair with the country’s wines, food and culture, leading to her appointment as a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros de Vino for services to Spanish wine. In 2006, she became a Master of Wine, writing her dissertation on Sherry and winning the Robert Mondavi award for outstanding performance across all the theory papers. Currently vice-chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Evans divides her time between writing for wine magazines and reference books, wine education and judging.

Judges

Allan Cheesman

Allan Cheesman has been in the UK wine trade for 42 years, spending 31 of them at Sainsbury’s, where he was trading director. As he was responsible for the supermarket’s own-label development in the 1970s and 1980s, Cheesman is attributed with demystifying and popularising wine in the UK. Now semi-retired, Cheesman consults for several global wine businesses, undertakes ad hoc work in the industry, and is the Chairman of the WSET Awards Supervisory Board. A member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino and an Officier dans l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole, Cheesman has lifetime achievement awards from Off Licence News and the IWSC and, in 2011, he was awarded the Order of Isabel the Catholic by the King of Spain, the country’s highest civil award, for services to Spanish wines.

Ana Maria Martinez Terol

Originally from Jumilla in Spain, Ana Maria Martínez Terol only discovered the world of wine after getting a job as a tour guide at a local winery. She moved to the UK in 2007 to improve her English, but has ended up settling here through the enjoyment of her work in various sommelier positions for a number of different restaurants. Martínez Terol is currently the assistant head sommelier at Hotel Terravina where she has worked or works with amazing guests and a fantastic restaurant team including Laura Rhys MS and Tanguy Martin, the 2014 Best Young Sommelier of the UK. Martínez Terol completed her WSET Diploma in 2013.

Annette Scarfe MW

Annette Scarfe MW consults for restaurants in London and Asia, including Spanish restaurants Pizzaro and Jose. She is an international judge at competitions in London, China, New Zealand, Australia and France. She runs regular training sessions for the on-trade at several restaurants in London. Scarfe is a regular member of magazine tasting panels.

Antony Moss MW

Antony Moss MW is director of strategic planning for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). His current role covers long-term business planning and new product development, and he was previously responsible for the WSET’s textbooks and other education materials. Moss has worked for the company since 2004 and was the author of Wines & Spirits: Looking Behind the Label. Moss joined the wine industry in 1998 as a part-time sales advisor for S.H. Jones in Leamington Spa, and completed his WSET diploma in 2003 while working for Sainsbury’s supermarkets. He won the Austrian wine marketing board’s prize for both his WSET diploma and MW, and he is now a member of the education committee for the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW), supervising one of their two European second year residential programs.

Aristide Spies MS

Aristide Spies MS discovered his passion for the wine trade during a family holiday in the Périgord and immediately enrolled in a series of wine tasting and cookery courses on returning home to Belgium. Following secondary studies, he spent year as an exchange student in Australia, before beginning his wine career at the one Michelin star restaurant Les Forges du Pont d’Oye, as assistant to Pascal Carré, named Best Sommelier of Belgium 1992, 1996 and 1997. In 2007, Spies won this same title for himself, also winning the Club Gastronomique Prosper Montagné’s Premier Sommelier de Belgique. Spies then went on to represent Belgium at the Best Sommelier of Europe competition in Sofia in 2008 where he reached the semi-finals, and at the World’s Best Sommelier 2013 competition in Tokyo, where he was a finalist. Spies has written and broadcast about wine, and is a member of both the International Federation of Wine and Spirits Journalists and Writers (FIJEV) and the Jurade de Saint-Emilion. He currently runs La Cave des Sommeliers, a chain of wine shops in Belgium and Luxembourg, with his former mentor Pascal Carré.

Arvid Rosengren

Arvid Rosengren is the wine director of restaurant group Copenhangen Concepts, which owns and runs eight restaurants along three concept lines: MASH (steakhouse), Umami (Japanese/French fusion) and Le Sommelier (French brasserie). Joining the company in June 2011, Rosengren was previously the head sommelier at two of the group’s restaurants in Copenhagen, and prior to that worked in Stockholm at Restaurant Le Rouge, and spent a few months in the UK at the Hotel du Vin in Birmingham in 2008. Winning many awards on the sommelier competition circuit, Rosengren was named Best Sommelier of Sweden 2010 and last year became the Best Sommelier of Europe 2013, going on to compete in the Best Sommelier of the World semi-finals in Tokyo. Rosengren also teaches at sommelier schools in Scandinavia and writes for publications, including Livets Goda, and publishes his own blog at arvidrosengren.com.

Barbara Philip MW

Barbara Philip MW is a portfolio manager at the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) in Canada and is responsible for selecting European wines for the BC Liquor Store chain. Her career has included working as a sommelier and wine educator for many years, and she passed the MW in 2007. In addition to her role at the BCLDB, Philip also works as a freelance lecturer, radio columnist and wine judge through Barbariain Wine Consulting, a company she runs with her husband Iain.

Ben Henshaw

Ben Henshaw joined the wine trade in 2002 to work on the sales and marketing of Domaine Saint Hilaire, his family’s newly-acquired Languedoc vineyard. He set up Indigo Wine the following year, focusing initially on importing artisanal wines from southern France, and in the years since he has built up a diverse portfolio of Spanish wines.

Ben Llewelyn

Ben Llewelyn has worked in the wine trade since 1997, beginning at Oddbins, and then at Italian specialist Enotria. He moved his family to France in 2007 to experience the life of a winemaker while studying for his MW, and in 2008 he set up the wholesale wine agency and importer Carte Blanche Wines, which leans toward those producers who choose to make wine as naturally as possible and works with independent wine merchants and restaurants across the UK. Carte Blanche Wines purchased independent wine retailer Caviste in 2011.

Beverley Blanning MW

Beverley Blanning MW is a London-based independent wine journalist and the author of Wine Tasting and Biodynamics in Wine. A feature writer and taster for Decanter, and a contributor to other publications around the world, Blanning has judged at numerous wine competitions internationally. She is also a presenter and educator for corporate, consumer and trade events, including the Christie’s Wine Course.

Beverly Tabbron MW

Beverly Tabbron MW graduated from Kings College London in 1979 with a BA joint honours degree in German and Latin. Since passing her MW in 1996, Tabbron has been responsible for purchasing at Hallgarten Druitt, where she looks after its extensive portfolio, a role which involves a great deal of travel around the world visiting producers, and finding that there is always something new to discover in the world of wine.

Bruno Murciano

Bruno Murciano is the co-founder of De Vinos TASTESPAÑA. He was raised within a small family catering business and studied catering management in Castellon, Spain, following this up with a sommelier degree from Toulouse, France. In 2002 Murciano moved to the UK where he worked as a sommelier for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford, before moving to London to join Richard Corrigan at Lindsay House as head sommelier and then the Ritz London as chef sommelier. He was named Best Sommelier of Spain in 2008. Murciano then spent five years with Bibendum Wines Ltd as Prestige Accounts Manager. Murciano owns a biodynamic vineyard in his native Utiel-Requena, where he makes a range of artisanal wines from Bobal with David Sampedro Gil. In 2012, Murciano and Sampedro Gil teamed up with Valencia based Valsan 1831 to make a range of white wines from Moscatel.

Chris Murphy

Chris Murphy has worked at Marks & Spencer for over forty years, and has spent the last three decades sourcing wines from around the world. For the past six years he has concentrated on the M&S wine club, Wine Online, and has judged at wine competitions both at home and abroad. Murphy has tried to adhere to the advice given him by Christopher Tatham when he was first starting out: “the first duty of a wine is to be delicious”.

Christine Parkinson

Christine Parkinson started her career in the kitchen, spending three years as a head chef. She then moved into management, eventually gaining responsibility for 39 restaurants, at which point she decided to follow her passion and concentrate on wine. In 2001, Parkinson created the first wine list for Hakkasan, and then became wine buyer for the group’s restaurants including Sake No Hana and Michelin-starred Hakkasan, Yauatcha and HKK, with sites worldwide. She is a regular judge at competitions including New Wave Spanish Wines, Decanter World Wine Awards and the IWC Sake Awards. Parkinson has been called “one of the most creative wine buyers in the UK” by Jancis Robinson MW, and has won awards including Wine List of the Year 2011, Taste On-Trade Influencer 2009 and Imbibe Restaurant Personality of the Year 2011.

David Round MW

David Round MW joined the wine trade in 1991, working on the shop floor in Fortnum & Mason’s Wine Department. In 1994 he moved to Berry Bros & Rudd to help set up their Duty Free Wine Shop at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, and soon transferred to the Buying Department. Round passed his MW in 1999 and became fine wine manager at Direct Wines the following year. In 2003 Round moved to Bancroft Wines (formerly H&H Bancroft) where he was joint buying and marketing director. In 2009 Round joined Jascots Wine Merchants as director of purchasing, PR and marketing, leaving in late 2013 to help run a family business and set up his own wine consultancy.

Dominique Vrigneau

Dominique Vrigneau joined Majestic on a work experience placement in 1986 after completing a five-year PhD in agriculture and oenology in France. He was soon promoted to the position of buying manager, and in 1991 he joined Thierry’s Wine Services after a chance encounter with founder Thierry Cabanne. He became the company’s buying director for France, Austria, Germany, Australasia and the US, and in November 2012 Vrigneau moved to a new venture, Watermill Wines, and now combines his buying capabilities with selling to key accounts. Vrigneau is also a Chevalier du Tastevin and has judged in key international competitions for many years.

Ed Adams MW

Ed Adams MW joined the wine trade in 1983, working at old Bristol wine firm Howells’ shop in Bristol city centre. He then worked at Wines from Spain (1985-86) before joining the Co-op as a buyer in 1987, ending up as bulk wines and spirits buyer at what later became Kingsland wines & spirits. He became an MW in 1991 and joined Western Wines in 1994 as purchasing and quality control director. After the Vincor/ Constellation buyout he left in February 2006 to work with Bruce Jack of Flagstone and Constellation in South Africa. He continues to work with Jack on their Spanish wine project, La Báscula, which now comprises six wines from various denominations throughout Spain and is being sold in 11 countries.

Ferran Centelles

Ferran was a sommelier at elBulli restaurant between 2000 and 2011. When elBulli transformed itself to become elBullifoundation, Centelles worked as wine director and was also part of the team of Outlook Wine (The Barcelona Wine School) and www.wineissocial.com. He currently works as the Spanish wine specialist for www.jancisrobinson.com. Centelles was named Best Sommelier in Spain in 2006 (Ruinart) and was awarded the National Gastronomy Award in 2011.

Helen McEvoy

After studying French and business at university, Helen McEvoy joined Sainsbury’s graduate training scheme as a trainee buyer in the wine department and was instantly hooked on wine. After spending eight years buying wine for various UK retailers, McEvoy took a sabbatical break to work the 2012 vintage in New Zealand. Upon her return to the UK, she re-joined Direct Wines to manage the wine buying team, after which she moved to the retail side of the business. McEvoy is currently the retail and events director at Laithwaite’s, with overall responsibility for every aspect of direct customer contact which includes the operation of the company’s stores and concessions, and the over 200 consumer wine tasting events hosted annually.

Jamie Hutchinson

Jamie Hutchinson is the managing director and co-founder of independent wine merchant The Sampler. After a career in venture capital, Hutchinson opened The Sampler in Islington in 2006, followed by a South Kensington branch in 2011, and plans to open other shops in the future. Hutchinson’s passions are Sherry, traditional Rioja, grower Champagne and Beaujolais, while his weaknesses are for wines with personality and that go against normal commercial conventions. Hutchinson is also the holder of the WSET Rafael Balao Lustau Memorial Trophy and won the WSET Cava and Penedes Wine Institute Bursary.

Jean Marc Sauboua

Jean Marc Sauboua is head of winemaking and Bordeaux buyer for Laithwaites Wine. He joined Laithwaites in 1993 after training at Château Haut-Brion and has been making premium wines around the globe for over twenty years in France, Australia, Chile, Italy, Moldova, Spain and South Africa.

Jo Ahearne MW

Jo Ahearne MW first worked in the wine trade in the early 1990s at Oddbins, and after two years she went to Australia to work a vintage for Charles Melton, with his Nine Popes and Rose of Virginia wines. While in the Barossa Valley, she decided to sell her house and belongings and enrol in a winemaking degree at Charles Sturt University in Australia, whilst also working at Pipers Brook, Bailey’s of Glenrowan, Leasingham and Tintara wineries. Following this, Ahearne worked as a flying winemaker in Spain and France, was assistant winemaker at Charles Melton, spent four years making Jacob’s Creek, and spent time in Fitou in the Languedoc. In 2004, Ahearne moved back to the UK to blend wines for Marks & Spencer, before a stint as wine and spirits buyer for Harrods. She now works as a winemaking consultant in France, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Macedonia.

Juan Carlos Rincon

Juan Carlos Rincón is a London-based professional wine taster, broadcast journalist, presenter and blogger (www.blog.rincondecata.com), and was the wine expert for the Spanish Americas department of the BBC World Service for eight years. He also consults on wine for Latin-American markets and is the ambassador for Latin America of La Cave de Tain l’Hermitage. Rincón is a Commandeur of the Commanderie de Bontemps du Vins de Médoc, Graves, Sauternes and Barsac, a Vigneron d’Honneur of La Jurade de Saint Emilion, and a member of Les Hospitaliers de Pomerol and is active in Bordeaux, having developed the Spanish website for the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855, and as a translator for French wineries and wine organisations. Rincón’s most recent articles can be found in PlanetAVino, a leading Spanish wine magazine. He is currently developing his own website www.rincondecata.com.

Luz Divina Merchán Díaz

Luz Divina Merchán Díaz is the co-founder and director of www.quelujo.es, an online referral website about gastronomy and wine, and the co-founder of OCALAB (www.ocalab.es), a company dedicated to online marketing and strategy for the wine and food industries. Merchán Díaz graduated with degrees in agronomy and enology, following this up with a professional sommelier diploma from Madrid’s Chamber of Commerce in 2007. Merchán Díaz has been a sherry educator since 2009 and is a regular judge in international wine competitions. She is also a member of the World Federation of Travel Journalists and International Federation of Wine and Spirits Journalists and Writers and contributes articles showcasing Spain through its food and wines.

Maria Antonia Fernandez-Daza

Maria Antonia Fernandez-Daza is a Madrid-based consultant specialising in developing strategies for the internationalisation of Spanish wine companies. Since starting in the industry 25 years ago, Fernandez-Daza has witnessed significant changes in the Spanish wine trade in her numerous roles as winemaker, wine buyer, export manager as well as with her work for Icex and the Consejo Regulador of Rioja. Fernandez-Daza is also a wine lecturer, a regular panel taster for Planeta Vino magazine, and co-ordinates wine tours throughout Spain, a favourite part of her business. Fernandez-Daza holds a MSc in Viticulture & Oenology and the Diplôme Universitaire d’Aptitude à la Dégustation des vins (DUAD) from Bordeaux.

Matthieu Longuère

Matthieu Longuère MS is originally from Bordeaux and studied catering at college for six years before coming to England in 1994. Since then he has worked as head sommelier at Lucknam Park near Bath, Hotel du Vin in Bristol and La Trompette in Chiswick, and he is currently Le Cordon Bleu’s wine development manager at their school in London. In 2000, Longuère won the UK Sommelier of the Year Competition Trophée Ruinart, and he represented the UK as a semi-finalist in the Best Sommelier of Europe competition in 2010. Longuère became a Master Sommelier in 2005 and speaks French, Spanish, English and basic Swedish.

Melanie Jones MW

Mel Jones MW is a wine writer running quaffersoffers.co.uk, a website giving details of special offers at wine retailers, as well as providing tasting notes and forum discussions on great wine buys. She is also half of the Birds with Bottle duo on YouTube, a fortnightly fun wine programme, and has a weekly wine slot on BBC Radio Gloucestershire. Jones joined the wine trade shortly after leaving school, and has been running wine courses and writing about wine since the mid-1990s. In her spare time, Jones is a performance poet.

Nick Room

Nick Room joined Waitrose in 1987, initially buying beers and spirits before moving into wine. Passing the WSET diploma in 1992, Room worked in wine mail order for five years before returning to the main Waitrose wine buying office in 1998. Room specialises in South America, Spain, Portugal, sweet and fortified, and also buys all of Waitrose’s rosé wines. In 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2013, Waitrose won awards for its Iberian List, while its fortified wines are widely recognised as market-leading. Invested in 2006 for services to the Spanish wine industry, Room is currently serving as chairman of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and over the years he has spearheaded a number of initiatives designed to enhance the standing and reputation of the organisation.

Peter Nixson

Peter Nixson joined British Airways as an airline steward in 1973 – having never drunk a glass of wine in his life. Through his job he visited places including California, South Africa and Australia at the time when their wine industries were starting to become established. His interest in wine grew and, in 1982, he began to take courses at the WSET and earned his diploma with honours in 1986. The following year, he joined BA’s newly created wine department taking over its management in 1989. For the next 20 years he was responsible for the selection of all BA’s wines – over 450,000 cases a year – including the Concorde cellar. Nixson left BA in 2009, worked for Vinum, a specialist importer of Italian wines and currently owns wine consultancy firm Airline Wine Consultancy.

Pierre Mansour

Pierre Mansour spent four years with Berry Bros & Rudd as duty manager of its Heathrow store after an introduction to the wine trade in 1995 with the Antique Wine Company. He completed the WSET diploma in 1998 before joining Vinopolis as tastings manager, and in 2000 Mansour joined The Wine Society to oversee tastings and events, before taking on the role of buyer in 2004. He currently buys The Society’s Australian, New Zealand, Spanish, North American and Lebanese wines.

Rhys Pender MW

A passionate educator, wine lover, judge, writer, and grape grower/farmer, Rhys has worked in the wine industry since he was a teenager. Rhys pursued his food and wine passion by completing a Professional Culinary Diploma to ensure he eats well and all levels of the WSET programmes to make sure there was always good wine at the table. In 2004 Rhys began taking on the gruelling Master of Wine program, which culminated in Rhys becoming Canada’s youngest Master of Wine in 2010. Rhys runs a WSET wine school and consultancy through his business Wine Plus+ and, between travelling around the world, can be found with his boots in the dirt at his small four acre vineyard and winery in the Similkameen Valley – Little Farm Winery. He is a regular contributor to Canadian publications such as WineAlign.com, Macleans, Montecristo, Taste and Wine Trend. Rhys judges wine competitions internationally such as the Decanter World Wine Awards and the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition as well as for WineAlign and the Vancouver Magazine Wine Awards in Canada.

Rut Cotroneo

Rut Cotroneo achieved her sommelier qualification in Madrid in 1999 and immediately started working in various sommelier-related and managerial capacities for the “Who’s Who” of the restaurant world, including Madrid’s one Michelin-starred El Chaflan, the three Michelin-starred El Bulli, and El Bulli Hotel, the two Michelin-starred Mugaritz, Heston Blumenthal’s three Michelin-starred The Fat Duck, and the five star and one Michelin-starred Restaurant-Hôtel Ferrero in Valencia. From 2011 to 2013, Cotroneo held the position of chef sommelier at the one Michelin-starred Restaurant Pur in the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome, and has been the recipient of many awards. She currently consults for the two Michelin-starred Mauro Colagreco and his Menton-based Mirazur restaurant on a world-wide project.

Simon Woods

Simon Woods abandoned a career in computer systems design in 1988 to join the wine trade, thus indulging his two hobbies of wine and writing. In his twenty-five years of communicating about wine, Woods has been a columnist for The Financial Times’ The Business magazine, and five-times editor of the annual Which? Wine Guide. He was voted International Online Wine Columnist of the Year at the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards 2010 for his work on simonwoods.com, a site offering a combination of tasting notes, rants and videos, and his books include the award-winning I Don’t Know Much About Wine But I Know What I Like.

Stephen Skelton MW

Skelton started his career in wine in 1975. After 12 months at Schloss Schönborn in Germany’s Rheingau and two terms at Geisenheim Wine School, he returned to the UK in 1977 to establish Tenterden Vineyards in Kent, where he made wine for 23 vintages. He was winemaker at Lamberhurst Vineyards from 1988–1991. Skelton is a consultant to the English wine industry and is involved with planting vineyards for the production of sparkling wine. He became a Master of Wine in 2003.

Tom Forrest

Edinburgh-born Tom Forrest first fell in love with wine, and especially Pinot Noir, at the age of 18 when he was given a bottle of Nuits-St-Georges by a hotel manager. Following a career in hotel management, he began teaching wine & spirits to hospitality students in 1982, and is currently the executive manager for wine experience and education at Vinopolis, where he has been working since 1999. A member of the Institute of Wines and Spirits and an accredited WSET wine educator, Forrest oversees the WSET education programme and the calendar of master classes at Vinopolis, which includes the ‘Meet the Experts’ series where Oz Clarke regularly features. He has judged at various international wine competitions since 1997, is the author of The Complete Wine Course, and in 2007 he won the UK Champagne Ambassador competition and was a European finalist. Forrest has appeared on TV shows including This Morning, the Daily Politics Show and Come Date With Me, as well as on various local radio stations in London and the South East.

Ulf Sjödin MW

Ulf Sjödin MW originally worked in chemical engineering, holding a masters in the subject, but switched to marketing when he joined the wine trade in 1996. He worked for importer and producer V&S, where he held the position as PR manager for 13 years, and after a period as a self-employed consultant on pricing and market analysis, Ulf joined the Swedish retail monopoly Systembolaget in 2010 to become head of category management, a position he holds today. In 2007, Ulf became the first Master of Wine in Sweden, receiving awards for best tasting paper, best paper on viticulture and best total result on the MW exam.

Written by John Abbott

Hear from our Sherry Regional Co-Chairs Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW and Sarah Jane Evans MW on which wines to buy, which wines to leave on the shelf and what to keep an eye on from this year's Decanter World Wine Awards....

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW

Again, the defining factor for Sherry is sheer quality. I cannot think of any other category of wines that, year after year, has a hit-rate that exceeds 80% medal winners. Furthermore, the high number of Gold medals is a problem rather than an advantage, since we tend to be tougher when so many wines are excellent. Many Silver medals were particularly close to Gold in this category. But the Trophyand Gold-winning amontillados – plus the olorosos, palo cortados PXs and, of course, the Moscatel and fino Trophies – are, without exception, miracles of complexity and sensorial beauty.

What should we buy from here?

Rare old boutique wines in small bottles. Most will keep well for up to two weeks after the bottle is opened. Enjoy sipping a few drops of the elixirs that are amontillados and palo cortados each night for many nights, or pour a bit of PX over the best Stilton for the ultimate dessert. Treat these beauties as drinkable perfumes.

What should we leave on the shelf?

The most basic categories of fino and manzanilla are not worth bearing the Sherry name. Sherry is a special wine and costly to produce; cheap bottles are the result of a compromise with quality – a notion foreign to real Sherry. The same applies to cheap creams and pseudo-amontillados. Also avoid manzanillas and finos that look to have been on the shelf for a long time. These wines deteriorate relatively quickly in bottle.

What should we keep an eye on?

Moscatel – it’s an original style with great aromatic precision and worth trying. And in Jerez, big can be beautiful, so don’t be afraid of buying Sherries from the big brands. They have broad ranges of every style and practically all of them are a guarantee of quality.

Sarah Jane Evans MW

With three trophies and 11 Golds, this was a very successful year. Some Sherries earned their medals easily, being simply perfect all round. Others, especially the oldest wines, were less immediately lovable. These, though, had a venerable depth, which made up for their almost mouth-puckering intensity. This is what history tastes like. From amontillado through palo cortado to oloroso and PX, the Palomino grape revealed its astonishing capacity for transformation in the cellar. If there was a disappointment – and there was – it was that we were not able to give a single Gold to a manzanilla, and only one to a fino.

What should we buy from here?

Any of the Golds and Silvers listed here. Go to Jerez and taste them in situ if you can. It’s a small region, easily visited by car, and all of the wineries listed here welcome visitors. This year Jerez is European Wine Capital, so the city is especially welcoming. Finally, be sure to try the Moscatel Trophy – it’s a frequent runner-up in the Trophies, and this year for the first time it beat a fine selection of PXs to take top prize.

What should we leave on the shelf?

In general, the low-priced, too-young manzanillas and finos. This cradle-snatching means that they simply have not had enough time in the cellar to develop any character.

What should we keep an eye on?

The en rama finos and manzanillas. These are seasonal bottlings of more or less unfiltered Sherries straight from the barrel – fresh and unique. Following the same trend, there are some producers offering finos with more age than is usual – on the way to becoming amontillados. This, too, is a way of rediscovering the lost flavours of fino. With bodegas releasing this range of treasures from their cellars, there has rarely been such a good time for Sherry lovers as the present.

Written by Decanter

This year's Decanter World Wine Awards Regional Trophy for Sweet Sherry over £15 went to Lustau, Emilín, Moscatel NV (17%)

Tasted against:

• Bodegas Hidalgo-La Gitana, Triana 30 Years Old VORS, Pedro Ximenez
• Gonzalez Byass, Matusalem Aged 30 Years, Cream
• Lustau, 30 Years Old VORS, Pedro Ximenez
• Osborne, Sibarita 30 Years Old VORS, Oloroso
• Osborne, Venerable, Pedro Ximenez

Profile:

Lustau has an unrivalled portfolio of Sherries – 40 in total – and it is the only producer that makes Sherry in the three towns of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Its aim is to highlight the varying personalities of Sherries that are produced within this so-called ‘Sherry triangle’.

In the 1940s, Emilio Lustau Ortega, son-inlaw of founder José Ruiz-Berdejo, entered the business and relocated the winery to Santiago, a historic area of Jerez de la Frontera. It was Lustau Ortega who was also responsible for the creation of the Solera range, of which this Trophy-winner forms part.

The grapes for Emilín are grown in a vineyard called Las Cruces in Chipiona. Close to the sea and with sandy soil, it offers perfect conditions for growing Moscatel grapes (and is also where Lustau grows its Pedro Ximinéz).

Once the Moscatel grapes have been harvested and fermented, the wine is aged in American oak barrels in Jerez de la Frontera, using the traditional solera system, before being released onto the market where Lustau sells about 20,000 bottles a year.

Perfect on its own, Lustau also recommends enjoying it alongside cheeses, rich desserts or sweet pastries.

Written by Decanter

After years of seeing their vineyards diminish due to declining consumer demand, Spain's Sherry producers have found balance, according to the head of the region's trade council.

Sherry sales fell once more in the fortified wine category’s largest export market, the UK, in 2013, down 6% in volume and 3% in value versus 2012.

‘I couldn’t believe it after the events we did,’ said Beltran Domecq (pictured), president of the CRDO Jerez-Xérès-Sherry & Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

But, his optimism for the sector is undimmed. ‘I feel very optimistic,’ he told Decanter.com in London this week.

‘The sector has come to a moment where we have balance. We have had a long problem of excess production since the mid-1970s. [But] the vineyard area has shrunk from 22,000ha at its 70s peak to 7,000ha in 2014.

‘I think it will stay at 7,000 and if things go well, it will slowly increase, but on a quality message. We have an adequate surface of vineyards to produce what can be sold and vineyard owners are making money. This has been happening over the last three years.’

According to Domecq, bodegas have around four years worth of stock in their cellars. ‘That’s exactly where we should be, because the average ageing is four years. Before, bodegas had much more stock.’

Domecq believes the approachable style of cream should appeal to younger drinkers who can progress to more complex styles.

To emphasise the quality message, Domecq pointed to en rama – Fino and Manzanilla sherries that have undergone fewer stabilisation steps before bottling. ‘They have undergone some stabilisation otherwise they would be unstable and hazy,’ Domecq said.

Written by Lucy Britner

Port is set to overtake sherry as the leading fortified wine in the UK by 2020, according to a major port shipper.

Croft Pink: a different demographic

The prediction can be extrapolated from a reading of Neilsen statistics for fortified wines over the last 16 years, Andrew Hawes, managing director of wine importers Mentzendorff says.

According to Neilsen, in 1996 port sales were around 500,000 cases. This figure has crept steadily upwards, standing at 759,000 cases in 2011, an average increase of more than 50%.

Since reaching a peak of 897,000 cases in 2007, however, volume sales have shown a slight downward trend to 2011’s figure.

Sherry and vermouth, which were selling in excess of 2m cases a year in the mid-1990s, have now declined by more than 50% in some instances, each selling around 1m cases. Vermouth has fallen from 2.03m to 794,000 cases since 1996, sherry from 2.05m to 1.19m cases.

In value terms ‘the trend is even clearer’, Hawes says, with the UK off-trade port market rising by 50% from £50m to £75m, and sherry’s value falling from £124m to £89m over the same period, 1996 to 2011.

This makes port the number two fortified wine in the UK and places it ‘within striking distance of sherry,’ Hawes says.

‘On this basis, if the same long-term trend continues then port is destined to become the leading fortified wine in the UK market by 2020.’

Hawes is also heartened by the fact that port appears to enjoy ‘a much healthier demographic compared to other fortified wines’.

Neilsen statistics show port consumers are younger on average than those of other fortified wines, the 25-44 year consumer age group accounting for 21% of expenditure on port, the 45-64 age group for 48% and the 65+ group for 29%.

Sherry purchasing is weighted towards an older demographic, with the 65+ age group accounting for 55% of sherry expenditure, Hawes says.

Adrian Bridge, CEO of the Fladgate Partnership, which owns Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft, told Decanter.com, ‘This isn’t to say we’re going to go out and target 20-year-olds. Port has to continue to appeal to those older consumers – 35 plus – who can afford aspirational products.’

Bridge cited Fladgate’s sponsorship of a port slot on independent radio station Jazz FM as an example of a move to target that 35+ age group.

He also pointed to the development of Croft Pink, a rosé port, which aims to ‘expand the season, usage, and age profile’ of port drinkers, as well as appealing to women, and ‘has 1% of the total pink port sales worldwide’, appealing particularly to consumers in Brazil, Canada and Denmark.

Written by Adam Lechmere

A new internet retailer with one of the most comprehensive sherry lists on the web has just opened.

Barbadillo: most expensive

losvinosdejerez.com, a privately-funded initiative but with the blessing of the Consejo Regulador de Jerez, was launched at the Consejo’s offices with the news that it is ‘the first one of its kind to focus entirely on Sherry’.

This is not quite accurate in that the site also lists wines from Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Castilla, Cava and Champagne as well as rum, brandy whisky, gin and other drinks products.

But it does, however, have possibly the most impressive range of Sherries ever gathered together.

There are 223 wines listed from 16 bodegas including 27 Finos, 30 Manzanillas, 31 Amontillados, 48 Olorosos, 13 Palos Cortados and 34 Pedro Ximenez, ranging from familiar everyday names to some extremely exotic and ancient wines.

The most expensive are Barbadillo’s Reliquia range at €183.14 and the cheapest is Fino Mira la Mar from the AECOVI co-op at €3.15.

Aside from the Reliquia there are old wines, seldom if ever seen outside the region, such as the Old and Plus range from Sanchez Romate, Victoria Regina Oloroso from Díez Merito, and Maestro Sierra’s Palo Cortado.

More familiar names include whole ranges from González Byass, Garvey’s and Luís Caballero/Lustau.

Written by John Radford

The Sherry industry is facing a series of crises as the threat of strikes at harvest time is added to oversupply and falling prices – but there is reason for optimism, some insiders say.

Gonzalez Byass: ‘reasons to be optimistic’

This week negotiations between bodega employers and union representatives resumed in a bid to avoid a further strike at harvest time over pay and working conditions.

The last year has seen a cocktail of scandals and setbacks. In August 2010, nine bodegas, and the industry’s consejo regulador, were fined €6.7m for attempting to fix the prices of supplies for supermarket Sherries.

And more recently the sector has been embroiled in pensions irregularities, promotional budgets have shrunk to next to nothing and stocks remain uncomfortably high.

Added to this, on 29 June workers came out on strike over pay and working conditions for the first time in two decades – and they are threatening to strike again during harvest.

While around 6,000 hectares of vineyard are being uprooted this year, one of the main problems is oversupply, Jorge Pascual, director of Sanlúcar-based Delgado Zuleta said, with so much wine around, supermarkets are able to offer rock-bottom prices for supplies for their own-brand sherries.

‘There is nowhere for the wine to go,’ Pascual said, but added that he could see a future ‘for medium-sized and smaller family businesses with strong brands’.

The industry is increasingly polarised between large volume producers and smaller bodegas who focus on high quality sherries. The latter includes Fernando de Castilla, Emilio Hidalgo, Hidalgo-La Gitana, Guiérrez Colosia, Maestro Sierra and Bodegas Tradición.

Fernando de Castilla’s Jan Pettersen said, ‘We are part of a new wave of producers offering traditional styles and we target a new set of consumers who never drank medium and cream sherry.’

The UK is leading the trend for these smaller producers, as well as major companies such as González Byass, which operate in both the mainstream and the upper end.

Jeremy Rockett, marketing director of González Byass UK, reckons the vibrant London restaurant scene could mark a turning point.

‘There is probably more reason to be optimistic now than for the last decade. The latest restaurant openings – Morito, Capote y Toros, Bar Pepito and José – have lent themselves perfectly to Sherry and unashamedly call themselves sherry bars, or concentrate on their sherry credentials.’

He added, ‘Obviously it takes a long time for a London fad to become a wider trend, but past revelations that sherry was getting popular were usually based on great press coverage, this time people are buying Sherry and happily drinking it.’

Written by Patricia Langton

Gonzalez Byass has doubled production for the re-launch of its Tio Pepe En Rama, a sherry that it hopes will revive the flagging sector.

See the full interview with Pedro Gonzalez below:

Tio Pepe En Rama – rama literally means ‘raw’ – is a young, ultra-fresh fino made from unfiltered and unclarified Tio Pepe taken from the cask in spring when the flor is at its thickest. This is the second year of production.

With no stabilisation of any sort the sherry must be drunk within three months of bottling, the company advises.

‘We want people to taste it as they would if it came directly from the barrel,’ marketing director Jeremy Rockett said.

Gonzalez Byass executives which also owns several wine brands, have high hopes for Tio Pepe En Rama, doubling production this year to 5000 bottles.

They refer to London’s mini-boom in sherry and tapas bars as an indicator of the burgeoning popularity of top-end sherry.

London has gained four new sherry bars in the last 12 months: Bar Pepito in King’s Cross, Capote y Toros in Knightsbridge, Morito in the City of London, and the soon-to-be opened Jose Pizarro in Bermondsey.

But the sherry sector is not robust. Overall sales in the UK are falling by 5% a year, and Byass’ Croft Pale Cream, and Harvey’s Bristol Cream, both brands bought overwhelmingly by consumers in their 60s, dominate the market.

However, managing director Martin Skelton said, the top cuvees like rare old solera sherries had doubled sales in the last year, and according to Nielsen, sales of Tio Pepe were up 18% year on year at Christmas.

This was the result of the very healthy London market, Skelton said, pointing out that wine merchant Lea & Sandeman to sell out of all its 300 bottles of Tio Pepe en Rama even before delivery.

Gonzalo Byass, a director of the venerable Spanish company, agreed that there was a good deal of work to do to make sherry more mainstream in Britain.

‘We must change the culture of sherry-drinking in Britain,’ he said.

Tio Pepe En Rama is available in London restaurants such as Hakkasan and tapas bars, and Harvey Nichols.

Written by Adam Lechmere

And the winner is...

Emilio Lustau Oloroso Dulce 1997

It is widely understood that great wines are made in the vineyard – yet Sherry is a rare exception.

This Oloroso proves the case that Sherry is the ultimate winemaker’s wine. While romance puts the quality of Sherry down to the quiet influence of the silent cellars and old oak barrels, it’s actually the capataz or cellar master, in this case Manuel Lozano, who is the key. This Oloroso shows his transformative power: the Palomino grape is the same one that produces ultra light dry finos and manzanillas.

Typically Sherry is a non-vintage wine, blended over time in a solera system. However, in this less usual case the wine is made from grapes from a single vintage, fermented to a desired level of sweetness, and then aged for well over a decade.

The result is a remarkable achievement – this is a rich wine, rather than a sweet one, rich in aroma, flavour, intensity and complexity. The trophy is only the tip of a remarkable iceberg for Lozano in the year’s Awards: 5 out of the 6 golds come from Lustau; plus another round dozen medals.

Nor is this a one-off: year after year Lozano wins medals worldwide. Lustau itself is part of a larger group – the Luis Caballero drinks business bought it in 1990, nearly a century after it was founded, and this in turn brought expansion. As a result in 2008 Lustau acquired the famous Sherries La Ina, Botaina, Río Viejo and Viña 25 from Domecq.

For lovers of the historic La Ina Fino, it’s future under Lozano is bright.

www.lustau.es

0034 956 34 15 97

Written by Sarah Jane Evans

And the winner is...

Fernando de Castilla Antique Amontillado

For a young company, Fernando de Castilla has had a remarkable achievement, in a short time overturning the negative image of Amontillado almost single-handedly.

MD Jan Pettersen, half-Norwegian but with a very long pedigree of working in the sherry business, relaunched the old bodega and in the process revived the image of very fine old Sherry with the Antique range. Against the tradition of brown bottles, he packaged the range in clear 50cl glass.

He avoided the more usual route of declaring an age for his Sherries of 20 or 30 years. Instead he chose his own definition of ‘Antique’ and allowed the resplendent colours of his Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado and PX to speak for their maturity. Yet despite this apparent iconoclasm, Pettersen is a real Sherry ‘insider’, knowing who to talk to when building the quality of the cellar, locating barrels of fine Sherries across the region to create the basis for his soleras.

The outcome has been consistent excellence – with the range garlanded at the outset, and since then winning consistent prizes. The Amontillado lies at the borderline between youth and age, with a memory of the fino it once was, but now showing the depth and power of growing age. The small bodega where it is made retains a classical charm, hidden away in the impossible to find Calle Jardinillo in Jerez.

White painted, its small, dark bodegas offset from the patio, the ultra-modern Fernando de Castilla yet appears more traditional than most. Be sure to take a detour to the Brandy bodega.

The company’s brandy is exceptionally good, enough to tempt even the most hardened of Sherry drinkers.

www.fernandodecastilla.com

+34 956 18 24 54

Written by Sarah Jane Evans

Spanish entrepreneur Abel Lusa is about to open his fourth London restaurant – a tapas bar devoted to sherry.

Capote y Toros (cape and bulls) joins Lucas’ acclaimed Old Brompton Road restaurant Cambio de Tercio and its nearby siblings Tendido Cero and Tendido Cuatro, both tapas bars.

Described as a ‘ham and sherry’ bar on the website, the tiny bar – it seats just 20 – will carry ‘at least 100 sherries – as much as we can get in the UK plus many sent from Spain,’ Lusa told Decanter.com.

There will also be sherries specifically blended for the restaurant, in a collaboration with Peter Dauthieu, chairman of importer Ehrmanns. In all about 30 wineries will be represented, with prices ranging from entry level, to £300 a bottle.

This is London’s second dedicated sherry bar, after Bar Pepito opened in King’s Cross this time last year.

Lusa said his goal was to educate people about sherry. ‘Most people – even in Spain – don’t know much about sherry. I want to really push them to have flights, to get them drinking during the meal as well.

‘We will have flights of five wines, with descriptions. There will be Finos and Manzanillas as aperitifs, and Palo Cortados and Olorosos to go with food.’

Lusa said that the bulk of sherry sales in his restaurants were for the aperitif wines, and sweet sherries with dessert, but he is convinced that as soon as people understand how well sherry goes with food, they will be converted.

Capote y Toros will offer 100 sherries by the glass and about 30 in half bottles, as well as 400 Spanish wines from the restaurant next door.

There will be simple tapas, and the ultra-exclusive Cinco Jotas Pata Negra ham supplied by Osborne.

Capote y Toros is located at 157 Old Brompton Road in South Kensington and is three doors down from the flagship Cambio de Tercio. It opens at the end of March.

Written by Adam Lechmere