31/03/2024:
Please note – because of his travels Colin took a sabbatical Dec. 2023 – April 2024.
The April Wine Matters article will appear here very soon.
WINE MATTERS
Your monthly wine article by Colin Harkness
As Noddy Noler, leader singer of Slade once so memorably sang (well screamed, really) – It’s Christmas!
One of the few rules in our house is that Christmas only starts in December, not before! The decorations have been retrieved from the ‘trastero’ and placed tidily in the hall, ready for the decking thereof, but it’s only today that they will start to be shown. The tree, with its roots, will be brought inside soon; the daft Christmas jumpers will be reappearing; the lights will be put up, indoors and outside; and the lists of required purchases (including pressies, of course) will be started.
However, there is one particular, important part of Christmas that has been occupying my thoughts for quite a while now, as always. Yes, you guessed it – which wines to buy and recommend for the feast day itself. In fact throughout the year this is an ongoing interest of mine. I taste hundreds of wines each year and occasionally I come across impressive examples that I would like to drink with our Christmas Dinner. The difficult part is narrowing down the choice to finally decide upon three or four to recommend for the various courses.
So my friends, here are my thoughts for Christmas 2023.
For me it isn’t just essential to start with sparkling wine – it’s obligatory! There are of course lots of possibilities – many people think first of Champagne, but not me! Over centuries Champagne has done a marvellous job of convincing everyone that it is the one by which all others should be measured. I take a different view (read why in May’s edition of the Expats in Spain magazine) plus, as we are in Spain, I’m certainly going to recommend a Cava.
To be accurate, Cava de Guarda Superior, and to be precise Rovellats Masia Siegle XV Gran Reserva. This outstanding fizz will break any ice between relatives whom you don’t often see, as well as being perfect with all manner of amuse-bouches and many starters too. Put simply – it’s wonderful, giving Champagne more than just a run for its money! (http://www.cavasrovellats.com/es/productos-cava-y-vino/cavas/cava/13-masia-siglo-xv)
For white wine, be it to pair with a starter or to partner the white meat of the turkey I’d like to recommend Albariño de Fefiñanes III Año. A wonderful wine with the fresh, white stoned fruit aromas – the flavour of classic Albariño grapes. It enjoys as well a certain intensity, depth and body plus an endearing slight creaminess following its 30 months in tank, 7 months of which have been with lees contact! (http://www.fefinanes.com/en/)
Over the year I’ve tasted several possibilities for the red to go with Christmas Turkey (and indeed any of the meat dishes you may prefer). I thought I had decided, until just a few weeks ago when I visited Bodegas Montesanco, Teulada, Alicante. This is the sister bodega to their winery, of the same name, in Utiel-Requena, where they are so lucky to have found a small parcel of land at altitude where they discovered a vineyard whose Bobal variety vines are at least 100 years old!
Vines of such an age produce few grapes, as low as one kilo per plant, but the ones that do grow are incredibly rich. So, production is very limited, but the wine is amazing! Món Bobal Centenario is going to grace any table and for me it is the perfect choice for a celebration such as Christmas. I think we all like to push the boat out a little when we buy for this special day and I’m sure that for many readers 29€ is doing exactly that! However, I’m quite sure that were this wine from any of the more famous wine producing areas of Spain it would cost, at least double!
Excellent value for money. A superb red wine that is drinking perfectly right now! www.vinos@montesanco.com
Again referring to a previous article of mine here, my final recommendation for Christmas 2023 is a Sherry, from Andalucia of course and one to enhance the glorious Christmas Pudding/Cake you may have planned for your dessert.
Described as liquid Christmas Cake/Pudding, PX Sherry has to be the perfect partner for this oh-so rich Christmas Day dessert. In fact, if you’re too full for the pudding, drink this instead – all the same aromas and flavours with an alcoholic edge too! www.lustau.es/en/
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster; a Cruise Line Speaker; and a Novelist. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic.
Facebook: Colin Harkness; Twitter: @colinonwine; Instagram: colinharkness53
WINE MATTERS
Your monthly wine article by Colin Harkness
WINE TOURISM IN SPAIN
My first experience of ‘wine tourism’ in Spain was actually farcical – that’s why I’ve put the phrase in inverted commas! You’ll soon see why.
September 1997, a month after I’d emigrated here from the UK, I went on a coach tour. I wanted to learn about my local area and enjoy its charms, but I was also keen to see and experience more of my new country. Included in the itinerary was a visit to a bodega (winery) in the area we would be touring. Perfect I thought.
We toured the bodega, my first experience of Spanish wine cellars – stainless steel fermentation vats, oak barrels, bottling plants and so on. Quite interesting for a newby. We were then led to another part of the cellar, where loading, stacking etc was carried out, for our tasting as advertised in the advert for the coach tour,
As even newcomers to Spain will know, it’s hot here in September – exactly the conditions that wine doesn’t like. However it seemed that this crucial point hadn’t really been recognised by the bodega owners, and it got worse. Sitting at the bottom of the steps there was a guy with a stack of white plastic cups on a table which also supported a drum (surely it hadn’t once been an oil drum, had it?) full of warm red wine. He ladled some of the said, actually undrinkable, wine into the cups. Every now and then a little ash would drop into the wine off the Ducados cigarette that was stuck at the corner of his mouth! And I’m not even going to mention the flies!
Thank heavens proper wine tourism has changed since then!
In fact I was there before the start of wine tourism in Spain, before the concept had really been thought out – indeed the word ‘enoturismo’ hadn’t been coined. When visiting bodegas for my wine writing etc I would ask those wineries which had really impressed me if they would mind my bringing a group to also tour the facility, listen to the stories behind the bodega and, of course, taste the wines.
Discussions followed re what I thought would be required. Wine glasses for a start, not plastic cups; wines served at correct temperatures; a selection of their choice, perhaps four to six different wines, but including their entry level as well as their top wine, or at least near to it, depending on cost; and so on. The small Travel Agency I’d started specialised in day trips and short breaks – over time, most included a bodega visit.
Those who have been in Spain a long time will remember when things were really bad financially here – La Crisis, still sends a shiver across the backs of those in most industries in Spain. Wine sales were badly affected, locally, nationally and internationally. Many bodegas saw that enoturismo could well be a way to keep at least some of the all-important cash flow going. Several added their own olive oil to the tasting and their after sales, maybe also their neighbours’ local cheese and so on.
This innovation helped them through it all – it helped me too.
How I’ve seen the industry develop! *I’ve tasted Cava high up in a hot air balloon above the vineyard whence it came. I’ve enjoyed a red whilst sitting on the back of a tractor that was ploughing gently between the rows of wines. Elsewhere another red was tasted on the back of a river boat taking people sailing small rivers crisscrossing vineyards. I’ve been thrilled to pause from my vine pruning lesson to taste a refreshing white from the very same vines. I’ve drunk in the atmosphere (as well as some wine!) underground in ancient bodegas, surrounded by those clay ‘tinaja’ jars used to make and store wine where wood was scarce.
We’ve even tasted wine in such a historic cellar as the place, beneath the streets of Toro, from which Columbus bought his wine supplies for his epic voyage! Honey tasting, cheese tasting, cold meats and so much more have all been well appreciated by the clients I’ve brought to places they’d never heard of, let alone the bodegas! The full list is too long, there are so many opportunities.
Every year a new idea is added to the list of options that bodegas offer for their wine tourism visitors and it’s always a pleasure for me to recommend a bodega visit to people who contact me or post on Facebook. It’s part of the culture of Spain and it really shouldn’t be missed!
If any readers would like recommendations as to where to visit, I’d be happy to help – just message me through Facebook and I’ll get back to you asap.
*You can see a short promo reel of my TV show where I sampled various of the wine tourism options, and more, here, just to give you an idea of what’s available: https://www.colinharknessonwine.com/media/ –
Just click on the arrow.
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster; a Cruise Line Speaker; and a Novelist. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic.
Facebook: Colin Harkness; Twitter: @colinonwine; Instagram: colinharkness53
WINE MATTERS
Your monthly wine article by Colin Harkness
A ROSÉ BY ANY OTHER NAME . . . .
Rosado, for example (or Blush, or Pink and so on), would smell as sweet, dry and everything in between! Yes, it’s time to talk about Rosado – let’s give it the Spanish name – and it comes in all styles here in Spain. The Spaniards are rightly proud of their rosados, and we should be too!
Firstly (though in fact I’m soon going to contradict myself) rosado is made by using the same black grape varieties we use for red wines. Spanish varieties like: Garnacha, Tempranillo and Monastrell; as well as international varieties which, like ourselves, have made a home here: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot etc are all used in the production of rosado wine.
The difference in colour between those dark and brooding red wines, for which Spain is so famous, and the whole spectrum of pink hues to be found in her rosado wines is simply a matter of time. The juice of the grapes is left to macerate with the black skins – the longer, the darker the colour of the resulting wine, the shorter the lighter. Voila, le vin rosé est arrive! And I mix my languages here deliberately – please read on.
However, here comes the contradiction. There is one Denominación de Origen (protected specialist area of production, similar, though not the same, as the AOC/AOP system used in France) which specialises in rosado wines using a different method. DO Cigales uses black and green grapes for many of their rosados, often resulting in some glorious rosé wines. The Protos pictured here, for example, is a blend of six varieties – two black and four white! Some other DOs occasionally use this method and some Spanish sparklers also use a combination of green and black.
The styles of Spanish rosados are as varied as their colour shades. We can find mineral dry rosados; dry, though fruit driven; off-dry fruity examples; and luscious sweet ones too. Colour wise, there are exceedingly pale, Provencal pinks (told you we’d be talking French again!) whose hue isn’t so different from slightly tinged water colour, all the way to very dark pink, which may be thought of as wannabe reds!
Also there are many areas of production. Where there are red wines (pretty much everywhere in Spain!) you’ll also find rosados. The raw materials are there – the black grapes (used mostly, as we’ve learned) but there is another, historic and financial consideration too. In the past and still to this day, Spain is famed for its red wines, often aged for sometimes quite lengthy periods in barrel. During this ageing time the winery is sitting on potential sales, potential incoming payments but it has to pay its workers and make a profit whilst waiting. The vast majority of rosado wines are best drunk young. Bingo – cash flow!
I’m not one of those people who think pink only when it’s warm/hot. We drink Spanish rosados the whole year round, not just in Spring and Summer. There are so many pairing possibilities. Paella is a great amigo of rosado; enjoy it with all manner of fish, particularly those of a similar colour like trout and salmon; shellfish, particularly crab and prawns are perfect with rosado; Asian food, particularly Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine is often lifted by a glass of rosado; various vegetarian dishes pair really well; plus, for the sweeter styles, try it with desserts. And, of course, it really is such a super sipping and chilling wine.
Speaking of which, serve your rosado chilled (well-chilled in the hot summer months) but not too cold as this will restrict the flavour and particularly the wonderful soft red fruit and floral aromas with which this wine is so often associated!
Salud!
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster; a Cruise Line Speaker; and a Novelist. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic.
Facebook: Colin Harkness; Twitter: @colinonwine; Instagram: colinharkness53
WINE MATTERS
Your monthly wine article by Colin Harkness
IN PRAISE OF WINE SHOPS
I don’t know the countries from which Expat readers came. I don’t know the cities, the towns or the villages, so I can’t speak with any authority about how supermarkets where you lived, in your own countries, serve the local community. I can’t even do the same for the UK, whence I came – we only visit once or twice a year, having lived here for 26 years, and counting.
However I can speak with lots of experience about supermarkets here in Spain and, for me, very importantly about wine shops.
Of course, supermarkets started because of our busy lives – we need convenience stores to save time, to avoid parking problems and to have a wide choice. We shop in supermarkets – who doesn’t? However, we rarely buy wine from supermarkets – and I’d like you to consider following our lead.
There is, often, a large choice in supermarkets, however, because they need to shift the wines quickly it’s usually just the big names that are stocked. Not only that, but, because of the need have the huge volume required to stock all of their stores, supermarkets generally buy from the more ‘industrial’ producers. Producers whose goal can be quantity rather than quality.
Wine shops also have a wide choice, but they’ll often not have many/any of the big names. They let others have that business, preferring to be far more selective. Wine shops, also confusingly called bodegas, which is the same name for wineries, will be able to introduce smaller, sometimes boutique wineries (bodegas!), often from the same areas of production as the big boys, but also from areas of which you may not have even heard!
When I first started writing for the newspaper chain Costa News*, 26 years ago this month, the Editor at the time gave me a simple brief – ‘Take the blinkers off readers’ eyes, there’s far more to Spanish wine than just Rioja!’ Wine shops fulfil this role so well. Owners and staff will regularly attend tastings in Spain, also sometimes abroad. They’ll keep up to date with the Spanish wine press, the international press too.
They’ll have meetings with their suppliers and they’ll be happy to taste samples that are bought to them by other bodegas (wineries!), both parties hoping to increase their portfolios. They also often have business relationships with individual bodegas from whom they buy direct, therefore cutting down the cost of the wine, a saving which is ultimately passed onto the consumer.
It is a complete myth that wine shops are more expensive than supermarkets. Their owners aren’t daft, they know that we consumers have budgets beyond which we can’t go, apart from special occasions when we often up the ante re how much we are prepared to lay out. So wine shops also have wines that are comparable in price to many of the supermarkets, but which also offer greater value because they are better quality! Plus, of course, they also have a good stock of those special occasion wines! A one stop shop for wine!
Another of the great advantages that wine shops have over supermarkets is that they have trained, learned, knowledgeable staff/owners, who will be able to offer advice, information and so on. These days this consumer/staff interaction will be on a perfectly friendly basis, with none of the arrogant superiority that occasionally reared its head in the UK in thankfully bygone days! This service is hardly ever available in supermarkets.
Wine shop owners are in the business because they love wine. Their staff will be of a similar persuasion and they will often have training nights where wines will be selected for staff to taste, perhaps winemakers will come to talk about their wines. Theirs is a continuous learning curve – for our benefit!
Also, wine shops buy smaller quantities, which you may think is a disadvantage because they may run out of certain wines. Well, yes, this is true, but the benefit is that the wines they do have will always be within their shelf-life dates. Sadly, this cannot always be said of supermarkets. Also, remember that wine shops often buy from small producers, whose stock is necessarily limited and it’s these boutique bodegas that are often producing wonderful wines that won’t be available in supermarkets.
So, overall it makes sense to buy your wines from specialists, people who know wine and care about it. It’s almost certain that there will be a specialist wine shop near to where you live in Spain – why not become a regular?
*I wrote Cork Talk for Costa News from its inception in September 1997 until 2018, when the then editor decided, inexplicably to me, to drop the column.
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster; a Cruise Line Speaker; and a Novelist. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic.
Facebook: Colin Harkness; Twitter: @colinonwine; Instagram: colinharkness53
WITH WHICH FRUIT IS ORANGE WINE MADE?
I’ve spent most of the summer working on river cruises on the Rhein, Mosel and Main rivers in Germany, France and Switzerland. My remit is to present wine tastings, of course, but also to organise and present quizzes for alternative entertainment for the guests. The above is one of my favourite questions – though, initially, not that of the guests, many of whom don’t know.
It’s quite understandable, of course. Often their thinking is that Oranges is too obvious an answer, so I’ve had Clementine, Mandarin and Kumquat, amongst others. However, as some readers will know, though perhaps not all, grapes are used to make Orange Wine. Confusing isn’t it?!
The name is not an indication of the fruit used, it comes from the colour of such wine. Orange wine is made from the green grapes used for making white wine, but it’s made in a way similar to how reds are made. Spain is becoming a centre for high quality Orange Wine and I thoroughly recommend this new, though actually ancient, style!
When making rosé and red wines the skins of the black grapes, Tempranillo, Monastrell, Bobal and so on are left to macerate with the pressed juice. Look at the centre of a black grape – you’ll see that the flesh is white, the same colour as green skinned grapes. However this white juice soon changes colour, influenced by the skins with which it is left. The less time, the lighter the colour and thus rosé wine is born. The longer the time, the darker the colour – enter the reds.
Orange Wine, is also known, a little less confusingly, as Amber Wine, though more accurately called ‘skin contact white wine’, which is a mouthful, in more ways than one. Here the green skins are left to macerate with the juice, something that doesn’t happen when making traditional white wines. The shorter the time, the less ‘orange’ the colour, the longer the time, the darker the orange colour becomes.
However, it’s not just the colour that changes. When tasting ‘skin contact white wine’ (Orange/Amber Wine), and I urge you to do so, it’s important to forget all you know about white wine, even though it is made with the same varieties that make whites. If you favour in-your-face fruit-bomb white wine, then you will need to adjust to properly give them a try.
The aroma and taste profiles of Amber wine are completely different to those of traditional white wines. For example, all readers will know, and probably like(?), Sauvignon Blanc whites, often recognising those typical gooseberry/kiwi/grassy/asparagus notes even as the cork is pulled, but Amber wine, made from the same variety, Sauvignon Blanc, smells and tastes nothing like this!
There are more savoury, umami, slightly saline, earthy and mineral notes to Amber wine. Fruit is not to the fore, but search and you’ll find a little clementine/orange skin, perhaps a touch of apple, a little cider(esque), a touch of citrus. Tasted blind you might think it is perhaps like sherry or a softer, none aggressive spirit – yet different still.
There’s a whole new style of wine for you to discover, or learn more about, here in Spain. In my opinion it should be listed separately on wine lists, as a different category, as are Red Wines, White Wines, Sparkling Wines etc. Speaking of restaurants, and indeed in your own home, there is a wealth of different foods which are mutually complemented by ‘skin contact white wine’. There are more pairing possibilities with such wine, a far larger array of tastes and aromas will be happy to be served with the exceedingly versatile Orange Wine.
The Costa Blanca region, and inland, is a hotbed of Orange Wine production, with excellent examples being made in smaller quantities often from boutique bodegas. Look for: Bodegas Joan de la Casa; Pepe Mendoza Casa Agricola; Manu Guardiola Viticultor (and fellow small group members, like Cap de Nit); and others too. In Cataluña try the British owned Celler Alimara; Bodegas Sumarroca; and others. Plus, I’d advise doing an internet search in your area to see where else produces/sells this excellent style of wine!
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster and an Author. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic.
Facebook: Colin Harkness; Twitter: @colinonwine; Instagram: colinharkness53
WINE MATTERS
Your monthly wine article by Colin Harkness
By the Time I got to Rioja they were Half a Million Strong.
(With apologies to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young!)
In fact I’ve plagiarised my own headline here, from an article I wrote, perhaps 15 years ago, for a chain of newspapers in Spain. I’d been living here for about 10 years already and had written about half a million words on Spanish wines, yet hadn’t delved into Spain’s most famous wine producing area, the iconic Rioja!
This was easily explained. The Editor of the group, on asking me to start the wine column, Cork Talk, wanted me to inform readers about other areas of wine production in Spain. Everybody’s heard of Rioja, but he wanted me to take off readers’ blinkers! I wholeheartedly agreed. Rioja has always been synonymous with Spanish red wine, but there are also marvellous wines made here from many different areas.
That said, Rioja does make some glorious wines. It’s most famous for its reds, and has been for nigh on 100 years. Wonderful aromas of dark berry fruit, some ripe strawberry notes, a little earthiness, often with extra depth and flavour coming from American and French oak ageing barrels – these are all characteristics of fine red Rioja. Vanilla fragrance, blended with cedar, some leather notes, a little toasty smokiness and rich, brambly fruit are all part of a sip of Rioja.
There has always been white too, though at just 5% of the total production (until just a few years ago), Rioja white wine was rather in the shadow of its big brother. Made largely with the Viura grape variety, the white wines were more subtle in the fruit flavours and aromas (some might say, bland), though many of the better versions, some of which were really splendid, also enjoyed some barrica ageing.
The DOCa. (Denominación de Rioja Calificada) ruling council (the Consejo Regulador) has, during recent years, been upgrading an already globally renowned brand, starting with those whites. Different varieties were newly permitted in blends, as well as being used for monovarietals. Chardonnay, Verdejo, Sauvignon Blanc as well as the indigenous, only relatively recently discovered, Tempranillo Blanco, plus other grapes, were welcomed aboard.
At the same time, a new generation of winemakers started to make their mark – more time was spent with the whites and a different mindset was established with a view to seriously upping the quality. The result – sales doubled to 10% within a short space of time. Nowadays white Rioja rocks!
There have been major changes in the crafting of red wines too. The new generation, supported by older, experienced winemakers and bodegas pushed for further rule changes. Similar, in some ways, to the Burgundy model, a range of different rules and guidelines have been adopted with a view to broadening the Rioja expression and enhancing its already enviable reputation.
No need (nor space!) to go into detail, but you can rest assured that when you buy Rioja, white, red, and indeed rosado, you will be buying quality – a wonderful taste of Spain!
My advice would be to go for smaller production bodegas, rather than the really large, some would say, industrial, producers. Enjoy!
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster and an Author. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic. Facebook: Colin Harkness; Twitter: @colinonwine; Instagram: colinharkness53
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WINE MATTERS
Your monthly wine article by Colin Harkness
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SHERRY!
Mostly misunderstood, often maligned and sometimes abused – Sherry is one of the greatest treasures of Spain!
However, Sherry remains largely undiscovered, languishing at the back of the drinks cabinet, indeed if it’s even present at all. This is largely because it is not quite understood. So, here is a simple guide to Sherry, hoping that, like myself, you will become an aficionado!
Firstly, there are different styles of Sherry. It can be: lean, salty and dry; medium bodied but still dry; rich but dry as well; medium sweet; and as sweet and rich as you like! Also most Sherry is fortified with wine spirit raising its alcohol content*.
Let’s start at Dry. Fino and Manzanilla (though this is not strictly a Sherry as it has its own DO, but is usually considered as a valued part of the Sherry spectrum). These wines are very pale in colour, the Finos can even look a little like water; Manzanilla has a little pale golden glow. They are the driest style of Sherry, traditionally drunk as an aperitif and with seafood tapas and starters. They are as refreshing as an Atlantic wave!
Note also that over the last few years an older style of Fino and Manzanilla (and sometimes, the next style, Amontillado) has been brought back into play. Fino En Rama and Manzanilla En Rama, are probably the best examples of this style. Translating roughly to ‘wild’ these wines have hardly been filtered and are thus fuller whilst retaining their very dry, saline freshness.
Next up is Amontillado – until recently my favourite (more on the change later!). This is a Sherry that starts off as if it’s going to be a Fino or Manzanilla ageing under a veil of yeast (flor) which develops on the surface of the liquid because of the deliberate gap that is left up to the top of the horizontal barrel. However, after a time this yeast disappears exposing the wine to oxygen. Therefore Amontillados enjoy both types of ageing, gaining a slightly oxidative flavour and becoming a more golden colour. It’s dry, richer and fuller than the previous styles. Try it with mushroom dishes, the wonderful dried tuna, mojama, chicken and turkey, as well as olives and dry-fried almonds.
Oloroso is a darker colour, browning nicely as it is aged with oxygen, the yeast layer not having appeared as wines destined to become Olorosos are fortified to a higher degree where yeast cannot survive**. These older wines remain dry, also full, and quite rich. A range of tapas will go so well with this style – olives, nuts, jamon and other dried meats etc.
Palo Cortado is the next style, definitely dry still, but perhaps a little richer with very slight touch of sweetness, depending on the producer. With greater complexity and depth Palo Cortado balances the aromas of Amontillado with the body and palate of Oloroso. It has a beautiful, inviting, golden brown colour and is a richer, yet perhaps more elegant alternative to pair with the above tapas.
Pale Cream is the first of the sweeter Sherries. Along with Cream Sherry and Medium Sherry these are the ones largely to blame for the misunderstanding of Sherry! Great Aunts and Grannies of yesteryear were largely responsible! A sweeter style suited them. They brought it out at Christmas, didn’t finish the bottle – so served it again next Christmas, without even finding it a place in the fridge! Needless to say, it was often served some way past its best!
These three Sherries are usually made from the same grape variety as the above, Palomino, but have had a little of the sweeter Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel varieties added to increase their sugar content. If you prefer Sherry to a cup of tea, these are the perfect pairing for cakes, scones, biscuits et al!
Finally, well almost finally, there are the Dulce, Sweet Sherries, made from the above PX and Moscatel, which have been left on the vines for longer than normal gaining more sugar. These are always a very dark mahogany colour, luscious and, yes, a little naughty! Such wines go well with cakes and many desserts, including simply pouring some over vanilla ice cream (sumptuous!). Plus, it can be enjoyed at the end of dinner instead of a dessert!
* In fact very recently there has been a change in the rules – not all wines under the Denominación de Origen have to be fortified now.
** Two years ago a new style of Sherry has been discovered, so new it has only provisionally been named, Raya Cortada, and there is hardly any available to buy yet. A long story, but against science, all previous knowledge and experience a few barrels that had been fortified to 18% abv (two degrees higher that the 16 degrees maximum!) developed, after four years a layer of yeast!
Colin Harkness is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers; a Wine Broadcaster; a Cruise Line Speaker; and an Author. He is a retired International Wine Judge; Features Journalist; Wine Writer and Critic.