If you think of sherry, do you think hip or has-been? Let’s hope it’s the former. Cream sherries may be in terminal decline, but the dry fino style is more popular than ever among foodies and wine lovers.
The challenge for producers is to widen appeal among the general public, but this isn’t easy given the misconceptions that persist.
Naysayers think of fino as a strong drink with a stale flavour, served in thimbles at room temperature. In reality, its alcohol content is about 15% and it’s best served chilled in tulip-shaped wine glasses. Also, once opened, a bottle should be kept in the fridge and finished within a week or so.
There is an increasing number of tapas bars in Ireland, and a fresh fino is the perfect partner for the food they serve. It has a tangy flavour with aromas of bread and brazil nuts. Much of the taste comes from its unusual production methods, as the wine is aged for several years in partially filled barrels under a surface film of yeast called flor.
The epicentre of production is Jerez in Andalusia, Spain, but a special kind of fino called manzanilla is made in the coastal town of Sanlucar de Barrameda in Cadiz. In Jerez, in the heat of summer, the flor dies off. But in the more temperate coastal climate it endures year round, giving an even more tangy and, some say, salty flavour. Eating garlic prawns and sipping an ice-cold manzanilla at a beach restaurant in Sanlucar should be on every foodie’s bucket list. Names to look out for include La Gitana, La Goya and Barbadillo.
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New techniques mean flavours are being amplified even further. Two years ago, Tio Pepe released a limited-edition fino en rama — which means raw — in Britain, and it sold out instantly. Raw in this case involves less processing before bottling, so no cold stabilisation and sterile filtration. The result is a revelation of turbo-charged flavour but a shorter shelf life.
Now other bodegas — wineries — are releasing their own versions, and one is about to go on sale in Ireland. Vinos Tito, a Spanish specialist importer, is bringing a small quantity of Delgado Zuleta’s La Goya en Rama XL Manzanilla, left (appropriately the XL stands for extra-large flavour). It arrives in late June and will be available at about €20 per 50cl bottle through a number of Dublin-based off-licences. If you want to be the hippest host, grab a bottle while you can and serve with olives and salted almonds, or shellfish starters.
GLASS ACT: ROSE
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Chilled, dry rosé is the perfect aperitif on a summer’s day, writes Ernie Whalley. It is best drunk young, so avoid vintages more than a couple of years old. It is worth pointing out that rosé wines, at least the non-sparkling ones, are not made by blending red and white grapes. There are four methods. Most top-quality rosés are made by the saignée method, in which juice is obtained by stacking up red wine grapes and letting their own weight do the crushing. Limited maceration, where the grape skins are left in contact with the juice until the wine maker has the colour he wants, is the most commonly used technique. Pressing is a cruder version of saignée — the red grapes are pressed and, once the desired colour has been attained, the wine maker simply halts the process. The fourth method involves removing juice from a tank of fermenting red wine. Of the 21 tested, here are the best four:
Les Charmes de Magnol 2010
donnybrookfair.ie, D4; and selected independents; €13.99
SILVER
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Ernie Whalley says: Fragrant nose of strawberry flowers and herbs leads into clean, fresh flavours of strawberries and raspberries. A very attractive wine.
Martin Moran says: This wine’s origins of Medoc in France come through in the glass with delicious flavours of fresh strawberries and cream.
17/20
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Tagus Creek Rosé Shiraz & Touriga Nacional 2009
carryout.ie, nationwide; Cronin’s, Bantry, Co Kerry; Pinecroft, Cork City; €9.99
BRONZE
EW says: One of a very few older wines that held up; kept alive by a weight of tasty touriga nacional fruit. Wine with class and quirky character, I’d have loved to try a more recent vintage.
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MM says: Lively and sexy.
15.5/20
M&S Barossa Shiraz Rosé 2011
Marks & Spencer; €14.99
BRONZE
EW says: A rosé for red-wine lovers. A rip-snorting, big gobsmack of ripe fruit, but amazingly only 12.5% alcohol by volume.
MM says: Barossa wines are never for the faint-hearted and this spicy cherry-scented rosé lives up to type.
16/20
Francois Lurton Les Fumées Blanches 2011
redmondsofranelagh.com, D6; donnybrookfair.ie; kingdomstore.ie, Co Kerry; Thomas’s, Co Dublin; €13.50
SILVER
EW says: Alluring tart cherry and blackcurrant fruit with a lively citrus edge on the back palate.
MM says: With its pert blackcurrant fruit, summer was made for wines like this.
17.5/20