Summer Sherries

Voted a winner by our Wine Champions panel of tasters this year, 'lovely tangy flavours` abounded in this pale, dry, zesty sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda. A bracing invitation to the Atlantic Ocean, and a plate of shellfish. The label has been redesigned for 2025. 

Medium-dry sherry with attractive walnutty flavour and rounded, balanced palate. Made by Sánchez Romate. True amontillados (meaning 'in the style of Montilla', a town in southern Spain) are dry wines. The flor which grows on the sherries dies or is killed by fortification, and the amontillado is left to mature in the presence of oxygen. This develops a rich, nutty flavour. Serve in good-sized glasses to fully appreciate the bouquet.

A bracing sherry to lift the most jaded of palates. From the independent house of Sánchez Romate, this fino has long been a member favourite. Fino derives its appley, bready character from the veil of flor yeast that floats on the surface of the wine whilst in cask, protecting it from contact with oxygen. The wine is shipped often and in small quantities to guarantee freshness – the lifeblood of fino – and bring out the crispness and character. Serve chilled as an unbeatable aperitif, or with strongly flavoured appetisers, olives, almonds or smoked salmon. The venencia pictured on the label is emblematic of Jerez. The cup on a long stick is used to sample sherry straight from the barrel, often poured from a great height into the glass for aeration of the wine and, no doubt, added theatre.

Palo cortado starts life as fino, but loses the protective layer of flor yeast that settles on the surface of the wine. The resulting exposure to oxygen deepens and matures the wine, boosting flavour and alcohol. This has a beguiling bouquet of hazelnuts, citrus and antique furniture, with refreshing, lifted and highly complex fruit on the finish.

Caberrubia Fino is innovator Willy Pérez’s terroir-driven Fino from Pago Carrascal. Made from old bush-trained Palomino on prized Barajuela albariza soils, the wine revives an older Jerez tradition: fermenting in old oak with minimal fortification. Aged under flor (yeast) for around four years, the botas are filled higher than usual, deliberately limiting the yeast influence and allowing the primary, citrus aromas and flavours to shine bright. It is deliciously savoury and saline, with lemon rind, bruised apple and delicate sourdough, umami flavours.

Willy Perez is making some of the most exciting wines in the Jerez region, and this unsual but increasingly popular method, the historical 'vino de pasto' expression of the Palomino grape captures all the salty, savoury minerality of a Fino sherry, but without fortification resulting in a lighter texture and lower alcohols. It comes from 45-year-old bush-trained palomino with small amounts of Pedro Ximénez and tintilla de rota and the grapes are largely fermented in stainless steel, though 20% of the grapes are sun-dried and then fermented and aged in seasoned oak blending freshness and complexity. It spends around two to three months under a film of yeast called flor, hence some of those umami, yeasty flavours. Vino de pasto is the traditional way wines were made in the region before fortification became the norm, and the style is currently enjoying something of a revival. A fine, complex summer sipper and an ideal gateway into lighter styles from the Sherry region.