Showing posts with label fino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fino. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 August 2015

Summer Drinking

Last weekend, the sun beat down on Napa and Sonoma, hitting highs of nearly 40 degrees. Temperatures are normally in the low 30s, cooling down at night to pleasantly moderate temperatures (which is why the two counties are such good grape-growing areas), but when it's that warm the heat stays, making the nights very uncomfortable. There have been a few, brief heat spikes like this over the summer, which is one of the factors (including the lack of rain) that has made 2015 such an awkward vintage.

the different stages of Zinfandel all on one bunch
In many parts of Napa and Sonoma, the harvest of the white grapes has already begun, with the black grapes not far behind. The stress the vines have been under this year is likely to make the quality of the 2015 vintage good, but production is going to be relatively low - which is a good thing after some bumper vintages.

Aside from the effect of the hot weather on the grapes, another pressing question arises. What to drink? I need wine that's refreshing but complex enough for food, beer that's light and summery but not bland, or a cocktail that's not too intense and hot. Here are a few of the things I've been drinking to combat the hotter days.

Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA (6.4%; $9.99 for a 6-pack)

new label on the left, old on the right: same great beer
Not surprisingly, the warm weather has seen me drinking beer more often, particularly IPAs. American IPAs are much hoppier and drier than their malty British equivalents, which makes them perfectly refreshing for this warm weather. From San Diego to Seattle, the West Coast has a host of options to choose from, of which Oregon's Deschutes is a great example.

The first time I tried this beer was two years ago in Portland, on a rainy September evening. As delicious as it tasted then, it takes on another level in the summer sun. Most beers are made using dry hops, which give beer that recognisably dry, bitter taste. For the Fresh Squeezed, Deschutes also use fresh hops, which provide green, herbaceous aromas - almost the beer equivalent of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. To add to this green freshness are pungent citrus, grapefruit aromas that come from the Citra and Mosaic hops, all together creating a lively, refreshing IPA.

El Maestro Sierra Fino ($15.99)

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I recommend a sherry for some summer supping. A fino - or its close equivalent, manzanilla - is an ideal counter to the heat: light, pale, and dry, but with enough complexity and weight to be satisfying on the finish. Finding good sherry in Napa is not the easiest of tasks, but El Maestro Sierra are a producer widely enough available. Their fino has a nice nutty salinity to it, with lightly baked apples and a woody backbone from four years in old American oak barrels. It's wonderfully refreshing, yet subtly sophisticated, a drink to sip on the porch while watching the world slowly go by.

Dirty Dick's Downfall

This is my own take on a variation of the classic Negroni. It's 60ml gin (in this case, Sipsmith's London Dry Gin), 15ml dry vermouth, and 15ml Punt e Mes (which I use instead of Campari), with a lemon twist. That's a lot of dry, bitter flavours, but that's what I like to drink in the summer - drinks that are too sweet, no matter how high the acidity, can feel a bit too weighty. It also provides an always welcome opportunity to toast the fall of Richard Nixon, referred to in the drink's name.

Tascante Ghiaia Nera 2012 ($20)

 

The obvious and common thing to do in the summer is to drink white wine, but somehow the tannins and fruits of red wine are what I often turn to in the evening. Maybe all the times I've visited the south of France, Italy, and Spain, where red wine dominates despite the climate, have led me to associate drinking tannic, drying red wines with hot weather. I drank this Sicilian wine (made from the high-quality grape Nerello Mascalese grown on the slopes of Mt. Etna) last weekend as the evening very slowly cooled, together with a delicious pizza. The high acidity makes the wine extremely refreshing, while the integrated tannins and red fruits paired perfectly with the pizza's sauces, cheese, and meats.

The key to any drink that works in the summer is having an almost bitter dryness, together with a refreshingly high acidity. That acidity and complexity is also necessary when pairing with food - and we need to eat in this heat too. The temperature of the drink is, to some extent, less important - if you're stuffing ice into a cider to cool you down, you may as well be drinking apple juice.





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Thursday, 8 January 2015

Vin Jaune

As someone who loves sherry, I have always wanted to taste Vin Jaune, an historic drink from the French region of Jura which has many similarities with fino. Like fino, it's aged under a layer of yeast for many years in old oak barrels, giving it complex, oxidative qualities.

the region

Jura lies on mountains next to Switzerland and is France's smallest wine region by far, covering just 2,100ha (0.3% of all French vineyards). The largest production is of its sparkling wine, Crémant de Jura. White wine is made from either Chardonnay or a local grape, Savagnin, while red wine is made from Pinot Noir or two other local, historic grapes, Trousseau and Poulsard. The area is cool and wet, so it takes care and skill on the winemaker's part to make quality red wine that isn't too dilute. The whites are rich, nutty, and intense, and often best served at warmer temperatures than the lighter reds. A series of extraordinary wines are made, including Vin de Paille ("straw wine" - sweet wine made from grapes dried on straw mats), Macvin du Jura (a blend of grape juice and grape spirit), and Vin Jaune. 

the drink

Vin Jaune (literally, "yellow wine") accounts for just 6% of Jura's small production and is not easy to find. It's perhaps most known for its similarities to sherry, but its history has developed separately and there are notable differences between the two drinks.

Vin Jaune, which is always a vintage wine, can only be made from one grape, Savagnin, which imparts noticeable tangy, spicy characteristics on the wine; the grape also has high acidity, important for the ageing process Vin Jaune undergoes. The wine is fermented as normal, undergoing malolactic fermentation, before being transferred into large old oak barrels the following spring or summer or even later. The wine cannot be released until the January six years after the harvest (so a wine from 2006 could not be sold until January 2013).

Vin Jaune ageing under la voile

It is these years in barrel which give Vin Jaune its unique qualities. Where the wine is stored - underground, in a loft - and at what temperature affects the eventual nature of the wine. For fino, the barrels are not filled to the top, leaving space for the oxygen in the air to interact with the wine to create the layer of yeast that sits on top (flor in Spain; la voile in France). With many Vins Jaunes, the barrels are filled almost to the top which means that the layer of yeast takes time to form as the wine naturally evaporates into the air.

The wine is bottled in the unusually shaped clavelin, a 650ml bottle which holds 620ml of wine - the volume of wine said to be left from a litre of wine after evaporation. This is the only bottle of this size allowed under EU regulations; apparently US regulations forbid its importation, but the Vin Jaune I drank was in one of these bottles.

Château Chalon is one of Jura's AOCs; the wines of Jura have tremendous ageing potential

the wine

The wine came from the wonderfully-bearded Jacques Puffeney, known as "Le Pape d'Arbois" ("The Pope of Arbois," an AOC in Jura), and was from the 2006 vintage, the youngest available. It had a hazy golden colour and a naturally high alcohol of 14% (Vin Jaune is not fortified). Like fino, the nose was noticeably oxidative but the aromas were quite intense, with tangy citrus fruits, baked apples, and almonds, and a rich woody texture. The palate was heavy and rich, with really intense spices and dried fruit flavours.

Given the oxidative nature of the wine, it's difficult not to compare it to sherry. It looked and smelt a lot like a fino, but the palate was much more like a palo cortado with the rich, intense dried fruits and spices. The dense, oxidative woodiness would be off-putting to many, but is its very appeal.

I was certainly not disappointed with the Vin Jaune. Intense and heavy, yet fresh and lively, the wine was complex and unique. This may not be a wine that sits comfortably with modern sensibilties, with its funky woody nose and ageing requirements, but that makes it stand out all the more. It's a wine that speaks of its history, its origin, and the dedication of the winemaker. The spicy, nutty, creamy flavours also make it a perfect food pairing, particularly with the dishes of the Jura such as sausages, chicken, mushrooms, and cheese.

the cheese

Jura also makes Comté cheese, a natural food pairing with Vin Jaune. While production of Vin Jaune is small, that of Comté is much larger - 130,000 cows are used to make 1.45m wheels of Comté cheese each year. Like wine, types of cheese are protected by an appellation system, and the Comté AOP accounts for 26% of all of France's appellation cheese production.

Comté must be aged for at least four months before sale, and is often aged for longer. Although hard, the cheese has a lactic creaminess with nutty, vegetal flavours. The cheese I chose to have with the Vin Jaune was Marcel Petite Fort St. Antoine, a producer who ages 100,000 wheels of cheese in a large converted underground fort. On its own, the cheese's mature character can be hard to take, but the rich, creamy intensity of the Vin Jaune softened those flavours. Likewise, the nutty aromas of the wine interacted nicely with those of the Comté and the creamy nature of the wine brought out the cheese's lactic qualities.

Both the Vin Jaune and the Comté were expressions of local history, tradition, and culture, working perfectly with one another to make the experience even greater. It may be a while until I can afford to drink Vin Jaune again, but I cannot wait until the next time - maybe alongside some sausages and mushrooms.

Essential further reading: "Jura Wine" by Wink Lorch (£25/€30/$40)
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Friday, 6 June 2014

Sherry Twitter Tasting

I'm wary of the twitter hashtag, which seems a lazy way of promoting a trend you haven't much thought about, but on Tuesday I found myself following the progress of, and contributing dozens of tweets to, #sherryTT. This was a live twitter tasting involving tweeters from all over the world contributing over 400 tweets, as part of International Sherry Week.

I don't know if there's a greater drink in the world than sherry - for its history, quality, variety, value for money, and its food-pairing potential - but it's one that suffers a severe image problem, so I was game to take part in the evening's tasting, hoping to spread the love and awareness of this much misunderstood drink. Some tweeters knew all about sherry, others were new to it but enthusiastic to take part, a combination which led to an engaging online conversation.

I've never been involved in a twitter tasting before and found it great fun. In many ways, it corresponded to a real tasting - the Andalucian crowd turned up late, some tweeters described the wines imaginatively, others engaged in contextual information. What I enjoyed about it most, though, was that it was a conversation many people were involved in yet which you could conduct at your own pace. If I wanted to, I could tweet constantly and breathlessly, or I could take my time and come up with a considered opinion of the drink - I did a bit of both, and felt more confident contributing to the online conversation and also felt I learnt more from the different observations of those involved than if we'd all been sat round a table discussing the drinks.

For it to work, though, it needs an organiser. In this case, it was Ruben from SherryNotes. He created the event, provided the samples of all the sherries, and made sure everyone was on board and understood the different styles of sherries. Many thanks!


I didn't expect the samples to look like actual samples



 

Gonzalez Byass Tío Pepe En Rama (April 2014)

For the last five years, Gonzalez Byass, the largest producer in Jerez, has been releasing its classic fino "En Rama". This means straight from the cask, unfiltered, and unclarified - you're drinking just what you would if you were in Jerez and stood in front of a barrel drawing the wine from it. Gonzalez Byass promote it further by saying the wine is from the very best casks ultimately destined to be part of Tío Pepe. It's a great marketing idea, which the sherry industry needs - it points to its distinctiveness (the solera system), its different styles (in this case, fino), and its different tastes (how decisions by the winemaker alter the appearance and taste of the drink).




tasting mat courtesty of @guillermomdv

 

Barbadillo Manzanilla Solear En Rama (Primavera 2014)

Manzanilla is, more or less, the same style of wine as fino, but it has to be made in the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda giving it more noticeable saline qualities. Many of the tweeters found the previous fino to have a definite saltiness as well, but I did think it was much more apparent in this classic manzanilla, which is also taken straight from the barrel (like the Tío Pepe En Rama during spring, when the flor is at its most active and the wine at its saltiest). It's a very different drink - more complex but less immediate; the Tío Pepe, whether in its classic form or from the barrel, is for a summer's day, while this is for a summer's day by the sea.


 

Fernando de Castilla Palo Cortado Antique

The difference between the fino and manzanilla were nuanced, delicate, and intriguing. The first sniff of this wine declared in an instant the astounding differences between styles of sherry. Palo Cortado is a complex style that's not always easily understood or explained - it's kind of like a cross between an amontillado and an oloroso. It's also the one that sherry connoisseurs rate as the most complex and involving, and this example had to be the wine of the night - in this line up that's quite a compliment.

 

Oloroso "Pata de Gallina" Almacenista Juan García Jarana (Lustau)

Lustau are another of sherry's top producers, and one of the best and most interesting lines they do is the "Almacenista" (referring to a maker of sherry who sells it on to another company), a range which showcases Lustau's best suppliers. I think this is a wonderful way of supporting and promoting the sherry community; during the evening I discovered that Juan García Jarana runs a motorbike dealership in his other life. Having said which, the nose was a little lacking but it did have a long, lasting, leathery finish.

 

Gutiérrez Colosía PX Colosía

Pedro Ximénez is the name of the grape, as well as the style of the wine; essentially, the grapes are dried to such an extent that they become raisins, resulting in one of the sweetest wines in the world. It can be a hard drink to take on its own, with layers and layers of complex sweet flavours. There are lots of sweet foods it can be paired with, but the classic match is pouring it over vanilla ice cream. Gutiérrez Colosía are based in the town of El Puerto, along with Jerez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda one of the three towns that make up the "sherry triangle." This was a great example of the PX style, with lots of appealingly chewy dried fruits.


There's not a lot much better than tasting five high-quality sherries with other wine enthusiasts, whether on- or offline. These two tweets sum up the tasting's best wine and the evening as a whole.

Follow the whole tasting on Storify
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Monday, 10 February 2014

Gonzalez Byass Sherry/Champagne Tasting

Drinking sherry in a fancy restaurant in historic surroundings is just about as close to my idea of heaven as it can get, and that's what I found myself doing on Friday afternoon.

the venue

The Midland Hotel in Manchester is where Rolls met Royce, and is a beautiful, commanding example of Manchester's Victorian history. Like much of the rest of Manchester, it was rundown over the years, but now it's once again an example of Manchester's new vibrancy and self-confidence. The French restaurant has been reinvented as a modern institution for contemporary cuisine by award-winning chef Simon Rogan, and last year Mr. Cooper's House and Garden opened, designed as a more accessible and less exclusive alternative to the French. It's still a pretty luxurious setting, and sat around a table drinking champagne I felt I could have been in a high-class Parisian restaurant.

the champagne

Gonzalez Byass distribute Deutz champagne in the UK, so we got to taste their wines as an opener. Deutz is an historic champagne house, dating back to 1838. They're known for their vintage wines - the 2006, which we tasted, came top in a recent Decanter tasting, ahead of perhaps more famous names. It was certainly an exceptional wine; fresh and lively, with power and structure from the Pinot Noir (60% of the blend), with complex yet delicate autolytic notes, with a beautiful finish of red apples and cinnamon. We also tasted the William Deutz 2000, which was still incredibly lively despite its age (it was only disgorged last April; Deutz have the welcome practice of putting disgorgement dates on the bottles). Its palate was more mature and developed than the 2006, though, a bit earthy, with mushrooms, bruised apples, and crème brûlée. My favourite wine, though, was the Rosé 2008 - biscuits and toast with delicate red fruits. A subtle, complex wine.

the sherry

This was where the afternoon got truly exciting for me: fifteen sherries, ranging from young unfortified wine to thirty-year-old PX. We started with Mosto Palomino, mosto referring to the unfortified base wine and Palomino the most important sherry grape. Quite how such an uninspiring wine can develop into a drink as wonderful and complex as sherry is difficult to understand, but it's all about the fortification, ageing, and blending. The mosto is taken from the first pressing of the grapes; delicate juice is classified as suitable for fino, more robust juice for oloroso. This mosto was quite full on, smelling and tasting of a roomful of apples, and was probably destined for an oloroso.

sherry rainbow

We then moved on to Sobretablas Fino, a wine still developing into a fino. It was only a few months old, fortified straight after fermentation, not yet transferred to oak barrels, and still in an early stage of development, with rough, aggressive, volatile flavours. This wine would turn into Tío Pepe, which we sampled next. It was extraordinary to trace the gestation of the fino, from a simple base wine, to a volatile young wine, to one of the greatest drinks in the world: fresh and delicate, yet full and mature, with flavours of apples, wood, nuts, yeast, and chalk, I don't think there's a drink I fall in love in with so easily as a fino.

Tío Pepe's probably the most famous fino. The firm now known as Gonzalez Byass was established by a banker back in the day when there was more money to be made from sherry than banking. Although he knew about money, Señor Gonzalez knew nothing about sherry and enlisted the help of his uncle, Pepe, who promised to help but only if they made a pale, dry, and deeply unfashionable style of sherry. That drink's still called Tío Pepe. Gonzalez Byass's rep, Paul, who guided us through the tasting was proud of the drink and rightly adamant about how it should be drunk: chilled, in a white wine glass, and with food. 

The structured tasting continued with Viña AB Amontillado, a style which began life as a fino but is refortified to kill off the flor, and then is aged for a further period of time to develop oxidative qualities: in this case, the wine was aged under flor for four years, followed by a further six years of oxidative ageing. I loved this wine: it still had the woody delicacy of the fino, but with creamy apples, caramel, and vanilla.

The next wine was, at thirty years, a very old amontillado. Del Duque was described as being like an antique shop and was really leathery - perhaps too much so. We were able to compare this to Cuatro Palmas, a special blend of four different unfiltered wines of up to forty-five years of age. This was creamier, richer, not as drying, and more complex. Unfortunately, there's only enough wine left for two years' worth of bottling.

We then returned to the base wine and followed a different tasting path. The mosto we tasted was probably ready to become an oloroso, and we began again with the Sobretablas Oloroso, which was a lot more stable than its fino equivalent and was already tasting of raisins - it had begun oxidising from the moment of fortification. This was followed by Alfonso Oloroso, an eight-year-old wine which was probably a little too young, though it had nice orange peel and nutty flavours.

Perhaps the best wine of the tasting was the Leonor Palo Cortado. This had the unusual characteristics of a palo cortado - the delicacy of a fino and the depth of an oloroso - resulting in a unique profile of poached pears and dried fruits.

It was then that we moved on to the other important sherry grape, Pedro Ximénez, of which there was 25% in the Solera 1847. There was a little bit of syrupy treacle sweetness from the Pedro Ximénez, but it was balanced by the dry oloroso's nuttiness and dried fruits - a fresh, complex wine. The Apostoles Palo Cortado was another great example of palo cortado's unique personality, and I can see why it's a style that aficionados consider to be the greatest expression of sherry. This is a thirty-year-old wine, an oloroso and PX (15%) blended together when they were twelve. Rich fudge notes, with apricots - a great, if unexpected, combination.

We finished with the truly sweet stuff. The Matusalem Oloroso Dulce had not only a mahogany appearance but aroma, with a rich bitterness from the oloroso and dried fruits from the PX. Nectar PX was a young and not especially complex wine, dominated by raisins, currants, and sultanas. The final wine, Noe PX, was PX at its most intense and craziest: 450g/L of residual sugar, with intense, chewy flavours of raisins, currants, figs, and Christmas pudding. This is a great after-dinner wine - and one that's been used in wine and cigar tastings.

Gonzalez Byass are determined to make sherry fashionable again. With wines like these, I really hope they succeed.

Thanks, uncle Pepe
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Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Sherry - for life, not just for Christmas

Like German wines and Beaujolais, the sherry industry boomed in the 1970s and 80s and its reputation has never recovered since. It's too often seen as sweet and to be drunk at Christmas - and it's probably the same bottle that's used each year before it finally runs out ten years later. I hope things are changing. The UK is the traditional market for fortified wines and when I started working at hangingditch last year I was pleased to see how many people came in asking for sherry and how knowledgeable they were about the different styles. It's time more people knew just how good sherry is.

So why drink sherry?


Sherry comes in a vast array of styles, which can be understandably bewildering, but there's likely to be a sherry out there which suits your tastes. This also means sherry goes with lots of different foods; from a bowl of salted nuts to vanilla ice cream, there'll be a sherry as a perfect accompaniment. So, different styles for different tastes and different foods, and, what's more, it always presents incredibly good value.

What is sherry?


To be called sherry in the EU, the drink has to come from the area around Jerez in Andalucia. Sherry is made from white wine which is fortified with a brandy spirit after fermentation. This means that sherry is a naturally dry wine; unlike port, whose sweetness comes from fortifying the base wine during fermentation, sweetness in sherry comes from adding a sweet liquid to the wine (there's one exception to this, see Pedro Ximénez below). Sherry is nearly always a blend of different years, aged in large oak barrels where exposure to air is all important. This interaction with oxygen is where the characteristic sherry aroma comes from.

Sherries to try


Sanchez Romate Fino Perdido - a fino that's been aged much longer than standard, simply because the winemakers forgot about the wine. This wine is nutty, yeasty, and bready; wonderful depth of flavour, yet delicate. Widely available at less than £15 a bottle - a seriously good wine at a seriously great price.

Valdespino Manzanilla Deliciosa - Valdespino have been making wine for 700 years and are one of the area's best producers. This single-vineyard manzanilla is sensational - bready, salty, nutty, spicy, with apple peel. Another steal at £12.50 a bottle from hangingditch.

Osborne Venerable Pedro Ximénez - ebony black in colour, intensely sweet, flavours of treacle and toffee, this will turn plain vanilla ice cream into one of the most decadent meals of your life. £26 from the Wine Society.
 

The different types of sherry


Although it can be confusing, knowing about the different styles of sherry will help you pick the right sherry for the right occasion. Here's a table to sort out the different levels of sweetness and oxidisation in sherries:



fino (15.5%) - the sherry that defies stereotypes of sherry as a sweet, rich wine to be drunk with trifle. A fino is golden in colour, bone dry, best drunk chilled, and perfect as a summer apertif. It's generally 15.5% ABV, but delicate and fragrant. It's aged for a relatively short time and is designed to be drunk young (always try and finish the bottle off the night you open it!). Food pairing: cured ham or hard cheese.

manzanilla (15.5%) -  made in the same way as fino, but it has to come from the seaside town of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The proximity to the sea gives manzanilla a fresh, salty character. Food pairing: seafood, particularly langostinos.

amontillado (17%) - is exposed to air much more than a fino, meaning that the oxygen in the atmosphere turns the drink a rusty brown colour, also giving the wine a nutty character. Food pairing: goat's cheese salad.

oloroso (17-20%) - whereas finos and amontillados are initially protected from oxygen by the layer of yeast that forms on top of the wine (called flor), an oloroso is exposed to oxygen throughout its maturation, which means that an oloroso is always a rich, dark brown colour - the darker it is, the older the wine. Expect caramel and nutty flavours. Food pairing: red meat or game; get out the artichokes and asparagus too, because, unlike a red wine, an oloroso will stand up to their flavours. 

palo cortado (17-22%) - the most unusual of sherries, in that it's a mixture of amontillado and oloroso, undergoing one or more refortifications. It's fuller bodied that an amontillado, but less heavy than an oloroso - and the style will differ according to the producer. Food pairing: something Asian; sherry is one of the few wines that won't be overpowered by spicy food and the robust yet delicate nature of palo cortado is ideal.

Pedro Ximénez (PX) (17-22%) - one of the maddest drinks there is, especially if it's gone through a long ageing process. Its colour is dark, sometimes to the point of jet black, its flavours intensely sweet, which comes from drying the grapes to the point of being like raisins. One of the best dessert wines, as it can stand up to any food no matter how sweet. Food pairing: pour a tablespoon of PX over vanilla ice cream, giving the ice cream rich toffee and treacle flavours. So indulgent and decadent, and so fantastic!

Amontillados and olorosos are sometimes sweetened, either by adding unfermented grape juice or PX to the wine. A sweet oloroso is also called Cream Sherry. Food pairing: a chocolate- or fruit-based dessert.



 

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