Jerez (Sherry)

Fino: pale, bone-dry, tangy - Sherry's everyday aperitif.

Aged entirely under a layer of yeast, so it stays pale and fresh: almond, bread dough, green olive and a salty bite. Serve cold, open a half bottle, finish it within days.

Aged entirely under a layer of yeast, so it stays pale and fresh: almond, bread dough, green olive and a salty bite. Serve cold, open a half bottle, finish it within days.

Manzanilla: Sanlúcar's Fino - lighter, saltier, made for seafood.

Made the same way as Fino but aged by the sea in Sanlúcar, where the yeast grows thicker. Even more delicate and briny. 'Pasada' means an older Manzanilla with more depth.

Made the same way as Fino but aged by the sea in Sanlúcar, where the yeast grows thicker. Even more delicate and briny. 'Pasada' means an older Manzanilla with more depth.

Tortillitas de camarones + ice-cold Manzanilla.

Lacy shrimp fritters from Sanlúcar. Manzanilla's salt and freshness cut the oil.

Lacy shrimp fritters from Sanlúcar. Manzanilla's salt and freshness cut the oil.

Oloroso: never had yeast - dark, full, walnut and leather, still dry.

Fortified higher from the start so no yeast grows; years of air make it brown, rich and savoury. Dry despite the dark colour - great with meat and cheese.

Fortified higher from the start so no yeast grows; years of air make it brown, rich and savoury. Dry despite the dark colour - great with meat and cheese.

An old Amontillado or Oloroso - decades of age, keeps after opening.

Valdespino Tío Diego or a house's aged Oloroso: nutty, dry and long-lived, a gift that travels.

Valdespino Tío Diego or a house's aged Oloroso: nutty, dry and long-lived, a gift that travels.

Jamón ibérico + Fino, or Oloroso for richness.

Fino's tang matches the ham's salt; an Oloroso picks up its nutty, savoury fat.

Fino's tang matches the ham's salt; an Oloroso picks up its nutty, savoury fat.

An en rama Fino or Manzanilla - open it within weeks.

Tío Pepe en Rama, Solear en Rama or Lustau's 3 En Rama: the freshest, fullest Sherry. Buy half bottles.

Tío Pepe en Rama, Solear en Rama or Lustau's 3 En Rama: the freshest, fullest Sherry. Buy half bottles.

El Puerto de Santa María: the third town - briny, fresh Finos.

Inside the Jerez appellation, El Puerto's mild, humid climate keeps flor alive all year. Its Finos sit between Sanlúcar's lightness and Jerez's roundness.

Inside the Jerez appellation, El Puerto's mild, humid climate keeps flor alive all year. Its Finos sit between Sanlúcar's lightness and Jerez's roundness.

More years in the solera = more concentration and complexity.

Sherry has no vintage; what matters is the average age of the solera. Older soleras give deeper, more intense wine - and certified seals prove the age.

Sherry has no vintage; what matters is the average age of the solera. Older soleras give deeper, more intense wine - and certified seals prove the age.

En rama: bottled straight from the cask, fuller and fresher - drink fast.

Fino and Manzanilla bottled with little or no filtering, often in spring when the yeast is strongest. Many houses release one or several sacas a year.

Fino and Manzanilla bottled with little or no filtering, often in spring when the yeast is strongest. Many houses release one or several sacas a year.

Palo Cortado: Amontillado's nose with Oloroso's body - rare, almost always fine.

An in-between style whose making varies by house. Elegant, nutty and powerful; a quality cue on any list.

An in-between style whose making varies by house. Elegant, nutty and powerful; a quality cue on any list.

Celebration: a VORS Palo Cortado or Amontillado.

Thirty-plus years in the solera, certified: Tradición or Hidalgo VORS.

Thirty-plus years in the solera, certified: Tradición or Hidalgo VORS.

Salmorejo + Oloroso or Amontillado.

Cold tomato cream with egg and ham. A dry, nutty Sherry has the weight for it.

Cold tomato cream with egg and ham. A dry, nutty Sherry has the weight for it.

Unfortified Palomino (vino de pasto): Sherry country's new table wines.

Growers now make still white wines from Palomino without fortifying them, some aged briefly under flor - a revival of an old local style.

Growers now make still white wines from Palomino without fortifying them, some aged briefly under flor - a revival of an old local style.

A single-pago Palomino from Cota 45 or another terroir grower.

Unfortified or lightly aged Palomino from one historic vineyard.

Unfortified or lightly aged Palomino from one historic vineyard.

Tintilla de Rota: the rare local red, sweet or dry.

A near-extinct red from the coast near Rota, revived in small batches.

A near-extinct red from the coast near Rota, revived in small batches.

Valdespino: historic Jerez house - Fino Inocente is a single-vineyard benchmark.

One of Jerez's oldest bodegas, with its own vineyards in Macharnudo. Fino Inocente is cask-fermented and long-aged; Tío Diego is its Amontillado sequel.

Valdespino traces its roots back centuries and, unusually for Jerez, owns a large vineyard holding, including the high Macharnudo Alto site on albariza. Its Fino Inocente is a reference wine: Palomino from that one pago, fermented in old casks the old-fashioned way, then aged under flor through a solera of ten tiers rather than the usual three, for an average of around ten years. It is bottled en rama, bone dry, with bread dough, almond, olive and a saline finish - a Fino with the depth of a much older wine. Tío Diego is the same wine aged on in air into Amontillado, nutty and dried-fruited. The house is also known for its VOS and VORS wines and a single-cask Palo Cortado. Order Inocente to see how serious Fino can be.

Hidalgo-La Gitana: Sanlúcar's classic Manzanilla; Pastrana is the single-vineyard Pasada.

A family bodega in Sanlúcar since the 18th century. La Gitana is the everyday Manzanilla; Pastrana an older, single-vineyard Pasada.

Hidalgo-La Gitana is one of Sanlúcar's oldest family bodegas, on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and its La Gitana is a hugely popular Manzanilla: light, crisp, salty and fairly priced, poured ice-cold on tap in hundreds of Andalusian bars. Pastrana is the step up - a Manzanilla Pasada from the Miraflores pago, aged longer through more criaderas, so it gains a nutty depth while keeping the sea-breeze freshness. The family also owns old vineyards in Balbaína that supply its Amontillados, Olorosos and Palo Cortados, and makes a VORS range. Start with a cold glass of La Gitana with fried fish at Bajo de Guía, then try Pastrana to see what a few more years under flor add.

Lustau: Jerez house whose 3 En Rama compares the three Sherry towns.

A Jerez house famous for bottling small stockholders' wines (Almacenistas) and for its 3 En Rama set: one wine from each of the three towns.

Lustau is the house to visit if you want to taste Sherry's geography. Its 3 En Rama release bottles three unfiltered wines from the same season: a Manzanilla from Sanlúcar, a Fino from Jerez and a Fino from El Puerto de Santa María. Side by side, the Sanlúcar wine is the saltiest and lightest, El Puerto briny and fresh, Jerez rounder and fuller - a lesson that no textbook matches. Lustau also built its reputation on the Almacenista range, buying and bottling exceptional casks from small family stockholders who never sold under their own names. Beyond these, the house makes a wide range of aged Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado and PX. Buy the 3 En Rama as a trio, drink it within months, and you'll never think of Sherry as one wine again.

Tradición: Jerez bodega devoted to very old VOS and VORS Sherry.

A Jerez bodega that bottles almost only certified very old wines. Its VORS Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado are celebration bottles.

Bodegas Tradición was founded in 1998 by Joaquín Rivero around old soleras bought from historic houses, and it does one thing: very old Sherry. Its Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado carry the VORS seal for an average age of over thirty years, and the PX is VOS. These wines are intense, nutty, concentrated and almost salty-sharp - a small glass is enough, and an open bottle lasts for weeks. The Fino, aged for years under flor, is fuller than most. The bodega in Jerez's old Santiago quarter also displays a large collection of Spanish paintings, so a visit mixes wine and art. For a gift or a celebration, a Tradición VORS is Jerez's equivalent of a vintage Champagne: decades of age in one bottle at a price that is fair for what it is.

Equipo Navazos: bottlers of exceptional single casks - the numbered La Bota series.

A small team that finds outstanding casks in other bodegas and bottles them with minimal treatment, each release numbered.

Equipo Navazos began in 2005 when Jesús Barquín, a law professor, and Eduardo Ojeda, a Jerez winemaker, found a few dozen casks of old Amontillado at a Sanlúcar bodega and bottled them for friends. That became the La Bota series: numbered releases, each from a handful of exceptional casks somewhere in the Sherry triangle, bottled with minimal fining or filtration and labelled with where they came from and how much was made. Releases range across Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, Oloroso and PX. The team also makes Florpower, an unfortified Palomino aged under flor, and, with Portuguese winemaker Dirk Niepoort, the Navazos-Niepoort table wines. The project helped spark the en rama and terroir movements. Bottles sell out fast; if you see one in a Jerez or Madrid shop, buy it.

Almacenistas and cask-hunters: small stocks bottled by others.

Family stockholders once aged wine only to sell to big houses; Lustau's Almacenista range and Equipo Navazos bottle their best casks.

Behind Sherry's big brands sits a hidden layer of almacenistas: families, often with other jobs, who bought young wine, aged it in their own soleras for decades and sold it to the large shipping houses for blending. Their best casks rarely reached the public until Lustau began bottling them under the Almacenista label, naming the stockholder on each bottle. Equipo Navazos took the idea further, scouting single exceptional casks across the region and releasing them in small, numbered La Bota editions. Gutiérrez Colosía in El Puerto and Obregón started as almacenistas too. For the drinker, these bottlings are where you find old, characterful Amontillado, Palo Cortado and Oloroso of great intensity at a fraction of the price of equivalent old wines elsewhere. Look for the stockholder's name or a cask count on the label.

Cota 45: Ramiro Ibáñez's site-specific Palomino from Sanlúcar's pagos.

A Sanlúcar winemaker making unfortified and lightly aged Palomino from single historic vineyards, plus old local grapes and sweet PX.

Ramiro Ibáñez, who became a head winemaker in Sanlúcar while still in his twenties, is the leading voice of Sherry's terroir revival. At Cota 45 - named after the altitude where he finds the most interesting albariza - he makes UBE, a series of Palomino wines from single pagos such as Miraflores, Carrascal and Maina, aged briefly in old casks and often unfortified. They show that the supposedly neutral Palomino tastes different from site to site. Agostado Cortado blends old local grapes like Uva Rey and Perruño with Palomino and ages them both under flor and in air. Pandorga covers sun-dried PX and a red from the rare Tintilla de Rota. These are wines for the curious, closer to fine white wine than to classic Sherry, and a window onto where Jerez is heading.

Unfortified, single-vineyard and vintage Palomino: the new Jerez.

A growing group makes still or lightly aged wines from single pagos, sometimes with a vintage date.

Sherry's rules and history push towards blending: many years, many vineyards, one house style, fortified to a set strength. The new Jerez movement goes the other way. Growers such as Ramiro Ibáñez (Cota 45) and Willy Pérez, and projects such as Equipo Navazos with Florpower, make Palomino wines that are unfortified, often from a single pago and sometimes from a single year, aged briefly under flor or in old casks. Historically, such wines - known as vinos de pasto - were what locals drank day to day before fortification for export took over. The new versions taste chalky, saline and textured, more like a fine dry white than a Fino, and they are proving that albariza can express itself in many ways. Expect them in specialist shops and serious restaurants in Jerez, Sanlúcar, Madrid and Barcelona.

The vineyard comeback: pagos like Macharnudo and Miraflores on the label.

A new generation argues Palomino reflects its site and names historic pagos on labels, as single-vineyard Burgundy does.

For decades Sherry was sold as a recipe: buy grapes from anywhere, run them through a solera, and the house style did the rest. Fewer than a third of the region's bodegas now own vineyards. A group of growers and winemakers, led by Ramiro Ibáñez of Cota 45 and Willy Pérez, has turned that around by studying the many types of albariza and the historic pagos - Macharnudo, Carrascal, Balbaína and Añina near Jerez, Miraflores and Maina near Sanlúcar. They show that coastal sites give broader, softer grapes and inland chalk smaller, thicker-skinned ones, and that these differences survive into the glass. Established houses had a head start: Valdespino has long bottled Fino Inocente from Macharnudo Alto, and Hidalgo's Pastrana comes from Miraflores. For the drinker, a pago name on a Sherry label is now one of the clearest quality cues.

Three towns, three tastes: Sanlúcar saltiest, El Puerto briny, Jerez rounder.

Sherry must age in Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda or El Puerto de Santa María. The sea air of Sanlúcar and El Puerto keeps the yeast layer thick all year; inland Jerez is hotter, so its Finos are fuller.

Sherry must age in Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda or El Puerto de Santa María. The sea air of Sanlúcar and El Puerto keeps the yeast layer thick all year; inland Jerez is hotter, so its Finos are fuller.

In the glass: Sanlúcar: lightest, saltiest. El Puerto: briny and light. Jerez: rounder and fuller.

Albariza: the white chalky soil that makes the best Palomino.

Bright white, chalky soil that soaks up winter rain and feeds the vines through the dry summer. The top vineyard sites (pagos) are on albariza.

Bright white, chalky soil that soaks up winter rain and feeds the vines through the dry summer. The top vineyard sites (pagos) are on albariza.

In the glass: Finer, more saline and structured base wine.

More years in the solera = more concentration and complexity.

Sherry has no vintage; what matters is the average age of the solera. Older soleras give deeper, more intense wine - and certified seals prove the age.

Sherry has no vintage; what matters is the average age of the solera. Older soleras give deeper, more intense wine - and certified seals prove the age.

In the glass: Young: fresh, lighter. Old: intense, nutty, concentrated, sharp-edged.

The vineyard comeback: pagos like Macharnudo and Miraflores on the label.

A new generation argues Palomino reflects its site and names historic pagos on labels, as single-vineyard Burgundy does.

For decades Sherry was sold as a recipe: buy grapes from anywhere, run them through a solera, and the house style did the rest. Fewer than a third of the region's bodegas now own vineyards. A group of growers and winemakers, led by Ramiro Ibáñez of Cota 45 and Willy Pérez, has turned that around by studying the many types of albariza and the historic pagos - Macharnudo, Carrascal, Balbaína and Añina near Jerez, Miraflores and Maina near Sanlúcar. They show that coastal sites give broader, softer grapes and inland chalk smaller, thicker-skinned ones, and that these differences survive into the glass. Established houses had a head start: Valdespino has long bottled Fino Inocente from Macharnudo Alto, and Hidalgo's Pastrana comes from Miraflores. For the drinker, a pago name on a Sherry label is now one of the clearest quality cues.

In the glass: Site-specific texture and salinity; more vintage and place character.

Two paths: under yeast (pale, fresh) or in air (dark, nutty).

Every dry Sherry ages either protected by a layer of yeast, staying pale and tangy, or exposed to air, turning amber to brown and nutty. Amontillado does both, in turn.

Every dry Sherry ages either protected by a layer of yeast, staying pale and tangy, or exposed to air, turning amber to brown and nutty. Amontillado does both, in turn.

In the glass: Under yeast: bread, almond, salt. In air: walnut, toffee, leather, spice.

En rama: bottled straight from the cask, fuller and fresher - drink fast.

Fino and Manzanilla bottled with little or no filtering, often in spring when the yeast is strongest. Many houses release one or several sacas a year.

Fino and Manzanilla bottled with little or no filtering, often in spring when the yeast is strongest. Many houses release one or several sacas a year.

In the glass: More yeast, texture and aroma than standard bottlings; fades within months.

Almacenistas and cask-hunters: small stocks bottled by others.

Family stockholders once aged wine only to sell to big houses; Lustau's Almacenista range and Equipo Navazos bottle their best casks.

Behind Sherry's big brands sits a hidden layer of almacenistas: families, often with other jobs, who bought young wine, aged it in their own soleras for decades and sold it to the large shipping houses for blending. Their best casks rarely reached the public until Lustau began bottling them under the Almacenista label, naming the stockholder on each bottle. Equipo Navazos took the idea further, scouting single exceptional casks across the region and releasing them in small, numbered La Bota editions. Gutiérrez Colosía in El Puerto and Obregón started as almacenistas too. For the drinker, these bottlings are where you find old, characterful Amontillado, Palo Cortado and Oloroso of great intensity at a fraction of the price of equivalent old wines elsewhere. Look for the stockholder's name or a cask count on the label.

In the glass: Distinctive, concentrated wines with individual character.

Unfortified, single-vineyard and vintage Palomino: the new Jerez.

A growing group makes still or lightly aged wines from single pagos, sometimes with a vintage date.

Sherry's rules and history push towards blending: many years, many vineyards, one house style, fortified to a set strength. The new Jerez movement goes the other way. Growers such as Ramiro Ibáñez (Cota 45) and Willy Pérez, and projects such as Equipo Navazos with Florpower, make Palomino wines that are unfortified, often from a single pago and sometimes from a single year, aged briefly under flor or in old casks. Historically, such wines - known as vinos de pasto - were what locals drank day to day before fortification for export took over. The new versions taste chalky, saline and textured, more like a fine dry white than a Fino, and they are proving that albariza can express itself in many ways. Expect them in specialist shops and serious restaurants in Jerez, Sanlúcar, Madrid and Barcelona.

In the glass: Lighter, lower-alcohol, chalky and saline; vintage and site show.