Manzanilla and fino sherry are testament to the wonders of yeast. Here are a selection of sturdy favourites and a few quality options, too
Morrisons Fino Sherry, Jerez, Spain NV (£8.50, Morrisons) Yeast. That’s the secret to the intensely savoury appeal of dry fino and manzanilla sherry. If that sounds like a boneheadedly simplistic statement of the bleeding obvious given that of course, yeast – specifically the strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae – plays an essential role in all wine as the agent of fermentation turning sugar into alcohol, please bear with me. With fino and manzanilla, a specially adapted form of the strain has an extra part to play, with winemakers in and around Jerez in Andalucía, encouraging a thick, almost crusty layer known as flor to form on top of the wines in the barrel as they age. The flor, which acts as barrier between sherry and the air at the top of the barrel, helps create a much lighter (in colour and feel) style than other, darker forms of sherry such as oloroso. It also creates flavours that range from fresh apple to grilled almond, sourdough bread and Marmite, all adding up to such compulsively drinkable bottlings as Morrisons’ bargain own-label bottling.
Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla En Rama Spring 2024, Jerez, Spain NV (£19.95, Tanners) If you find that yeasty tang as compelling as I do, you might want to look for the term ‘en rama’, which translates, literally, as ‘from the branch’, but is best understood as ‘in the raw’. These are fino and manzanilla sherries that are much less heavily filtered than others, bottled straight from the barrel, often in the spring, when the flor layer in the butts is at its most active. The idea is that you get a more intensely lively and savoury-flavoury style. But the annual release of new bottlings also gives sherry producers (the vast majority of whose bottlings rely on blending several years in a consistent house style) the chance to make a wine that is different each year. Among my spring-bottled favourites this year is one from the Hidalgo bodega, which is based in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, home of manzanilla. It’s a vivacious dry sherry with a pronounced, mouthwatering sea-salty seasoning that is particularly good with miso ramen noodles.
