Difficult to categorise
… three exceptional and unusual Sherries …
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to recommend a wine that would sit alongside Stick Toffee Pudding. An interesting request that I could not answer at the time.
I was holding a panel tasting, and decided to include a number of Sherries, a Tawny Port from Australia, and a very sweet Madeira. None of them really hit the brief, so finding the elusive wine to match that pudding is still work in progress.
However, I was able to taste three Sherries from Gonzalez Byass, founded in Jerez in 1835, that I had tasted individually before but never alongside each other. They made a very interesting trio, and one of them does not easily fit into any logical pairing category with food.
Think dried fruits - figs, raisins, apricots - combined with flavours of coffee, syrup, treacle, molasses, chocolate and a selection of nuts. Velvety, rounded and immensely drinkable.
The three wines stand alone with two as perfect aperitifs when perhaps accompanied by some rich pâté or even fois gras, and the final one listed here would easily take the place of a pudding to finish a meal. These wines are available from many merchants and might easily be sitting on the shelf of your local Waitrose rather than having to put in an online order. The prices are for half-bottle: the only format they come in.
1 - Gonzalez Byass, Apostoles, Palo Cortado Viejo VORS
90% Palo Cortado and 10% Pedro Ximenez. Initially vinified and aged separately in individual soleras for 12 years, then blended and aged in the Apostoles solera for a further 18 years. Tones of orange peel is its differentiating element compared to the others, with a dark amber colour and a long, long palate, it coats the inside of the mouth with rich textures.
£26.00 - Waitrose - half-bottle
2 - Gonzalez Byass, Matusalem, Oloroso Dulce Muy Viejo
Tobacco, hints of salinity and pepper, toffee, roasted almonds from a solera that dates from 1847, and the bottled wine is on average 30 years old, produced from 75% Palomino and 25% Pedro Ximenez grapes. Richer, more intensity and with that accentuated flavour base, the ability to work perfectly with blue, mature cheeses - Dolcelatta or perhaps needing the deeper concentration of a Gorgonzola. Certainly either that has some age on board.
£26.25 - Waitrose - half-bottle
3 - Gonzalez Byass, Noe, Pedro Ximénez Viejo VORS
One member of the panel asked if he could have a knife and fork given the dense liquidity of the wine, and another announcing he would never again be able to eat Christmas Pudding with any other wine. Dark, an almost ‘black hole’ of a wine with no possibility of any light shining through the glass, reminiscent of tar and dark treacle. Extreme intensity on the palate, abounding with a velvety structure and a luscious sweetness that contains minty tones, hints of balsamic, figs encased in syrup, and then sits and sits and sits. However, the 30 years in barrel provide an uplift that is more enticing and enjoyable than any other 100% Pedro Ximinez on the market. For me this is a stand-alone item to be savoured by itself for the tightly focused, exceptional wine that has been crafted.
£26.00 - Waitrose - half-bottle
