I'm quite pleased this week (not about the rugby) to have found a wine that promises to have something genuinely different about it. There's a clue as to why this is in the bottom right hand side of the label.
Week F (2015) Fresquito, Vino Nuevo de Tinaja, Montilla-Moriles 2014. M&S £9
The undistinguished shape on the label is the 'tinaja', or large earthenware pot in which the wine is fermented. These were in use from the very early days of wine-making but are now not widely seen. They are cheap to make, inconvenient to clean and are not great at insulation, which means the temperature of the fermentation can fluctuate in a way that is not easy to control.
However, they are historically significant and do provide wines that have some distinctive characteristics.
The region in which this is made is in the south of Spain, near to the city of Cordoba, around the two towns of Montilla and Moriles. The traditional grape here is Pedro Ximinez, a name often shortened to PX, the star of the beautifully luscious, dark, sweet, figgy pudding in a glass Sherry of the same name that is so good poured over vanilla ice cream.
Indeed, the connection with Sherry is not just the use of one of the permitted grapes (not the most frequently used, which is Palomino and you got that straight from the horses......oh,never mind) but also the way in which the wine matures. This is under a layer of yeast, known as 'flor' and it gives the wine a nutty, savoury tang.
The taste of this dry white wine is not unlike a less intense Fino Sherry but with more juicy apples and almond blossom.
A big difference from Sherry is that this is not a fortified wine and its 14% abv is not the result of any spirit having been added, but just down to the fermentation of all of the sugars that PX produces on the vine in the baking hot Andalusian sun.
This wine will not be everybody's cup of tea. I can, for example, imagine the expression that would launch itself across my daughter's face if I were to give her a glass either with or without suitable warning and she would be unlikely utter favourable reviews. I, on the other hand, would drink it again, especially with some salty, savoury tapasy nibbly bits, should the opportunity arise.
Week F (2015) Fresquito, Vino Nuevo de Tinaja, Montilla-Moriles 2014. M&S £9 The undistinguished shape on the label is the 'tinaja', or large earthenware pot in which the wine is fermented. These were in use from the very early days of wine-making but are now not widely seen. They are cheap to make, inconvenient to clean and are not great at insulation, which means the temperature of the fermentation can fluctuate in a way that is not easy to control.
However, they are historically significant and do provide wines that have some distinctive characteristics.
The region in which this is made is in the south of Spain, near to the city of Cordoba, around the two towns of Montilla and Moriles. The traditional grape here is Pedro Ximinez, a name often shortened to PX, the star of the beautifully luscious, dark, sweet, figgy pudding in a glass Sherry of the same name that is so good poured over vanilla ice cream.
Indeed, the connection with Sherry is not just the use of one of the permitted grapes (not the most frequently used, which is Palomino and you got that straight from the horses......oh,never mind) but also the way in which the wine matures. This is under a layer of yeast, known as 'flor' and it gives the wine a nutty, savoury tang.
The taste of this dry white wine is not unlike a less intense Fino Sherry but with more juicy apples and almond blossom.
A big difference from Sherry is that this is not a fortified wine and its 14% abv is not the result of any spirit having been added, but just down to the fermentation of all of the sugars that PX produces on the vine in the baking hot Andalusian sun.
This wine will not be everybody's cup of tea. I can, for example, imagine the expression that would launch itself across my daughter's face if I were to give her a glass either with or without suitable warning and she would be unlikely utter favourable reviews. I, on the other hand, would drink it again, especially with some salty, savoury tapasy nibbly bits, should the opportunity arise.
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