Expert’s choice: Manzanilla

This distinctive dry Sherry can be light and fresh or punchy and characterful. Sarah Jane Evans MW recommends her favourite bottles across both styles and offers tips on storing and serving

The ranking of these wines shows you exactly where my enthusiasms lie when it comes to manzanilla. I like wines with intensity and an appetising astringency. Unfortunately there is plenty – too much? – manzanilla in the marketplace that is watery in colour and in taste. These are inoffensive wines that have had the character and colour filtered out, so they won’t frighten off nervous Sherry drinkers. This light, summery white wine was meant to lure in new drinkers. In the end, though, those people chose Sauvignon Blanc, or even Pinot Grigio. Anything with a bit more flavour.

Manzanilla has characteristics which make it different from typical ‘dry Sherry’. There’s the humid influence of the confluence of the Atlantic and the legendary Guadalquivir river. The poniente wind emphasises this humidity. Sanlúcar knew of a saline character in wine before the rest of

Europe had even thought about it.

Manzanilla wine was first mentioned in a document from the second half of the 18th century, and the first text written on manzanilla winemaking came in 1806. Nowadays manzanilla has its own DO, Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda, though confusingly it shares the same production area, production method, controls and regulatory body as the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO.

The defining factor for manzanilla is that the ageing under flor has to take place in Sanlúcar itself. The maritime microclimate, cooler with higher humidity, ensures a different character to the flor yeast, which protects the wine from oxygen. The fact that there are two parts to the town, the lower sea-level part and the upper part on the hill, also creates stylistic differences.

This was a blind tasting with two styles: the young, light manzanillas; and the manzanilla pasadas, wines with eight or so years of age – the flor begins to die and oxidative, amontillado-like characters appear, as well as more golden colours. In both categories there were en rama examples: wines taken almost straight from the butt.

My highest praise went to the characterful individuals. One of them was a rare vintage wine; another had a well-balanced 17% alcohol. I do recognise that they won’t please everyone. So in this selection you will also find subtler styles, with typical notes of apple, almond and camomile. The notes make clear which style you will find.

The regulatory body recommends serving these between 6°C and 8°C. Stored in the dark, in consistent temperatures, the pasada wines can last for a couple of years. The lighter styles are best drunk in the short term and, once opened, finished within the week.

Based in Spain, Sarah Jane Evans MW is one of our three DWWA

Co- Chairs, a member of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, and author of the book The Wines of Northern Spain