Dry oloroso and palo cortado

These sherries make for a sociable method of keeping warm, says Harry Eyres

The weather has turned and proper winter is here. Strangely enough, some of the coldest winters I have experienced were spent in the south of Spain. This wasn’t because the thermometer plunged to unusually low levels, but because, in that part of the world 20 or 30 years ago, few people bothered with central heating. One preferred—and charmingly sociable—method of keeping warm was to sit round a table with an estufa or electric fire beneath it and a heavy cloth draped over your knees. Another was to drink copious amounts of dry oloroso and palo cortado sherry.

Why you should be drinking it

Oloroso is the warmest and fullestbodied style of sherry. Most of it, in Spain, is dry, rich and nutty, not sweet like the Bristol Cream Auntie Edna used to keep in a decanter. Palo cortado is a rarity and a mystery, a sherry that somehow combines the delicacy of fino with the richness of oloroso.

What to buy

Maestro Sierra Oloroso (£12 per 37.5cl; www.standrewswinecompany.com) has quite a deep colour and rich nose, suggesting sweetness, but finishes dry. Valdespino’s Oloroso Don Gonzalo (£19.95 per 37.5cl; www.leaandsandeman.co.uk) is full and generous on the nose, rounded yet dry on the palate. Both of these are laughably good value. Palo Cortado Cardenal VORS (right, £118.60 per 37.5cl; www.hedonism. co.uk) has an extraordinary nose of dried apricots, then great finesse on the palate. Even more remarkable is Valdespino’s Palo Cortado Macharnudo Single Cask Vintage 2000 (£385.96 per four half-bottles; www.wineye. com), with its beautiful bouquet and perfect combination of linearity and richness.