If you’re thinking ‘Manza-what-now?’, you’re not alone. Manzanilla is a style of aged white wine that’s a bit different to the norm as it’s made in a super dry, deliberately savoury style that evoques salted almonds and something reminiscent of twiglets. It sounds weird, granted, but it’s immensely moreish, umami and textural - the very definition of a food wine. It hails from the south of Spain, not far from Seville, where it is sipped chilled on hot, dusty nights with small plates of nuts and tapas.
Why it works
The crispness of the Manzanilla cuts through the oiliness of the batter beautifully and the saltiness of it balances the fat and brings out the subtle flavours in the fish. Zesty, fresh, saline and nutty, it’s little wonder that Manzanilla is perfect with seafood. Cuisine in the Spanish, seaside town where it’s made is dominated by fresh fish and as they say: what grows together, goes together!
Try: Barbadillo Solear Manzanilla
Considered the benchmark for Manzanilla, this wine has been aged a bit longer than most (6 years) and is lip-pursingly dry and saline with subtle, chamomile notes.
RRP: Currently on offer at £9.19 from Waitrose for 70cl or £5.25 for 37.5cl from various stockists (see below*) including The Wine Society.
More about Manzanilla
You will know Jerez by its English translation: Sherry. In Europe, it’s usually the region that gives the name to a style of wine, so in the UK and the US, wines from here are known as ‘Sherries’. This fact has become a bit of a problem for the region as ‘Sherry’ is a word with so many associations to all things sweet, such as trifle and that sickly stuff in granny’s drinks cabinet. While it’s true that you can get sweet, ‘cream’ Sherries, the real stuff; the interesting stuff is bone dry, saline, nutty and complex. Manzanilla, like Fino, is white wine made from the Palomino grape that is aged in barrels under a layer of ‘flor’, which is a frothy, white yeast up to 2cm thick that protects the wine underneath from oxidation. This flor can only grow in this very specific part of Spain, which is why its effects on the texture and flavour of the wine are unique. The wines are also made using a solera system, where older barrels are topped up by the fresher barrels over time. Typically, the final wines are blends between 4 and 7 years old.
The difference between Manzanilla and Fino sherry is that Manzanilla is ever so slightly lighter than Fino in both colour and flavour, thanks to the cooler location where its made and aged, just down he road from Jerez in Sanlúcar de Barrameda by the sea. Manzanilla is still ostensibly known as a Sherry and Jerez and Sanlúcar are the only two locations where these wines can be made.
*Other stockists of the 37.5cl bottle:
Amazon, Oddbins, Bestway Retail (Wine Rack), Cambridge Wine Merchants, Connolly’s Wine Merchants (West Midlands), Village Wines (Kent), Baythorn Wines (Essex), Martinez Wines (Yorkshire), Lewis and Cooper, R Campbell, Roberts & Speight (Yorkshire), The Wine Press (West Midlands), Beers of Europe (Norfolk), Vintage Cellars (London), Sandhams Wine Merchants (Lincolnshire), Corkscrew Jersey, Mumbles Fine Wines (Wales), Richard Granger (Tyne & Wear), Alexander Hadleigh (Hampshire), Shaftesbury Wines (Dorset), George Hill of Loughborough, The Fine Wine Co (Scotland), Borders Wines (Scotland).
By Helena Nicklin
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