A most unusual wine, this – a seriously oaked Muscat, and a
sherry to boot. But it really is rather delicious and I was
going to recommend it anyway before discovering that of any
previous wine of the week, it seems, amazingly, to have the
most, and most widely dispersed, international retail
stockists. Check out www.winesearcher.com to find the one
closest to you.
It also seems to have one of the most variable prices. This
may be because it is customarily sold in a half bottle,
Jerez's favourite size, but perhaps not all merchants listed
by winesearcher have been punctilious about declaring this.
Thus we have Market Wine & Spirits of Massachusetts
practically giving this well-aged wine away at $9.99 a half
bottle and a Danish outfit apparently being even more generous
by offering a whole bottle for the equivalent of not much
more. In Britain, prices per half bottle seem to vary from
£6.80 from Weavers of Nottingham (if you mention
jancisrobinson.com) to £9.95 from Berry Bros & Rudd (who have
inherited this, along with a host of other goodies, via their
recent takeover of Morris & Verdin). Suffice it to say that
the wine, like virtually all sherries nowadays, is
underpriced.
The most common sweet sherry of interest to fine wine lovers
is of course a dark syrup made from dried Pedro Ximénez grapes
but this is quite different. It is certainly sweet but
relatively pale and has quite enough acidity and a real kick
of tannin on the finish, presumably from its very obvious
extended ageing in oak, presumably in a relatively warm
environment. If you ever wanted to know the characteristic
smell of such ageing called rancio, take a whiff of this, a
solera wine from the firm that made its name via ageing much
smaller lots of sherry in specific warehouses, or
almacenistas.
But the sweet, gentle, grapey character of Moscatel insinuates
itself as well, making this a decidedly interesting, and
thanks to the tannin rather bracing, end to a meal. With its
strong spine of acidity, it reminded me rather of oak-aged
lime cordial. Others have described it as mince pies in a
bottle. I could imagine enjoying it with granular cheese such
as a well aged gouda (sherry and the Dutch, you know), cheddar
or Comté. It might also be good with strawberries, but then
there are so many wines to drink with them... In fact I'm not
sure you could enjoy Piedmont's Freisa with anything else.
Beware, by the way, this is not the same as Lustau's sweet
table wine Moscatel de Chipiona, sold by Waitrose Direct for
£4.55 a full bottle.
