Pale, dry sherries to become even lighter?

The one most memorable idea floated by Luís Hidalgo at a presentation on the state of the sherry business in London last week was that the minimum strength of Manzanilla should be reduced from 15 to 13 per cent. This, he suggested, would place it definitively in the wine category and make it more attractive to people who were put off sherry by its potency.

“The fortified wine category may not be as much fun as the light wine category,” he admitted. In fact his popular sherry company based in the seaside town of Sanlucar de Barrameda recently...