Wine Note – Finest Fino Sherry
Finest Fino Sherry (Gonzalz Byass) (Tesco £7.50 per half bottle)
Tesco don’t do discounts or club card deals on fortified wines. So, thankfully, in contrast to April’s selection, this bottle has just one price.
Fino is the ideal aperitif, but it’s best drunk soon after the bottle is opened. A half bottle is therefore the perfect size.
The firm of Gonzalez Byass was founded in 1835 by Manuel María González Angel and his English agent Robert Blake Byass and is now the largest producer of sherry.
The name of the company indicates the important part played by the English in the sherry trade – think of Harvey, Williams and Humbert, Osborne, and Croft.
Tio Pepe Fino is its most famous product (£13.50 at Tesco for 750 ml).
According to the label, this “finest” Fino is from “individual casks …. Hand- selected for their longer ageing and intensity of flavour.” It’s a pale, dry wine (15% alcohol) aged under a veil of “flor” (yeast), which gives it its characteristic yeasty flavour with a hint of salt.
It’s well worth its modest extra cost.
Drink it with nibbles, olives, Spanish ham or, of course, tapas.
Buena salud.
John Freeland (u3a Wine Tasting Group)
Hallaton Museum
