These wines have been chosen to accompany José Pizarro’s spring feast
El Maestro Sierra Fino Sherry NV (£9.95, 37.5cl, Roberson Wine) Fresh green new-season vegetables are at the heart of José Pizarro’s delightful Spanish spring feast, and they can be tricky to pair with wine. Artichokes in particular tend to get overly fastidious sommeliers a bit twitchy: like asparagus they do unusual things to the palate, stripping the wine’s flavour and leaving a kind of numb sweetness. Dry sherry, that most versatile of food wines, doesn’t seem to have the same problem, or at least it didn’t the last time I sat down with a plate of steamed artichokes. I’d go for a savoury, briny and yet delicate, lemony and refreshing Manzanilla such as Hidalgo’s La Gitana (£10, Waitrose) or a more almond-nutty Fino such as El Maestro’s deep but graceful example.
Tesco Finest Campo Lindo Organic Sauvignon Blanc, San Antonio, Chile 2014 (£8.99) Another option for the greens in each of José’s recipes this week would be to match that herbaceous pungency with wines that share the same characteristic. Sauvignon blanc is the obvious choice, and Tesco’s new addition from Chile’s coastal San Antonio region serves up the green bean and fresh green pepper flavours with nervy citrus. A few quid more brings the extra verve and poise of Greywacke’s benchmark Marlborough Sauvignon 2014 (£16.95, contact libertywines.co.uk for a local stockist) or the more subtly grassy, mineral Sancerre of Vincent Gaudry Le Tournebride 2013 (£16.50, Vintage Roots) . And if you want to stay in Spain, head to Rueda, and the punchy, tangy Cuatro Rayas Sauvignon Blanc 2013 (£7.95, Drink Monger).
Bodegas Alvear Pedro Ximénez Solera 1927, Montilla-Moriles, Spain NV (£14.95, 37.5cl, Slurp) If you’re making José’s dessert, you’ll need PX sherry for the ice cream, and you may as well finish the bottle with the dessert. You won’t need much: PX is dense, dark and syrupy, like black treacle, but the best leaven the intense, teeth-tingling sweetness with an array of dried berry and raisin, citrus, nut, salt, spice, and dusky barrel flavours. It’s a style that is most associated with Jerez, from where Marks & Spencer has a wonderfully soft and refined fruit-cakey example at £7.49 a half-bottle. But, pound for pound, for sheer decadent pleasure and complexity, it’s hard to beat Alvear’s Solera 1927, a blend of very old and younger wines from Montilla, a couple of hours’ drive to the north-east.
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