Barbadillo Solear Manzanilla, Spain (£11.99, Waitrose) Southern Spain is not the first place most of us would think of as a source of fresh and racy white wine. If anything, this seems like a place for red wines, and powerful ones at that, not least after this year’s waves of infernal heat. That white grapes proliferate is in large part down to their use in some of the area’s grape-based specialities: brandy, sweet wines and, in Andalusia, the fortified wines of sherry and montilla. In fact sherry, in its lightest, driest incarnations, manzanilla and fino, is one of Spain’s greatest white wine styles, since even after fortification these wines are only about 15% abv. A chilled bottle of the exemplary Solear from one of the leading bodegas in manzanilla’s home of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, for example, offers a brightly briney form of total refreshment.
Waitrose Blueprint Moscatel de Valencia, Spain (£7.79, Waitrose) As well as making a full range of sherries, Barbadillo has long supplemented its portfolio with a dry white wine that shows that palomino fino can make a highly drinkable wine without the addition of fortifying spirit. At 11.5%, the latest, 2022 vintage of Barbadillo Blanco de Albariza Palomino Fino (£12.34, Michael Sutton’s Cellar) is a breezy, subtly floral alternative to its fortified siblings. Meanwhile in the vineyards around Valencia, the widespread plantings of white muscat of Alexandria grapes have long been used to make the golden sweet wines known as moscatel de Valencia. Waitrose’s own-label bottling is a good value example that leavens the sweetness with tangy orange and makes a deliciously simple dessert when paired with dried fruit and nuts.
