Two stunning and staggeringly serious sherries

published 9 March 2018

NV Barbadillo,La Cilla Pedro Ximnez, Jerez, SpainAbout £24.49, RobertsAndSpeight.co.uk; DorsetWine.co.uk, DavyWine.co.uk; Cambridge Wine Merchants, 01223-568989; Rodney Densem, 01952-291129; Dartmouth Wine Co, 01803-833579; Thos Peatling, 01284-755948.

There are two staggeringly serious sherries from Barbadillo that I find myself craving with unnerving regularity.

The first is La Cilla one of the finest-balanced pedro ximnez sherries in the world. This intensely sweet style of sherry is a wondrous elixir, which is made from sun-dried grapes and then aged in American oak barrels for five years before release.

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Strangely, there are precious few pedro ximnez sherries that I don't like! Perhaps it's my sweet tooth, or perhaps it's just that bodegas that make this style do their best to please consumers.

La Cilla differs from the cheapies by combining stunning caramel notes with incredible freshness and acidity on the finish. It is at once intensely sweet and then ridiculously tangy. It is also epic value, given that this is a 75cl bottle price.

My second tip is NV Barbadillo, Pastora Manzanilla En Rama (about £9.99, half bottles, RobertsAndSpeight.co.uk; HarrogateFineWineCompany.com, DorsetWine.co.uk, TaurusWines.co.uk, TheSolentcellar.co.uk, MumblesFineWines.co.uk. Magnums, £38.75, CambridgeWine.com; £35, HarrogateFineWineCompany.com). This is one of the great En Rama manzanillas, which uses an extended ageing period of eight years to build insane complexity. You need a half bottle in your fridge door at all times. Imagine my surprise when I found out that a few merchants stock magnums, too!

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.