What is manzanilla?

Manzanilla and fino both age under flor, but manzanilla may only age in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and has its own designation of origin.

Fino may age in any of the bodega towns in the region. For manzanilla, Sanlúcar is the only place; the town lies at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, where the air is more humid and cooler. The Consejo Regulador sets fino at 15 to 18 per cent alcohol and manzanilla at 15 to 17 per cent. Otherwise the rules are the same: dry, from the palomino grape, at least two years in the solera system.

The velo de flor is a layer of yeast that floats on the wine and keeps out oxygen.

That layer only forms at an alcohol content of around 15 per cent; above 17 per cent the yeast no longer grows. As long as the flor lives, the wine stays pale and dry. The Consejo Regulador describes how, during this biological ageing, the yeast consumes alcohol and other substances and forms acetaldehyde, the compound that gives this style its character. If the flor disappears, the wine starts to oxidise.

Sherry and manzanilla must mature for at least two years in the criaderas y solera system.

In that system the casks are stacked in tiers. Wine is drawn from the bottom tier, the solera; that tier is topped up from the one above, and so on upwards. The flor only stays alive if young wine is added regularly. The result is a wine without a vintage, with a style that stays the same from bottling to bottling.

Sanlúcar de Barrameda is one of the bodega towns of the Marco de Jerez, alongside Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Santa María.

The town lies on the Atlantic coast, where the Guadalquivir flows into the sea. The bodegas there stand in the humid sea air. Only wine that ages in Sanlúcar may be called manzanilla; if the wine ages elsewhere in the region, it falls under the designation Jerez-Xérès-Sherry. The Consejo Regulador manages both designations.

Manzanilla is served chilled and, according to the Consejo Regulador, goes well with tapas, fried fish, anchovies, cured ham and cold soup.

Serve it in an ordinary wine glass rather than a small sherry glass, so the aroma has room. Because manzanilla is biologically aged and was not in contact with air during that ageing, an opened bottle deteriorates faster than an oxidatively aged sherry. Keep it in the fridge and finish it within a few days.