Recommendations

Ajo blanco with Domecq Manzanilla

In the bowl is an ice-cold white soup of almonds, bread, garlic and olive oil, with halved grapes over it. Opposite it the manzanilla sets salt and acidity, precisely the two things such a soup does not have of itself.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Domecq Manzanilla is a manzanilla, the style that according to the Consejo Regulador may only mature in the bodegas of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The Domecq brand ended up with González Byass after the break-up of the old Pedro Domecq; the wine itself matures in Sanlucar, at Bodegas Delgado Zuleta. The grape is palomino and the ageing is biological, under the velo de flor, which stays thicker and more active for longer in the humid sea climate of Sanlucar. The bottle is 15 percent alcohol, the usual strength for manzanilla, and holds 75 centilitres.

Domecq Manzanilla

The combination

Why this works together

Ajo blanco is a soup with a lot of fat and little acidity: the almonds and olive oil give it a creamy, almost filling structure, and the vinegar is the only thing that pushes back against it. A manzanilla fills exactly that gap. The wine has no residual sugar, but it does have acidity and a distinct saltiness, and those two cut through the almond fat without wiping it away. The flavours also run in parallel: biological ageing under flor produces the almond note that characterises both fino and manzanilla, so the wine extends the soup rather than contradicting it. The weight fits too, because a soup that is eaten cold calls for a wine served cold and weighing in at no more than 15 percent. The Consejo Regulador explicitly mentions cold soups, gazpacho and ajo blanco for this style.

At the table

The dish

For 4 people
Ready in 20 minutes, plus 2 hours cooling
Type starter

What you need

170 g stale white bread, crusts removed
115 g blanched almonds, skinless
3 cloves of garlic, without the germ
120 ml extra virgin olive oil
3 to 5 tablespoons sherry vinegar, to taste
2 teaspoons salt
475 ml cold water
10 white grapes, halved and deseeded

How to make it

Soak the bread in cold water until soft, then squeeze the water out well.
Put the squeezed-out bread, the almonds and the garlic in a blender and blend until the almonds are finely ground.
Keep the blender running and pour in the olive oil in a thin stream, followed by the vinegar and the salt.
Mix in part of the water to a smooth soup, pour it into a jug and stir in the rest of the water.
Refrigerate the soup for at least two hours.
Stir the soup once more before serving, pour it into chilled bowls and divide the halved grapes over the top.

In the glass

Serving

Serve this manzanilla between 6 and 8 degrees, from a bottle that has stood in ice water. A catavinos of about 200 millilitres, or a white wine glass filled one third, lets the aroma come free; a small shot glass does not. Manzanilla keeps only briefly once opened: count on about a week in the fridge, with the bottle tightly closed.

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