Recommendations
Grilled sardines with Domecq Manzanilla
Fresh sardines come off the griddle, three minutes per side, with coarse sea salt over them and nothing else. The manzanilla sets a pale, salty wine against that, which clears the fatty flesh of the fish and lets the salty crust stand.
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. After the break-up of the old Pedro Domecq, the Domecq brand ended up with González Byass; 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 remains active longer in the humid sea climate of Sanlucar than further inland. This layer of yeast converts alcohol into acetaldehyde and consumes glycerol, sugar and acids. The bottle is 15 percent ABV, the usual strength for manzanilla, and comes in 75 centilitres.
The combination
Why this works together
A sardine is an oily fish: the flesh is full of fish fat, and when grilled that fat comes up to the skin and is roasted. That asks two things of a wine, and a manzanilla has both. The first is acidity: without acidity the fish fat lingers in the mouth and the third sardine becomes heavier than the first, and the acidity of the manzanilla and the 15 percent alcohol carry that fat away. The second is salt, because only coarse sea salt goes on the fish and nothing else, and a wine with residual sweetness would flatten that salt: in taste research sweetness lowers the threshold for salt perception by sixty percent, which makes the salt less legible instead of more, whereas a bone-dry and salty manzanilla does the opposite. On top of that, the wine comes from the same coastal town where sardines from the grill are a street dish. The Consejo mentions everything from the sea and salted fish for manzanilla.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 20 minutes
- Type main course
What you need
- 20 thick fresh sardines, cleaned by the fishmonger and headless
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- coarse sea salt
- 2 lemons, cut into wedges
- bread, to serve alongside
How to make it
- Ask the fishmonger to remove the guts and head from the sardines; those two are responsible for the strong smell when frying.
- Pat the sardines dry with kitchen paper.
- Spread a tablespoon of olive oil over a non-stick pan or grill plate, so that the base has a thin layer everywhere.
- Turn the heat up high until the pan is really hot, add the sardines and then turn it back to medium-high.
- Fry them for about three minutes per side, until the skin is golden brown and the flesh comes away from the bone.
- Take them out of the pan, sprinkle them with coarse sea salt and serve immediately with the lemon wedges and bread alongside.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this manzanilla very cold: 6 to 8 degrees according to the Consejo's style page and 5 to 7 degrees according to the manual, preferably from a bucket of ice and water. Use a catavinos or white wine glass of about 200 millilitres, filled one third. An opened manzanilla stays good only briefly: about a week in the fridge with the bottle closed. Precisely with a dish that thrives on freshness, that is the argument for taking a freshly opened bottle.
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