Recommendations
Marinated olives with Domecq Dry Fino
On the table is a bowl of olives that has stood overnight in olive oil, herbs and paprika powder. Set against that, the fino brings a bone-dry, pale wine that pulls the salt in the olives apart rather than masking it.
From the shelf
The bottle
Domecq Dry Fino is a fino from the sherry region in the south of Spain. According to the Consejo Regulador, fino is made from palomino and matures for at least two years biologically in American oak casks via the system of soleras y criaderas, under the velo de flor: a living layer of yeast on the surface of the wine that seals the wine off from the air. That flor converts alcohol into acetaldehyde and at the same time consumes glycerol, oxygen, sugar and acids, which makes the wine drier and sharper than it was as a young wine. The bottle is 15 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres.
The combination
Why this works together
An olive brings three things that call for a counterpart: salt, bitterness and fat from the olive oil. The fino has the opposite of all three, and that is why it works. Because there is no residual sweetness in the wine, the salt of the olive does not end up in a sweet blanket but stays legible as salt; research into taste interactions with sodium chloride shows precisely that sweetness lowers the threshold for salt perception by sixty percent, and that is exactly what you do not want here. The acidity in the wine does the reverse and makes salt and bitterness more sharply perceptible. Added to that is the flor's own tone: acetaldehyde gives the fino a yeasty, almost almond-like sharpness that stands next to the herbs in the marinade. The Consejo Regulador accordingly names olives as the first pairing for fino, even before nuts and ham.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 8 hours and 5 minutes, of which 5 minutes of work
- Type starter
What you need
- 500 g green or black olives, in brine
- 15 g Provençal herbs (with thyme in them)
- 10 g sweet paprika powder
- 10 g garlic powder
- the grated zest of 1 lemon
- extra virgin olive oil, enough to cover the olives
How to make it
- Drain the olives and rinse them under cold water, so the sharpness of the brine goes away. Let them drain well.
- Put the Provençal herbs, paprika powder, garlic powder and lemon zest in a glass jar and stir them together dry.
- Add the olives and pour on enough olive oil to cover them completely.
- Close the jar and shake it gently until every olive is coated with the herbs.
- Leave the jar at room temperature for at least eight hours. Longer is fine; the herbs then infuse further.
- Spoon the olives with some of the oil into a bowl and put them on the table.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this fino at 6 to 8 degrees, the temperature the Consejo Regulador uses for fino; in its own guidelines the Consejo even uses 5 to 7 degrees. Use a catavinos or a white wine glass of about 200 millilitres and fill it by a third, so the aroma has room. An opened fino stays good only briefly: count on about a week, with the bottle closed in the fridge. For an evening for two, it is therefore better not to buy a bottle that you then leave standing for a month.
All about Domecq Dry FinoBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
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