Recommendations
Aged Zamorano and pine nuts with González Byass Apostoles Palo Cortado V.O.R.S. 30Y
On the board is aged Zamorano, the hard sheep's cheese from the province of Zamora, with warm pine nuts and a stream of olive oil over it. The palo cortado sets against it a wine of an average thirty years with a narrow sweet edge and a long, nutty finish.
From the shelf
The bottle
Apostoles comes from González Byass in Jerez de la Frontera and is a palo cortado with the V.O.R.S. designation, for an average age of at least thirty years in botas of American oak. The blend consists of 87 percent palomino and 13 percent Pedro Ximénez, which makes the wine not bone dry but gives it a narrow sweet edge. According to the Consejo Regulador, a palo cortado comes about when, after the sobretabla, a cask turns out to have the bouquet of an amontillado but the body of an oloroso: the wine is then fortified above 17 percent, the flor dies off and ageing continues with contact with air. The bottle is 20 percent ABV and we sell it in 37 centilitres.
The combination
Why this works together
Oude Zamorano is a hard sheep’s cheese made from raw milk of the Churra and Castellana sheep, matured for at least a hundred days for the larger wheels and with a minimum of 45 percent fat in dry matter; with long maturation the aroma, according to the official file of the fresh milk register, moves towards a tone of dried nuts. That is literally where a thirty-year-old palo cortado ends up too, and that overlap is the whole argument. Then there is the salt and the fat of the cheese. The 20 percent alcohol and the acidity carry that fat away, and the narrow sweet edge that the 13 percent pedro ximenez brings sets itself against the salt without turning it into a sweet cheese course; taste research shows that a little sweetness actually makes salt easier to read. The pine nuts sit exactly in between: their protein tone from the pan links the nutty cheese with the nutty wine. For palo cortado the Consejo mentions nuts and aged cheeses as the first pairing.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 20 minutes
- Type cheese course
What you need
- 400 g aged Zamorano, in thin wedges
- 100 g pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- toasted bread or dry crackers
How to make it
- Take the cheese out of the fridge an hour before serving and cut it into thin wedges along the rind.
- Put the pine nuts in a dry frying pan without oil and set the heat to medium-low.
- Toast the nuts, stirring constantly, until fragrant and golden brown. That only takes a few minutes.
- Spoon the nuts straight out of the pan onto a cold plate; in the hot pan they keep cooking and turn bitter.
- Spread the lukewarm nuts over and beside the cheese.
- Drizzle everything with olive oil and serve bread or crackers alongside.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this palo cortado between 12 and 14 degrees according to the style page of the Consejo; for V.O.R.S. wines the Consejo uses about 15 degrees in its own guidelines, so slightly warmer suits it here. Use a white wine glass or catavinos of about 200 milliliters, filled to a third, and keep the serving small. According to the Consejo, an opened V.O.R.S. keeps well for about three months, with the bottle closed and stored cool; the 37 centilitre bottle is therefore plenty for several cheese courses.
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