Drinks advice

Clear beef broth with Tío Diego Amontillado

In the cup is a clear beef broth that has simmered for two hours, been skimmed of fat and then reduced by half. Opposite it, the amontillado offers a dry, nutty wine that at the table can go into the broth by the spoonful and also stands in the glass beside it.

Back to the recommendations

Clear beef broth
Photo: Studio Sarah Lou, CC BY 2.0

From the shelf

The bottle

Tío Diego comes from Valdespino and is an amontillado from the Macharnudo Alto pago near Jerez, made from one hundred percent Palomino Fino on albariza, the white chalk soil of the region. The wine goes through both ageings that the Consejo Regulador describes for this style: first eight to ten years biologically under the velo de flor, then it is fortified to 18 percent, which kills the flor, and it ages a further six years or so oxidatively with contact with air. The solera has ten criaderas, which puts the average age above fifteen years. The bottle is 18 percent alcohol and holds 75 centilitres.

Tío Diego Amontillado

The combination

Why this works together

A reduced broth is, at its core, concentrated savouriness: little fat, little acidity, great depth. An amontillado is the same at its core, and that is why the combination works; weight against weight, and neither brings a sweetness that would flatten the other. The wine does add two things that broth lacks. From the years under the flor comes acetaldehyde, the compound behind the sharp, yeasty and nutty tone of this style, and from the years after, with air contact, comes the dark, almost toasted side. Together they give the broth a layer it does not have of its own accord, without making it sweeter or heavier. The Consejo Regulador puts soups and consommés at the top for amontillado, and Valdespino names beef broth in so many words on its own data sheet.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 3 hours and 15 minutes
  • Type starter

What you need

  • 250 g beef shank
  • 250 g soup chicken
  • 150 g veal shoulder
  • 1 veal bone
  • 1 ham bone or a piece of ham rind
  • 1 carrot
  • half a leek
  • 1 potato
  • 1 litre cold water
  • salt
  • 4 tablespoons amontillado, at the table

How to make it

  1. Put the meat, the bones and the cleaned vegetables in a large pan and add a litre of cold water.
  2. Bring everything to the boil with the lid on. Take the lid off as soon as it boils and turn the heat down so low that the stock just trembles.
  3. Let the stock simmer for about two hours and skim off the foam and impurities regularly.
  4. Pass the broth through a fine sieve and let it cool for an hour, so that the fat sets on top. Skim off that fat.
  5. Return the defatted stock to the pan and reduce it to about half. Season with salt.
  6. Pour the broth into cups and add a tablespoon of amontillado per cup at the table.

In the glass

Serving

Pour this amontillado at between 12 and 14 degrees, the temperature the Consejo Regulador uses for oxidatively aged sherry; Valdespino gives 10 to 12 degrees on its own data sheet, so a little cooler is fine too. Use a white wine glass or a catavinos of about 200 millilitres, filled by a third. An opened amontillado lasts much longer than a fino: allow about two months, with the bottle closed and stored cool.

Everything about Tío Diego AmontilladoBack to Drinks advice from ’t Bockje

Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18