If you like dry, crisp wine that matches perfectly with all sorts of food that would swamp normal white wine, then Sherry is the drink for you. Think of all the types of tapas for example that you find in the bars of Seville. The lightest, and most refreshing pair are Manzanilla and Fino: either makes a classic apéritif.

All true sherries, mainly made from the grape variety Palomino Fino, start as juice that is completely fermented out to make dry white wines. These wines are then put in barrel where some, the more lightly fortified, will develop a creamy yeast called ‘flor’. It is this flor which imparts an intense flavour to the wine while preserving it, in the barrel, from the effects of oxygen. It stops it going brown and keeps it fresh to the taste.

In Sanlúcar de Barrameda the flor grows permanently on the wine, meaning that Tanners Mariscal Manzanilla, the lightest, freshest style in our range, is bone-dry with a salty tang. For more intensity of flavour, the single vineyard Manzanilla Pasada spends longer in barrel, producing one of the most aromatic wines available. By contrast, the chillier winter in Jerez subdues the effectiveness of the flor, so that Tanners Fino has a bit more fatness to it, still with that lemony freshness however.

A small proportion of sweet sherries are produced from ageing the two naturally sweet Moscatel and Pedro Ximénez grapes, shrivelled and almost raisined when pressed to produce tiny quantities of juice, and the results are outstanding. Both Moscatel Goyesco from Delgado Zuleta, and Pedro Ximénez from Valdivia are wonderfully rich, powerful, dark wines packed with fruit that make fantastic pudding wines, gorgeous in the dark days of winter!

On a similar latitude to Casablanca in Morocco, the subtropical island of Madeira produces some of the most idiosyncratic and long-lived wines in the world. Their wonderful style is ‘fixed’ by being heated, which in turn enhances their ability to age. Most producers have very British names dating from their 18th and 19th century founders, and some of their descendants are still active on the island. Traditionally Madeira is produced in four styles of sweetness. Sercial is the driest, Verdelho is medium-dry, then Bual is medium-sweet followed by Malmsey which is the sweetest. Time spent in barrel, often given on the label, rounds and intensifies the wine, while a ‘vintage’ Madeira must be aged for at least twenty years. Once opened, Madeiras will keep for months. Blandy’s and Henriques & Henriques are great names, but D’Oliveiras has an equally noble history and is making lovely wines.

Again with old links to British seafaring, the Sicilian seaside town of Marsala is home to what can be a delicious, very complex fortified wine. When aged very slowly aged it makes a fascinating style of wine in both dry and sweet styles to rival the best Sherries and Madeiras. Lombardo is a wonderfully traditional producer whose palm-lined avenue leads down to the blue Mediterranean. Of course Marsala is a staple of the kitchen being used in Zabaglione and Tiramisu, and Lombardo’s ‘Cucina’ is perfect for this. Montilla, from the hills south of Cordoba, was known as a source of cheap sherry look-a-likes, but it deserves more than that. Its chalky albariza soils – the same as in Jerez - can produce great wines such as the Don PX from producer Toro Albalá. Another classic fortified is Stanton & Killeen’s Rutherglen Muscat from the Ned Kelly gold rush country of Australia’s northern Victoria. This warm corner of Australia has a long history of these ‘super-stickies’ and deliver great value for the incredible flavours they offer.

Robert Boutflower