Tesoros de Montilla
La ‘Cordobesa’ accompanied by a bottle of Fino de Montilla painted by Julio Romero de Torres (1873-1930).
For those who love spirits, there’s much to discover in one of the oldest and greatest winemaking traditions in Spain — the elaboration of generous wines.
Generous wines pair perfectly with spirits, both “in spirit” and in essence. They have a fascinating and storied history that intertwines with the rise of whisky, and they can be just as complex, idiosyncratic, and beautiful as the world’s best distilled drinks.
Some generous wines are likely familiar to spirit connoisseurs: PX, Oloroso, Amontillado…. These are used for cocktails, for casks, and increasingly as high-quality base ingredients in innovative beverage mixes.
But there are many misunderstandings regarding this category of wines. Where do they come from? How are they different? How are they made? And are they actually used to age casks? What is a solera cask? What is a seasoned cask? What is authentic? What makes for quality?
For starters, the name “sherry” is a source of confusion. This term is limited to wines produced in the DO of Jerez-Xérés-Sherry, a small region in the province of Cádiz. Montilla-Moriles, an area roughly one hundred miles north in Córdoba, has produced the same style of wines using the same heritage methods for just as long – centuries. In fact, wine musts from Montilla are sold in bulk and used to produce many of the world’s finest sherries labelled under the DO of Jerez.
The main difference between the regions comes down to grape varietal. The dominant grape for both sweet and dry wines in Montilla is Pedro Ximénez, not Moscatel or Palomino Fino (which accounts for just over 90% of total vineyard production in the Sherry Triangle).
Pedro Ximénez grapes drying under a July sun in rows of paseras. Montilla-Moriles is the first wine-producing region in Europe to harvest each year.
Pedro Ximénez is a thin-skinned white grape native to Córdoba that requires an arid climate and hot temperatures to thrive (conditions not present in ocean-proximate Jerez). It has a high ripening potential and can reach the 15 percent alcohol mark—the optimal level for biological aging —on the vine. Thus, the wines destined to become finos are rarely fortified; most amontillados, and even some olorosos are bottled unfortified in Montilla as well.
From an enological view, Pedro Ximénez is quite possibly one of the most versatile and multifaceted of all grapes. Though not very expressive as a harvest wine, it transforms into true enological gems depending on the winemaking technique.
Generous wine spectrum: different expressions of Pedro Ximénez, dry and sweet.
More about vinos generosos here.
