There’s so much exciting stuff going on in Spain’s Sherry Triangle. One of our favourite recent finds is Ximénez-Spínola in Jerez, who make this highly unusual dry white wine.

This family-owned winery concentrates exclusively on the grape variety Pedro Ximénez, most commonly associated with lusciously sweet wines. Usually Pedro Ximénez grapes are dried in the sun and the wines are fortified. Although the results are delicious, it’s difficult to get a sense of what this fascinating grape really tastes like. That’s why Ximénez-Spínola created Fermentación Lenta: completely dry white wine, made from old vine grapes that were left on the vine for an extra 21 days of ripening, slowly fermented in 300 litre French barrels so that the yeast can eat up all the sugar, and then left to mature in oak for six months. As if that wasn’t intriguing enough, in the 2016 vintage one of the 26 barrels developed flor – the film of yeast that gives Fino and Manzanilla its characteristic flavour. This barrel was combined with the others to create a final wine unlike any of the previous vintages.

Fermentación Lenta is packed with dried fruits like raisins, prunes and Medjool dates, as well as French oak spices. We recommend pairing this wonderful white with jamón ibérico, manchego, chocolate fig salami, pâté or smoked foods. A real rarity as the numbered bottles demonstrate; the family have no interest in making large volumes as it just takes too long.