Valdespino Fino Inocente Pago de Macharnudo (37.5cl)
£11.95
The wine
Straw yellow. Savoury aromas of bread dough, almonds, olives and dried apples dominate the nose. Bone dry and bracingly refreshing on the palate, with a saline minerality.
Inocente is a rarity: a single-vineyard fino from Pago Macharnudo, the finest chalk site in Jerez, and one of very few sherries fermented in 600-litre American oak butts rather than steel. It ages under flor, the living veil of yeast that seals the wine from air and feeds on it, which is where the bread-dough character comes from. Fortified to 15%, the only strength at which flor survives.
The producer
Valdespino
View all Valdespino winesValdespino is one of the oldest and most revered names in Jerez, a sherry house whose roots reach back centuries. It is celebrated above all for its single-vineyard bottlings and its refusal to compromise, making sherries of a purity and depth that connoisseurs treasure.
The jewel is the great albariza vineyard of Macharnudo Alto, source of the Inocente Fino, one of the last Finos still fermented in cask. Elsewhere the house draws on ancient soleras for Amontillados, Palo Cortados and Olorosos of extraordinary age, alongside a decadently sweet Pedro Ximénez.
From the bone-dry, saline Inocente and sea-fresh Manzanilla Deliciosa to the profound VOS bottlings and the sherry-based Herencia vermouth and quina, the range is a masterclass in the diversity of Jerez.
Historic, uncompromising and endlessly rewarding, Valdespino is sherry at its most serious. Discover a true benchmark of the region.
