Wine of the week | Retailer of the month | Tasting with Oz Manzanilla Pale Dry Sherry, Sainsbury’s (Emilio Lustau), Spain 15% ABV Sainsbury’s, £4.99 Most sherry is blended in big barrels from various sources. But Sainsbury’s get their Manzanilla from one guy in Spain who hoards his barrels unblended with anyone else’s. And the result is that you definitely get the bread yeast and loft apple flavours, tart yet mouthfilling, you get the dusty dryness of banisters at the top of a rickety old staircase, but you also get an extra savoury element like a whiff of grilled meat or a dab of fish paste (hey, I loved fish paste when I was a kid) that makes it stand out appetizingly from the crowd. Sainsbury’s head office 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT (020) 7695 6000 customer service 0800 636262; 800 stores website www. sainsburys.co.uk – click on Wines by the case for exciting and exclusive offers hours Variable, some 24 hrs, locals generally Mon–Sat 7–11, Sun 10 or 11–4 cards AmEx, Maestro, MasterCard, Visa discounts 5% for 6 bottles or more • mail order 0800 917 4092 fax 0800 917 4095 • Calais store Sainsbury’s, Centre Commercial Auchan, Route de Boulogne, 62100 Calais, France (0033) 3 21 82 38 48 preorder www.sainsburys.co.uk and click on Wine at Calais A collection to cater for bargain hunters as well as lovers of good-value wine higher up the scale. They’ve expanded their Taste the difference range and got some top producers on board plato de embutidos cured meat platter - The real taste of Spain page 48 serves 6 12 slices of jamón (see right) 12–18 slices of salchichón (see right) 12–18 slices of lomo (see right) 12–18 slices of cured chorizo (see right) 4 ripe figs, cut into quarters 2 tbsp caperberries This is without a doubt the easiest, and yet arguably the most delicious starter in existence. A plate of carefully selected cured meat with a few tasty accompaniments, if you feel like it, although none are strictly necessary. You could serve one or all of these cuts, the only rule being to allow about 80 g/31⁄2 oz per person. As an absolute treat I would buy the more expensive Ibérico ham, or Pata Negra as it is known in Spain, but the more economical Serrano would be fabulous too. Illustrated on page 51. Arrange the meat, figs and caperberries attractively on a large platter and serve at room temperature. Tip Keeping blocks of each ingredient together will create more visual impact and certainly be easier to serve. Cured pork When buying any cured pork, whether it is ham, loin or sausage, you should be aware of two distinctly different products. Firstly there is the cured meat of the ordinary ‘white’ pig, usually referred to as Serrano that accounts for about 90% of the market, and secondly there is the highly exalted flesh of the native Iberian ‘black’, Ibérico or Pata Negra, pig that often commands truly exorbitant prices. White pigs are given commercial feed and are usually intensively reared while most their hairy black cousins live a relatively charmed life under the cork oaks of the ‘dehesa’ in Western Spain. To confuse matters further there are three qualities of Ibérico pig: pienso, which is fed almost exclusively on grain, recebo, which is fattened up with grain on top of its free-range diet of acorns, and lastly, that caviar of the Spanish larder, the bellota, reared out in the oak forests snuffling up acorns, roots and herbs. Ibérico products have a refined, distinctly nutty flavour when compared with the more readily available Serrano meat. Jamón is the cured leg of pork. The very best Jamón Iberico de Bellota is ideally carved off the bone by hand. It is usually served in wafer-thin virutas, or shavings, rather than large slices (see illustration on page 50) and the deep magenta flesh is marbled with delicious fat. White crystalline specks in the meat are good news too, the sure sign of an acorn-fed hog. This ham is best eaten alone with no accompaniments at all. The hams of Jabugo, Guijuelo and Montánchez are the most celebrated but by no means the only ones to look out for. A good quality Jamón Serrano can be a real treat too: excellent in a bread roll, with melon or figs and a wonderful base flavour for many cooked dishes. The denominaciones (see page 16) of Teruel and Trevélez produce some of the best. Lomo embuchado or Lomo curado is the cured loin of pork. It resembles a thick sausage until you cut into it revealing the lean flesh. It is marinated with garlic and paprika, encased in a skin and then air-cured. Lomo is an expensive treat, usually eaten alone to appreciate its delicate flavour and very rarely used in cooking. Chorizo is a sausage flavoured with paprika. There are dozens of varieties but a few main points to keep in mind. If you are planning on eating it raw you will need to buy a fully cured chorizo, such as the famous varieties from Navarra or Rioja. These are dense and firm and often sliced thinly like salami. Meanwhile, the links of soft chorizo require cooking and may be hot, picante, or sweet, dulce. Dark horseshoes of knobbly chorizo from León are delicious sliced and cooked simply in wine or cider (see page 54). Chorizo is a key flavouring in many rice and pulse dishes. Two other famous sausages just about fit into this family too - the Morcón, from Extremadura and Andalucia, a miniature rugby ball of paprika spiced pork, and the Sobrasada, from Mallorca, which  is a paprika and pork paste encased in a skin, and delicious spread on bread. Salchichón is the Spanish salami. It is a mixture of pork and fat flavoured with pepper and other seasonings, such as garlic or herbs. Vic, in Catalonia is famed for its salchichón and also the long thin version called fuet, or whip. Taken from the new Oz Clarke 250 Best Wines Wine Buying Guide 2008 Printable Tasting Sheet View the Wine of the Week Archive Check for stockists around the world at www.wine-searcher.com Continued...

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