Best Entry-level Fino/Manzanilla? [Valdespino Inocente & El Maestro Sierra added. Poll Restarted]

Best Entry-level Fino/Manzanilla?

  • San Patricio
  • Tio Pepe
  • Solear
  • La Guita
  • La Gitana
  • Valdespino Inocente
  • El Maestro Sierra

0 voters

This is another offshoot of the Bottom Feeder thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=174988 to pick the cheapest wine you’d be happy to drink from Europe’s top regions.

Well this category has to be a prime candidate for best value wine on the planet given how much work and time goes into making it plus the fact that it’s one of the most versatile food matches there is. If terroir includes the environment that the wine is made Fino/Manzanilla is one of the unique, most site specific wines out there.

And who doesn’t dream of standing at a great tapas bar in Spain eating a tapa or six washed down with copious copitas of Fino/Manzanilla at the moment? flirtysmile

El Maestro Sierra

All of the offered wines are very good, so it’s a personal style preference I think. I’d rate them all equally (but voted for la Guita for sentimental reasons, it being my first serious Sherry at the age of 18 or 19, I forget exactly, on a visit to Malaga). One might give Tio Pepe the nod for being very widely available. Best fino would be San Patricio.

You can’t go wrong with the Valdespino Inocente (not on list)

This was my choice until I had it side by side with El Maestro Sierra. The poll list is missing multiple important options.

Good to know. I love their wines but El Maestro hasn’t had local distribution for years. I should probably do an online order with Gordon’s.

From the list, went with Solear for Manzanilla. As for Fino, a recent Emilio Hidalgo I had was phenomenal.

Haven’t had San Patricio or the Solear yet, so those were immediately out of the running for me.

I voted for the Tio Pepe, but would quickly change my vote to La Gitana if such a vote could be cast for the Gitana En Rama bottling.


All that having been said, a week ago I had my first sherries from Yuste — the producer whose labels are paintings of various women from bygone days. I tried the Oloroso and the Manzanilla. The Oloroso was good-not-great. The Manzanilla, on the other hand, I found to be excellent, and it would get my vote if it were included on the list in the first post.

Toro Albala Electrico del Lagar fino.

Brian- you should also check out the Aurora Amontillado bottling from Yuste, pretty good.

Seems like a good place for me to ask…is there a retailer with access on line which has a really good selection of Sherry?

Flatiron
Gordon’s
The Spanish Table
Chambers St.
The Whiskey Exchange in London for Gonzalez Byass

Valdespino Inocente and El Maestro Sierra added to the poll. Sorry, this resulted in the poll resetting. Apologies for that. I didn’t realize that the numbers would go to zero by adding new items.

Voted for inocente, but my heart is with the seasonal solear en rama bottlings (but those aren’t entry level)

Re-voted (aftercreset) La Guita, see above.

Thanks. Sorry for the inconvenience.

There were a few votes for Tio Pepe in the first poll and now none. Did everyone switch to Inocente?

In any case, I think…

[winner.gif]

Valdespino Inocente!!!

Thanks for your votes and comments [thankyou.gif]

I mentioned Tio Pepe for value and wide availability but didn’t vote for it. Voted for La Gita.

Thanks. There were around 4 votes for TP before I added 2 items which, unfortunately, lead to all the votes being cancelled. It was the clear leader at that time.

Cue rigged poll joke (I won’t subject you to one this time!)

I voted La Gitana this time around; I think I voted for the same the first time, but there’s a chance I voted Pepe.