One way of making you feel that it’s summer, even if it’s raining, is to pull the Andalusian skies over your neighbourhood with a good manzanilla or fino. Unloved, unsung and undervalued, sherry continues to be one of the great wines of the world. The wonder is that, given the time, effort and tradition involved, sherry prices are still so low. Every reason why all of us should come home in the summer to a cool, tangy, floral, iodine-scented yet meaty bone-dry sherry. On hot days, a chilled manzanilla or fino makes a wonderfully refreshing apéritif served with Spanish olives or toasted almonds. Equally, it can bring a blast of Spanish sun to the dinner table, cheering up the bigger food that the poor weather we’ve had thus far merits. But don’t serve it with food as if it were a table wine – this is fine in Jerez, where everyone pops off for a long siesta, but has disastrous consequences here.

The lightest, driest, palest, faintly sea-breeze salty and most mouthwateringly delicate of sherries is a manzanilla. They acquire their beguiling floral finesse, just as finos do, by being aged in ullaged barrels under a blanket of spongy-looking flor, or yeast, that grows naturally on the surface of the wine. But unlike the hot, arid, inland Jerez, fino’s stronghold, flor thrives in a thick layer all year round in the cooler air of the seaside sherry town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda that is home to manzanilla, and accounts for its distinctive style.

Unfortunately, manzanilla and its slightly riper dry-sherry sister, fino, deteriorate rapidly when exposed to air, losing fragrance and fruit, and turning duller in days. It’s impossible to stop this process, but you can slow it by decanting it into two half-bottles, stoppering them and keeping in the fridge, using one before t’other. Buying from outlets with a rapid turnover and thus fresher stock is essential, too. It’s one reason why, in the blind tasting for this article, the slower-selling, more expensive sherries fared less well than own-label supermarket bottles.

My favourite is the gorgeous, tangy, floral, meaty, sea-salt-licked Solera Jerezana Manzanilla Reserva (Waitrose, £7.49), underpinned by 17 per cent alcohol – hence its extra spice and flavour. The own-label Manzanilla Sherry at Marks & Spencer (£5.99) with its mouthwatering fruit is the next best thing; Sainsbury’s pungent, floral Manzanilla Superior (£5.49) was an honourable third. Finos are less startling to taste, but again Waitrose’s gorgeous 16.5 per cent alcohol Solera Jerezana Fino del Puerto (£7.49), with its strong, sparky, iodine-scented fruit, romped home first, with Sainsbury’s lively, beefy Taste the Difference Fino Sherry (50cl, £5.99) second and its fine, smoky, floral Pale Dry Fino and Waitrose’s grapey Fino Sherry (50cl, £3.75) joint third.

Rain or shine, make it a genuine bone-dry sherry.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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