The wine 'El Muelle' is named for a pier which used to harbour fishing boats in one of the main Sherry towns, Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It is a structured, intense white selected, from a single vineyard of Palomino (the grape of Sherry) that ages in cherry wood with no fortification. It opens slowly, so decant if you can! White peach, grapefruit, sea spray, wheat and toast are some of the flavours, interlaced with powerful acidity and a savoury, chalky sensation on the finish. Glorious.

Bodegas Luis Perez was established in 2002 with the sole aim to take the internationally forgotten wine style of Sherry back to vineyard and into the limelight. For decades a drink only for grandmas or wine geeks, Sherry enjoyed success in the 1940s and 1950s, but is hardly seen these days. A lot of this is down to an industrialisation of process and a focus on winemaking rather than grapegrowing. With the help of Luis and his son Willy, it looks like the tide is turning. Sherry is a region (Jerez) and also the name of the style of wine. It is a fortified, oxidised wine, made near the coast in the south of Spain. It is unique and in many cases unusual, but historically there were a range of wines made int he region that saw little oxygen influence and were unfortified. WIlly & Luis are keen to explore these styles, and so for a Sherry producer, their range is varied. Their aim is to explore the influence of soil rather than winemaking - a goal they share with many of the worlds great wineries! In short, these are game-changing wines, hugely complex but without the heaviness and drag that Sherry was known for in the past. An exciting discovery.