Vanilla Ice Cream with Pedro Ximenez

Pedro Ximenez (PX) is no ordinary grape or wine.  Once a principal grape of the Jerez (Sherry) region of Andalucia, Spain, it has now largely given over to the more disease-resistant Palomino grape (which - when used to create Fino sherry is surely one of God's finer creations...).  However, some PX is still grown and gives its name to the most intense of desert wines.

The PX grape is left to dry in the hot Spanish sun before the wine is made - the wine is then aged in 'solera' (the process whereby wines of all ages are skilfully blended to ensure consistency and real 'age' in every bottle).  Some PX is never blended, but left to mature in the cask for a long time.  A very long time...  we're talking cask maturation of 30 years or more here. 
I recently got my hands on a half-bottle of the much coveted Don PX Gran Reserva 1971 (from a wine merchant in Borough Market) and I am so very glad I did!

The PX has the most intense flavour of any wine I've ever had.  It is almost black, it is thick and syrupy and it has the most incredible nose.  It tastes of raisins and figs, treacle and bitter chocolate.  To me, the most precise flavour I could liken it to is those few raisins on top of a bread pudding that burn a little in the oven - concentrating the sweetness into a toothsome almost bitter depth of taste.  I don't know how else to describe it.

The very best thing you can do with a good PX (other than drink it, chilled, of course) is to serve it with a good vanilla ice cream - my favourite at the moment being Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Madagascan Vanilla (how pretentious is that I wonder?).

Simply serve the ice cream and pour over a little PX - making sure some goes in your glass as well!  A half bottle goes a pretty long way as - love it as I do - there's only so much of this you can take in one hit!  It is the most simple but most stunning desert imaginable...

tags: wine  spain  

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