“Highsmith is telling an X-rated story. Woolf squeals, Kramer hits his leg like he’s giddying-up a horse. Glasses of treacly Pedro Ximénez arrive, alongside scoops of Limoncello sorbet. Highsmith reaches her punchline (no chance that’s making it into print).”

Rebecca Watson describing her fantasy dinner in The Financial Times, March 2022

A few weeks ago I was invited to dinner by a neighbour in our village. The food was sublime and included a brilliant dish of quails stuffed with figs but a most intriguing sweet wine was served with the cheese.

It was a Don PX Toro de Albalá Reserva 1983.

The Spanish winery which produces it is situated in an old power station in Aguilar. This particular sweet wine is made from Pedro Ximénez grapes, and it’s one of the most popular they produce, matured for at least 25 years in American oak.

It’s very serious stuff. One glass is probably enough! As one customer on the Cellartracker website describes it:

“Like motoroil in a glass. Lovely nose of toffee, burnt caramel, medjool date, hot paprika and coffee grounds. Palate is dense and rich, totally fills the mouth with notes of bourbon chocolate caramel, good espresso, prunes and dates, slight menthol on the finish. Acidity is strong enough to hold the sweetness and make it drinkable.”

Motoroil? Not the taste… it’s black, thick, viscous… a wine which should be ‘drunk by dropper’ as another customer comments. And it certainly is dark and syrupy with a strong taste (I thought of liquorice) which was well up to the Stilton it was served with (any Irish blue cheese would also be good). It would also go well on vanilla ice cream. And it goes down well, as Rebecca Watson suggests in the quote at the top of this post, with a lemon sorbet.

You can get it at Ralph’s Wines Online, whose owner, Ralph Smith comments:

“I also think it works with perfectly with Brownies and Chocolate Cheesecake…. indulgence !!!!”

If you like strong tastes like liquorice, other fortified wines you could try would be:

• Sandeman LBV port 2009 – this Late Bottled Vintage also tastes a little of tobacco and red fruit
• Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha 1998 – rather special. Described by Victoria Moore as “both elegant and mighty”

This post is dedicated to John Simpson.