Palomino is a common white grape variety found in Spain. It is particularly favoured in the fortified wines of Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO, but is also grown in the Douro in Portugal where it occasionally finds its way into the blends of Port wine.
Palomino is typically used to create fortified sherry wines. There is a growing number of winemakers that are using Palomino to produce dry table wines, particularly in the vineyards around Jerez. These can be extremely good and often show a mineral texture.
Fortified wines in general are a tough sell, but with declining consumption of alcohol a key challenge for large parts of the wine industry, it's likely that Sherry will suffer more than most. As such, any momentum and excitement we see for Palomino in the coming years will probably be based on the success of low production table wines. I've listed some of the best below.
When it comes to unfortified white wines from Palomino from Andalusia, the best give a sense of the white albariza soil it grows in. Bodega Luis Perez is one of the names to watch, as is Viña Callejuela.
