Recently at Vancouver’s Salt (you know, as I type that I hear the SNL character Stefan in my head…), we enjoyed my favourite kind of dinner – wine and charcuterie.

A white Rioja, an old vines Garnacha from Navarra and a really fabulous Shiraz from Western Australia’s Margaret River called Idlewild. Between the two of us we had a great assortment of meats, cheeses, Spanish fig bread, jams, honeys and mustards.

But dessert was to die for – we couldn’t decide so we shared a chocolate mouse and a berry concoction of cream and meringue. The Alvear PX Sherry accompanied this.

The solera in which this Sherry is aged was initiated in 1927, so technically the oldest remnants of Sherry in the criaderas is that old.  Pedro Ximénez (PX) grapes are dried in the sun prior to vinification so these wines are fully sweet and oxidized.  It is also one of the few wines that actually improves in the bottle after it has been opened.  Oxidation means nothing to this stalwart fortified wine.

Fully sweet and suitable for cheese and the sweetest chocolate, this WSET Outstanding version is the shade of deep mahogany, viscous and has full body with heavy legs.  It is a complete show off – reeking of prunes, chocolate and raisins with walnuts and tangy marmalade.