Pedro Ximénez

Pedro Ximénez — almost always shortened to PX — is both a white Andalusian wine grape and the intensely sweet, almost black fortified wine made from it: a Jerez and Montilla-Moriles speciality in which the grapes are sun-dried to raisins before pressing. The result is one of the sweetest wines in the world, a viscous, mahogany-to-ebony liquid that coats the glass and tastes of raisins, figs, dates, molasses, coffee and chocolate. Fortified with grape spirit to halt fermentation and matured for years (sometimes decades) in the solera system, it carries enormous residual sugar — often 300 to 450 grams per litre — balanced by an oxidative, savoury depth. It is the classic dessert sherry, served in tiny pours or famously poured straight over vanilla ice cream.