Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Spanish word with two related meanings in the sherry-making process. Fino is one of two types of wine made naturally in the sherry bodega (oloroso being the other). Fino is also a style of sherry, the commercial result of filtering and bottling a fino, the palest, lightest, and driest apart from manzanilla, and quintessentially the product of the fino type of sherry preserved and influenced by the film-forming yeast flor. It may be made in any of the three sherry towns, although Fino de Jerez is by far the most common, and that made in Puerto de Santa María is known as Puerto Fino. Most Fino sold in Spain has an alcoholic strength of about 15.5% and is bone dry, and this is now also the norm for export brands. A freshly opened bottle of true, dry, light Fino is one of the most appetizing wines in the world. For more details, see sherry.