🍷 Moscatel Williams

Moscatel Williams is a Moscatel sherry from the house Williams & Humbert of Jerez de la Frontera.

According to the house, the wine is made from a single variety, Moscatel; the alcohol is 19 %.

Williams & Humbert is a sherry bodega in Jerez de la Frontera founded in 1877 by the Britons Alexander Williams and Arthur Humbert; owned by the Medina family since the early 1990s, known for Dry Sack and Canasta.

Jerez-Xérès-Sherry is a protected designation of origin in southern Spain; the name has been protected in the EU since 13 June 1986. The area covers the municipalities of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Trebujena, Chipiona, Rota, Puerto Real, Chiclana de la Frontera, Lebrija and San José del Valle, dominated by the chalky albariza soil. The main variety is Palomino Fino, with Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel de Alejandría for sweet wines; yields are capped at 11,428 kg/ha and at 70 litres of wine per 100 kg of grapes. Sherry may only be bottled inside the area of origin.

Under the sherry rules, Moscatel is a natural sweet wine made from at least 85 % Moscatel must, from sun-dried grapes or not; fermentation is stopped with spirit and the wine ages oxidatively for at least 2 years; 15–22 % alcohol and at least 160 g/l of sugar.

Under the sherry rules, all wines age in oak casks (botas) of no more than 1,000 litres and are released with an average age of at least 2 years, either in the criaderas y solera system or as a single-year wine (añada). Especially long ageing is shown as more than 12 or 15 years, VOS (more than 20 years) and VORS (more than 30 years); Fino Viejo means at least 7 years. «En rama» means a wine with no stabilisation other than filtering.

Under EU rules, a wine label must show the designation of origin, the actual alcoholic strength, allergens such as sulphites, and the name of the bottler. A sherry label shows one of the names — Jerez-Xérès-Sherry, Jerez, Xérès or Sherry — on its own and clearly legible, and the wine type on a separate line with no adjective; bottles carry a seal or control label of the Regulatory Board.

Why it matters to you. The type on the label (Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso, Cream and so on) tells you how the wine was aged and whether it is dry, and VOS or VORS tells you its average age. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.