Grape Guide
Pedro Ximénez
WhitePedro Ximénez is a white grape of Andalucía, grown chiefly in Montilla-Moriles, where its sun-dried berries make some of the darkest and most intensely sweet wines produced anywhere. Elsewhere in Spain it supplies sweetening wine for Sherry blends, while in Portugal's Alentejo, under the name Perrum, it goes mostly into dry blends.
Key Characteristics
- Bunches are big and the berries have tough skins, with sizes that vary a lot
- Vigorous vine that gives dependable yields; buds and ripens in the middle of the season
- Very prone to botrytis and downy mildew; powdery mildew is a lesser threat
- Vulnerable to esca, eutypa dieback and termite damage
- Sugar-rich and low in acidity; needs a hot climate to ripen
Typical Flavors
Major Regions
Montilla-Moriles DO (Córdoba, Andalucía) · Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO · Málaga DO · Extremadura · Valencia DO · Alentejo, Portugal (as Perrum) · Australia (Barossa Valley, Rutherglen)
Also Known As
PX (Andalucía) · Pedro Jiménez (Andalucía) · Pedro Ximenes (Andalucía) · Ximenes (Andalucía) · Perrum (Alentejo) · Verdello (Islas Canarias) · Don Bueno
Overview
Pedro Ximénez is the signature variety of Montilla-Moriles in Córdoba province, and it is also planted in smaller amounts in the Jerez and Málaga zones, Extremadura and Valencia. After picking, the sugar-rich berries are customarily laid out to raisin under the sun, which concentrates them into a must that gives intensely sweet wines, often known simply as PX. The grape also yields dry and off-dry wines, and thanks to its high sugar and low acidity it can reach substantial alcohol without any fortification. The sweet style pours almost black and viscous, with raisin, fig, date and molasses to the fore; with age it picks up coffee, toffee and walnut notes. The variety is difficult to farm well: the vine is vigorous, carries large clusters and is exposed to rot and mildew. That is one reason Jerez houses have long purchased Montilla wine for their sweet bottlings instead of growing the grape themselves.
Origins & History
Pedro Ximénez most likely originated in Andalucía, in southern Spain, where records place it by the 1600s at the latest. Vicente Espinel's 1618 novel Marcos de Obregón mentions Pedro Ximénez wine from Málaga, which shows the wine was already well known there by then. The origin of the name has never been settled: one explanation points to a place called Jiménez near Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but a local grower with the common Andalusian surname Ximénez is regarded as the likelier namesake. An old story held that the vine was brought to Spain from the Rhine and Mosel by a soldier or a cardinal, and several nineteenth-century German authors even equated it with Elbling or Riesling. DNA profiling has ruled out both identifications, and the story is implausible anyway, since the variety demands far more heat than southwest Germany provides and would not ripen there. Genetic work published in 2007 named Gibi as a probable parent: an ancient table grape, possibly of Arabic origin, once grown in southern France and Spain. Because Gibi is also a parent of Alarije from Extremadura, Alarije and Pedro Ximénez are half-siblings. Further, identical profiles at 25 microsatellite loci showed that Corinto Bianco, a seedless table grape, is a mutation of Pedro Ximénez, distinguished mainly by having no seeds and by the berry and bunch traits that accompany that.
Viticultural Characteristics
Pedro Ximénez carries big bunches and tough-skinned berries, which vary widely in size and include many small ones. The vine is vigorous and crops steadily, with budburst and ripening both arriving mid-season. It is badly exposed to downy mildew and to botrytis rot of the bunches, less so to powdery mildew, and it also suffers from esca, eutypa dieback and termite damage. Together with a need for much more warmth than cool-climate grapes require, these weaknesses explain why it is concentrated in the hot interior of Córdoba province and has only a small presence in the Sherry triangle. Sugar accumulates readily in the berries while acidity stays low, a profile that suits sun-drying and the making of high-alcohol wines.
Wine Styles & Characteristics
The classic expression is the dulce style, made from grapes dried on mats in the sun, then pressed and fortified or left to ferment only partly. In the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry DO, Pedro Ximénez must carry more than 212 g/L of residual sugar and 15 to 22 percent alcohol. These wines are aged in a solera, often for decades, and turn mahogany to black, with raisin, fig, molasses, coffee and chocolate. The same sweet wine is used to sweeten cream and other blended Sherry styles. In Montilla-Moriles the grape also gives dry wines, including fino-style bottlings aged under flor and oxidatively aged amontillado and oloroso types, generally strong and low in acid. Australian producers have used it for fortified, botrytised and dry bottle-aged wines, while Portuguese Perrum is usually a blending component in white wines.