Palomino (grape)

Palomino is a white grape widely grown in Spain and South Africa, and best known for its use in the manufacture of sherry.

Also found in Australia and California where it is also used mainly to produce fortified wines, the grape was once thought to be the Golden Chasselas, a grape grown in California. The wine-must has tendency to oxidise quickly, a characteristic that can be ignored when used for sherry production.

In Spain, the grape is split into the sub-varieties Palomino Fino, Palomino Basto, and Palomino de Jerez, of which Palomino Fino is by far the most important, being the principal grape used in the manufacture of sherry. The wine formed by fermentation of the grape is low in both acidity and sugar which, whilst suitable for sherry, ensures that any table wine made from it is of a consistently low quality, unless aided by acidification.

In France, it is referred to as Listán, and in South Africa as Fransdruif or White French.

In December 2006 Spanish researchers, using DNA techniques, discovered that the Mission grape of California and Latin America, cultivated by the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries throughout the New World, is in fact the now rare Listan Prieto of Spain.