Palomino - wine grape variety

Palomino is an important Spanish variety, providing about 90% of the grapes used for sherry. There are about 57 000 ha of Palomino in Spain of which about three quarters are in the sherry area. In South Africa, where it was formerly known as White French, it covers the fifth largest area of any variety, about 5200 ha. Elsewhere the areas are rather small: 470 ha in California where it has sometimes been erroneously called Golden Chasselas; 771 ha in France where it is known as Listan; and 700 ha in Australia where it has sometimes been known as Paulo. It should not be confused with the so-called Common Palomino in Australia, which is in fact Canocazo.

Palomino is a fairly vigorous and rather upright variety. It has medium to large, distinctly 5-lobed leaves with prominent angular teeth. The leaves are dark green above and densely hairy below. The leaf stalks are generally flushed with red and this colour sometimes continues into the base of the veins. The bunches are large, loose to well filled, with the stalk often flushed with colour like the leaf stalk. The berries are medium, round, firm with a tough skin and golden in colour when ripe. The variety yields well and at ripeness has a high sugar content but low acidity and neutral flavour.

Palomino is better suited to the production of fortified wines than of table wines and is a preferred variety for premium dry sherries in Australia.