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JULY/AUGUST 2014
BACK 2 BASICS By John Fischer
Sherry, Sherry Baby
Demystifying the Spanish fortified wine
S
herry-based drinks are a hot new
trend in cocktailian bars, but I
didn't have a handle on them until
recently. An educational trip I took with
a bunch of great American mixologists to
Jerez last October taught me a lot more
than I expected to learn about sherry.
First off, what the heck is sherry? (Hint:
It might not be what you think).
Sherry, properly called Vino de Jerez,
is a fortified wine from southwest
Spain. "Fortified" means that alcohol
has been added to preserve it, which
was originally done so the wine could
survive a sailing voyage.
Now the alchohol preserves the wine
as it matures in very old wood casks
arranged in the solera system. Suffice it to
say that this system of barrels results in a
consistent product that is blended during
the aging and handling process.
While in the solera, some barrels contain
flor, a layer of yeast that protects the wine
from oxidation. In other barrels, the flor
either dies off, or is eliminated by addition
of more alcohol. is gives us the two
sides, or main styles of sherry, the fresher
flor side, and the more oxidized side.
SHERRY STYLE SPECIFICS
Fresh or unoxidized styles of sherry
still have a nutty complexity to them, not
unlike dry vermouth. Fino is the most
popular style in Spain and includes Tio
Pepe and La Ina. It is crisp and bright on
the palate, and should be the color of a
young pinot grigio—not brown at all.
e other fresh style is manzanilla,
which is fino sherry produced in a town
right on the seacoast. It's like a briny fino,
which tastes better than it sounds.
Among the oxidized styles, amontillado
is fino that didn't make the cut. When a
barrel of fino is not good enough for the
blend, they let the flor die, and the wine
turns into a nuttier, pale brown wine that
still has bright acidity.
