STYLISH SHERRY Ready for a Comeback

BY MARGAUX BURGESS

In the far southwest corner of Spain, tucked away in the very same corner Magellen departed from centuries ago, you will find the sundrenched sherry triangle, a trifecta of some of Spain’s most iconic wine-making cities.

Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María are almost a different world from Madrid and Barcelona. Considerably closer to Africa, with Tangier, Morocco only a brief 160 km away, this singular wine-making climate gives us a region and a collection of wines like no other.

The wines of sherry are predominantly (as much as 95 percent) produced with the palomino grape, the variety that is the backbone of dry sherry styles, including Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, and Oloroso. The remaining 5 percent comes from pedro ximénez (PX) and moscatel grapes, which are primarily used for making the sweeter styles of sherry.

We may be more familiar with the sweet sherries, “Harvey’s Bristol Cream” is so often spotted sitting on a back bar, so it is most often what we think sherry to be, but there are so many more styles to discover, and this diversity is one of the remarkable things about sherry.

The palomino grape is favoured because of its ability to express the unique aging and fortification processes that shapes the wine's character. The production process includes fortification with grape spirit and aging in a solera system. The solera is a key component of sherry, and blends different vintages to create consistency and complexity. While fortified, sherry comes in several styles:

- Fino and Manzanilla are pale, dry, and aged under a layer of yeast, called ‘flor’, which protects them from oxidation.

- Amontillado starts as a Fino but is later exposed to oxygen, developing a nuttier flavour.

- Oloroso is aged without flor, resulting in a darker, fuller-bodied wine.

- Moscatel and PX sherries are intensely sweet, made from sun-dried grapes.

The aging process defines sherry styles. Biological aging under a layer of flor (yeast) occurs in Fino and Manzanilla, preventing oxidation and giving them a crisp, saline character. If flor dies off, the wine transitions into Amontillado, developing nutty, oxidized notes.

Oloroso undergoes oxidative aging from the start, becoming darker and fuller-bodied. Those sweet sherries are made differently. Moscatel and PX grapes are sun-dried before fermentation, creating intensely sweet wines with raisin-like flavours. Cream sherries are a blend of Oloroso and sweet PX.

Sherry is also a rare gift, in that it is one of the most fool-proof wines for food and wine pairing. Pesky vegetables like artichoke or asparagus? Fino works every time. Gastrique or vinaigrette, no problem - amontillado will coax out all the flavours of the dish without being rendered moot. Oxtail and roast porkthey're practically made for Oloroso, a gem that will stand up to the heartiest of dishes and pull together all the different flavour elements.

Sherry is the sommelier’s secret weapon, and a wine that really has no equal in the world. Even now, after hundreds (probably at least) glasses of sherry throughout my career and multiple visits to Spain to enjoy it in-situ, every glass is almost like tasting it for the first time. Wine professionals will often say wine is a living thing, but the nuances of sherry production and uniqueness of its location truly do create a living wine that excites with every sip.