Behind the Label

“There is Sherry, and there are all other wines,” declared English writer Rupert Croft-Cooke in his 1956 book, Sherry.

A once-championed beverage in the post-war era by many a bourgeois, English palate—like our hyperbolic buddy Rupert’s—Sherry went into a tailspin through the 70s and 80s, only to reemerge in the late Aughts in the most unlikely of hands: those of millennial mixologists on the American coasts. Bombastic, cloying, jammy cocktails were out; bitter, complex, nutty, and saline ones were in. Sherry was hip again.

Sherry has been mostly on the upswing through the last decade, with more than just the bartending world taking notice. The industry’s governing body, the Consejo Regulador, pointed to another positive trend for its biologically aged liquids, in a new, growing segment of the market that no one saw coming: wine drinkers. That’s right, wine drinkers have “discovered” Sherry, “as a very peculiar but very interesting wine,” according to Cesar Saldana, in a 2016 interview with Drinks International. What this means is that, although volume sales are down, value sales are up. Producers of this fortified wine are embracing this new identity as premium and niche.

Enter traditional bodegas such as Emilio Hidalgo, with its large, nearly-forgotten, humid cellar full of old, blended wines at rest, with stocks dating back to the company’s founding in 1874. Talia Baiocchi, in her Sherry (2014), describes Hidalgo’s house style as “elegance over girth… favoring leanness and finesse over power.”

The bodega is located in the heart of the city of Jerez, Sherry production’s capital, in the far south of Andalucia, Spain, a not-so-touristy city known for its Moorish architecture, dancing horses, flamenco, and packed tabancos—Sherry bars. The fifth generation of Hidalgos now oversees the business, while wine production is guided by Manuel Jesus Nieves, whose father entered into partnership with the Hidalgos in 1959.

The Palomino Fino grape is the workhorse of the vineyards outside of the city, harvested early in the season, at lower potential alcohols, so as to produce relatively neutral base wines. The fruit itself is not the star of Hidalgo’s wines.

Wines from Emilio Hidalgo available at Jones & Company Wine Merchants: Fino ($17.99); Morenita Cream ($18.99); Pedro Ximénez ($26.99/500mL); Gobernador Oloroso ($35.99); Villapanes Oloroso Seco ($69.99)

The imprints to be sought are those of the flor—the yeast “flower” that blooms atop their Fino wines in their old, large barrels (mostly 600-litre) called butts under which the wines age, anaerobically—and time, which can be discerned in the tawny-brown shades and nutty, candied citrus-peel-like aromas of the Olorosos, such as their stunningly complex Villapanes Oloroso Seco.

Hidalgo’s Sherries showcase the effects that both oxygen and the lack thereof have upon wine. They are truly a product of the bodega’s ecology—with its sea-kissed humidity and rows upon rows of solera-stacked casks—and the skills and intuitions of the capataz—the cellarmaster— and tonelero—the cooper who makes the barrels. Our own Gary Hewitt was there nearly a decade ago and marvelled at the “arcane paraphernalia” conveniently lying about the damp, earthen floors, “for the endless task of transferring wine from cask to cask,” year over year.

We first sourced the wines of Emilio Hidalgo in late 2011 for longtime local restaurant partner Segovia, whose contemporary, thoughtful take on Spanish tapas cuisine left a mark on our city that won’t soon be forgotten. If you were lucky enough to sample their Sherry Tasting Menu, then you were lucky enough to taste four of Hidalgo’s wines in a stunning room, accompanied by the most thoughtful of small bites. Progressing from their delicate, fresh Fino with a skewer of olive and anchovy, through to a pistachiostudded mascarpone-stuffed date paired with the naturally sweet, unctuous, liquid-date-in-a-glass Pedro Ximénez was a palate-jolting experience of savoury, umami joy.

Thankfully, if you missed out, these wines are still on our shelves, waiting to be discovered by the wine drinkers, and the Sherry drinkers, and those that enjoy sherry wines, too. 