Sherry

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  When Ferdinand Magellan prepared to sail around the world in 1519, he spent more money on sherry than on weapons. Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes grown around the city of Jerez de la Frontera, in Andalusia, Spain. Today it is a quiet drink. Some wine writers call it underappreciated, and one has called it a neglected wine treasure. How did a wine from one corner of southern Spain outrank an explorer's arsenal? What lets it range from pale and delicate to dark and heavy, all from the same handful of grapes? And why can a single bottle hold wine far older than anything its label admits?

  7896

• 2. From Sherish to Sack

  ›

  Wine-making arrived in Spain with the Phoenicians in 1100 BCE, and Jerez has been a centre of vines ever since. The Romans took control of Iberia around 200 BCE and kept the vineyards going. In 711 CE the Moors conquered the region. They brought distillation with them, and that skill led to brandy and to fortified wine.

  The Moors called the town Sherish, a transliteration of its Arabic name. Both Jerez and the English word sherry descend from it. Similar wines have long been made in Shiraz, in mid-southern Iran, but the name is thought unlikely to come from there.

  In 966 the second Caliph of Córdoba, Al-Hakam II, ordered the vineyards destroyed. The people of Jerez pleaded that their vines also gave raisins to feed the empire's soldiers. The Caliph spared two-thirds of the vineyards.

  Alfonso X of Castile took the city in 1264, and production and exports across Europe grew sharply afterwards. Christopher Columbus brought sherry on his voyage to the New World. By the end of the 16th century, Europe regarded it as the finest wine in the world.

  In 1587 Spain was assembling an armada at the port of Cádiz to invade England. Francis Drake struck first and sacked the city that same year. After destroying the fleet, he carried home 2,900 barrels of sherry that had been waiting to be loaded onto Spanish ships. That haul helped make the wine popular in the British Isles.

  In the following centuries the United Kingdom became a major buyer, and English companies and styles of sherry grew up around that trade. Many Jerez cellars were founded by British families. Then, in 1894, the insect phylloxera devastated the region. Larger vineyards replanted with resistant vines, but most smaller producers could not fight the infestation and abandoned their land entirely.

  1214111035

• 3. The Sherry Triangle

  ›

  In 1933, Article 34 of the Spanish Estatuto del Vino, the national wine law, drew the boundaries of sherry production. That made Jerez the first Spanish denominación de origen to be officially recognised. Its formal name became D.O. Jerez-Xeres-Sherry, and it shares a governing council with D.O. Manzanilla Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

  The legal heart of the region is a triangle in the province of Cádiz. Its three corners are Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa María. Under Spanish law, and under wider European Union legislation, any wine sold as sherry in the EU must come from inside it. Today the region holds a protected designation of origin, a Denominación de Origen Protegida, under the name Jerez-Xérès-Sherry.

  Spanish producers have registered all three names, Jerez, Xérès and sherry. They may prosecute makers of similar fortified wines elsewhere who use any of them.

  The United States treats the word as semi-generic. Wines there must carry a region of origin, such as American sherry or California sherry, and they cannot legally be exported to the EU. Canadian and Australian winemakers now sell their versions as Apera, even though ordinary drinkers there still say sherry.

  1341920

• 4. Chalk and Sun

  ›

  Almost 300 days of sun and about 70 days of rain define a year in the Jerez district. The rain falls mostly between October and May and averages 600 mm. Summer is dry, with temperatures reaching 40 C, yet the yearly average sits near 18 C. Ocean winds carry moisture to the vineyards in the early morning, and clays in the soil hold water below the surface.

  The soil comes in three kinds. Albariza is the lightest, almost white, and about 40 percent chalk, with clay and sand making up the rest. It is absorbent and compact, so it stores the scant rainfall through the hot summer. It also reflects sunlight back up to the vine, which helps photosynthesis. By law, 40 percent of the grapes in a sherry must come from albariza.

  Arenas is yellowish, with 10 percent chalk and a lot of sand. Barros is dark brown, also 10 percent chalk, but rich in clay. Both mostly serve the Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel grapes.

  Before phylloxera arrived, an estimated hundred or more grape varieties went into Spanish sherry. Now only three white grapes remain. Palomino makes up roughly 90 per cent of the plantings and supplies the dry sherries. Made as an ordinary table wine, it tastes bland and neutral. That neutrality is exactly why it suits the region, because the sherry method builds character onto it so easily.

  Moscatel is the least common of the three and is used much like Pedro Ximénez. Pedro Ximénez grapes make the sweet wines, and after harvest they are typically left in the sun for two days to concentrate their sugars.

  162261235

• 5. From Press to Cask

  ›

  Palomino grapes come in during early September and are pressed lightly. The must from the first pressing, called the primera yema, goes to Fino and Manzanilla. The second pressing, the segunda yema, is kept for Oloroso. Further pressings end up as lesser wines, as spirit for distillation, or as vinegar.

  The must then ferments in stainless steel vats until the end of November. The result is a dry white wine of 11-12 per cent alcohol. Fermentation and early aging used to happen in wood. Now they take place almost exclusively in steel, except for one or two high-end wines.

  Right after fermentation, the cellar sorts the wine by marking each cask with chalk-style strokes. A single stroke means the finest flavour and aroma, suited to Fino or Amontillado. Those wines are fortified to about 15 per cent alcohol so that a protective yeast growth can form.

  A stroke with a dot marks a heavier, fuller wine. It is fortified to about 17.5 per cent, which prevents that growth, and it is aged oxidatively into Oloroso. A double stroke means the wine needs time before anyone decides between Amontillado and Oloroso. Three strokes condemn a poorly developed wine to the still.

  The fortifying spirit is called destilado, a distillate made from wine, usually from La Mancha. It goes first into mature sherry to make a half-and-half blend called mitad y mitad. Only then is that blend added to the younger sherry in the proper proportions. The two steps keep the strong alcohol from shocking the young wine and spoiling it.

  Because the spirit is added after fermentation is finished, most sherries begin completely dry. Any sweetness is added later. Port works differently, since it is fortified halfway through fermentation, which halts the process and leaves part of the sugar unfermented.

  16224296

• 6. Running the Scales

  ›

  The casks are 500-litre butts made of North American oak, which is more porous than French or Spanish oak. Each is filled only five-sixths full. Bodegas leave "the space of two fists" empty at the top so a layer of flor can form. Flor is a yeast-like growth that floats on the wine and shields it from excessive oxidation.

  After that, the wine enters the solera system, a row of three to nine barrels. New wine goes into the first. Periodically, part of each barrel is moved into the next one down the line, between five and thirty percent depending on the style. Tools called the canoa, meaning canoe, and the rociador, meaning sprinkler, move the wine gently so the flor stays intact. Only a portion of the final barrel is bottled.

  Each barrel in the row is called a scale, so the process is known as running the scales. The number of barrels sets the age of the youngest wine in a bottle. Every bottle also contains a share of much older wine, which is why sherry usually carries no vintage year. It spends at least two years in a solera.

  The word solera means on the ground. It recalls the stacking method, sometimes still used, with the youngest barrels on top and the oldest scale at the bottom. That oldest scale is itself often called the solera. The old name for sherry, sack, comes from the Spanish saca, meaning the extraction of wine from it.

  Some producers now bottle en rama, with only a light filtration and often from a single favoured barrel. Many drinkers find these bottlings more complex and worth seeking out. For those who want certainty about age, the regulating council tracks the average age of wine as it moves through each solera. VOS, short for Vinum Optimum Signatum, guarantees a minimum average of 20 years. VORS, short for Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum, guarantees 30 years.

  Used sherry casks have a second career in Scotch whisky aging. Contrary to common belief, those casks are prepared specifically for whisky makers. They are not the old, largely inactive butts that mature sherry itself.

  2627282129

• 7. A Spectrum of Styles

  ›

  Fino, which means delicate in Spanish, is the driest and palest of the traditional sherries. It ages under a cap of flor, which keeps air off the wine. Wines destined to be Fino or Manzanilla are fortified to 15.5 percent alcohol by volume. Manzanilla is an especially light fino made around the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Manzanilla Pasada has aged longer or been partly oxidised, which gives it a richer, nuttier flavour.

  Amontillado begins under flor and then meets oxygen. That path leaves it darker than a Fino but lighter than an Oloroso. It is naturally dry, though some are sold lightly or medium sweetened, and those may no longer be labelled Amontillado.

  Palo Cortado starts out aged like an Amontillado, typically for three or four years, and then drifts toward the character of an Oloroso. Sometimes this happens by accident when the flor dies. More commonly, the flor is killed on purpose by fortification or filtration.

  Oloroso means scented. It ages oxidatively for longer than Fino or Amontillado, which makes it darker and richer. At 18-20 percent alcohol, Olorosos are the strongest sherries. Cream sherry, first made in the 1860s, blends sherries, usually Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez.

  Sweet sherries, or Jerez Dulce, come from fermenting sun-dried Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel grapes. These produce an intensely sweet wine that is dark brown or black. Others are made by blending sweeter wines or grape must into a drier sherry.

  On the 12th of April 2012, new rules for Jerez-Xérès-Sherry and the neighbouring Montilla-Moriles region banned terms such as Rich Oloroso, Sweet Oloroso and Oloroso Dulce. Such wines must now be labelled Cream Sherry: Blend of Oloroso / Amontillado, or something similar.

  The official sweetness scale makes the spread plain. Fino, Manzanilla and Amontillado hold 0-5 grams of sugar per litre. At the far end, Pedro Ximénez carries at least 212 grams per litre.

  41718166

• 8. Copita and Culture

  ›

  In Spain, Fino is often sold in half bottles, and whatever is left gets thrown out if it is not finished the day it is opened. Fino and Manzanilla are the most fragile sherries and should be drunk soon after opening, like unfortified wine. Amontillado and Oloroso keep longer. Sweet Pedro Ximénez and blended cream sherries can last weeks or even months, because sugar acts as a preservative.

  Bottled sherry generally gains nothing from further aging. Oxidatively aged styles can sit for years without losing flavour, and the best Finos, aged longer before bottling, continue to develop for some years. Bottles belong upright, in a cool, dark place.

  The traditional glass is the copita, also called the catavino, a tulip-shaped glass. A venenciador samples straight from the butt using a venencia, a cup traditionally made of silver and fixed to a long whale whisker handle. The cup is narrow enough to pass through the bung hole. The venenciador pours the sherry from head height into a copita held in the other hand.

  Mixed drinks have their place too. Many types are blended with lemonade and ice into a long drink now called Rebujito. In the Victorian era, a similar drink was the sherry cobbler, shaken and served over shaved ice.

  Writers from William Shakespeare to Benito Pérez Galdós have written about sherry. Edgar Allan Poe built a story around it, "The Cask of Amontillado". Television followed. Brothers Frasier and Niles Crane often drink it in the sitcom Frasier, and Jim Hacker pours it for Sir Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley in his office in Yes Minister. Amontillado features heavily in the tenth episode of the third season of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

  In John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey, Horace Rumpole keeps grumbling about the family doctors his wife Hilda serves sherry. In the film Withnail and I, the lecherous Uncle Monty offers it to the two protagonists in a much-quoted scene. The old cellars even gave rise to the Andalusian wine-cellar rat-hunting dog and to iconic bull posters advertising sherry.

  In the novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, sherry drives the plot. The spy Jim Prideaux learns that a double agent is hiding in his division when Russian KGB agents correctly name the brand of sherry drunk at a secret MI6 meeting.

  3031323334