What Is Sherry and Why Should You Drink It?
Photo credit: Ed Anderson
"Trends in wine tend to follow food, so we’re five to 10 years behind," laughed Talia Baiocchi, editor in chief of Punch. Just as we’ve seen the American palate shift away from sweet, super-rich flavors and towards those that are savory and high-acid, she said, there is finally a market for wines beyond the big, bold Bordeaux. Enter sherry, an idiosyncratic Spanish wine whose tradition spans 3,000 years.
Baiocchi's book on the drink, out now, is called Sherry: A Modern Guide to the Wine World’s Best-Kept Secret, with Cocktails and Recipes. “Sherry is citrusy and doughy—it reminds me of Champagne,” she told us. “People make the comparison quite often and it’s a really apt one.” Just like Champagne, she said, sherry should be enjoyed with food.” The rule of thumb for pairings is: If it swims, fino. If it flies, amontillado. If it walks, oloroso.” There are more varieties of sherry beyond those three, but Baiocchi specializes in the dry end of the spectrum. She recommends three bottles in particular:
Fino: Valdespino Fino Inocente. Fifteen dollars and a Robert Parker favorite for its “full, but at the same time elegant and balanced” palate.
Amontillado: El Maestro Sierra. “It’s lovely, it’s $30 a bottle, and it’s from a small bodega run by all women,” said Baiocchi.
Oloroso: Gutierrez Colosia Oloroso Sangre y Trabajadero “is a great all-purpose oloroso.”
But what is sherry, exactly? Here is an excerpt from Baiocchi’s introduction that should leave you with no doubts:
In simple terms, sherry is a wine produced in Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria. It is a fortified wine, which means that a small amount of neutral grape spirit (brandy) is added to the wine to increase its alcohol content. Fortification—or, more specifically, the lingering negative connotations surrounding it (thanks, Thunderbird)—is one of the reasons sherry is so misunderstood in America. Another reason: its wide range of styles, which include both the driest and the sweetest wines in the world, and numerous points in between.
There are four dry styles of sherry, each with differing modes of production: fino (in which style I include manzanilla, which though distinct in character is simply a fino aged in the town of Sanlucar de Barrameda), amontillado, palo cortado, and oloroso. These styles fit, in this order, along a spectrum from lightest to fullest.
In addition to the range of dry wines, the region produces two naturally sweet wines: pedro ximenez (known affectionately as “PX”) and moscatel. And those cheap, sweet bottles with the sticky labels left marinating in pantries across America? Those fit into the category of blended sherries, which are generally made by mixing one of the dry styles with either PX, moscatel, or unfermented grape must and labeled with designations like “pale cream,” “cream,” “amoroso,” and “medium.”
In America, people often equate sherry with these ubiquitous, sweetened wines. Thus, the entire category is generally considered sweet, even though the majority of it is not. That fact, coupled with a general distrust of fortified wines, has long kept sherry from the dinner table. But sherry is above all a wine, and one that should be consumed like any other wine: with food. In fact, the intense savoriness of the dry wines and their compatibility with a wide range of cuisines, from English pub fare to sushi, are what’s helped drive modern interest in it.
But while sherry should be considered a wine like any other, it’s also true that its production methods, especially, make it unique within the world of wine—and not in an academic or abstract way. The differences are dramatic, and visceral.
“No wine differs so much from all others, and the differences are not merely of taste or colour, of scent or sparkle, but of kind … it is not a variant, but a primary,” writes Rupert Croft-Cooke in his 1956 book, Sherry. “There is Sherry, and there are all other wines.”
Reprinted with permission from Sherry, by Talia Baiocchi, copyright 2014. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House LLC.
