Fortified wines are so underrated, particularly sherry. At one point we, like a lot of people, thought of sherry as just a sweet drink you put in trifle, but now our eyes have been opened and we wanted to share this with you too! Sherry is often dry, complex and very much a food wine. Anika fell in love with sherry during her first trip to Jerez in 2011, and then converted Fleurie by regularly ordering sherry at Barrafina, and serving up bottles with our Spanish dinners at home. We then travelled together to Jerez de la Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda in May 2022 to appreciate this wonderful drink on a whole new level.
What is sherry and how is it made?
Sherry is a fortified wine made in Andalucía, southern Spain. The grape most associated with sherry is the Palomino grape, used for around 95% of sherries, but others are also used e.g. Moscatel and Pedro Ximénez. There are a range of styles of sherry, ranging from dry to sweet. You should generally drink it from a white wine glass, chilled, and it’s ideal for pairing with food. Most sherry should be stored and treated like wine, especially the Fino and Manzanilla styles – drink them soon after bottling, once opened, keep it in the fridge and drink within a few days (like white wine). Don’t store it in the cupboard for years!
As a fortified wine, sherry starts life as a normal wine, and alcohol is added. Sherry is famous for being aged under flor (although only some sherries are made this way), which is a layer of yeast which protects the sherry from oxygen as it ages. This results in a wine which has some of the complexities of ageing whilst still tasting incredibly fresh and young. Other styles don’t have flor throughout the full ageing period, which gives nutty flavours from the oxidisation.
Sherry is almost always aged in barrels which are part of a solera system. These are arranged in different tiers called criaderas, with the criadera containing the oldest wines, which is also called (confusingly) the solera. When sherry is taken to be bottled, it is usually taken from the solera (the barrels containing the oldest wine). The amount taken will be replaced with the same amount of wine, but from the barrel containing slightly younger wine (the first criadera). The wine taken from the first criadera will, in turn, be replaced by wine from the slightly younger second criadera etc. The last criadera, which has the youngest wine, will be topped up from the most recent harvest. During this process, the whole barrel is never emptied (usually less than one third). As such, wine from the solera method isn’t all a specific age, but instead includes a blend of some very old wines – there will be trace amounts as old as the solera itself! By law the average age must be at least two years before it can be sold, but in reality it will usually be much older.
Types of sherry
There are a range of types of sherry, and always some exceptions to the rule, but below are some of the most common types you will come across: how they are made, what they taste like, and what food to pair them with.
Fino and Manzanilla are styles which are aged under flor. They are 15% abv (like a strong wine), and you should drink it like a crisp, white wine (serve and store it this way too) – drink them young and cold. Sherry has a very low acidity, but this style is crisp and bone dry as the flor also eats up the glycerol (which can often give a perception of sweetness to normal dry wines like Zinfandel). Fino can be made anywhere in the Jerez regions, whilst Manzanilla is made in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, which is by the sea and gives the wine a saltier note. The flor also grows thicker by the sea, which means the Manzanilla is even more delicate.
Both styles have a salty, tangy (like fresh sourdough bread, from the flor) and slightly nutty, baked apple aroma and are perfect to cut through fried food, like fried tapas dishes. These styles of sherry are the perfect wines to serve at the beginning of a meal with almonds, olives, oysters, or fried seafood. We also love it with meaty fish like hake, chicken, and mushrooms – the earthy nuttiness complements this so well.
We particularly love the Waitrose No.1 Don Luis Fino del Puerto Lustau Dry Sherry for this kind of meal. This type of wine also goes will with umami flavours and sushi, with the ability to stand up to things like soy sauce and salmon roe, which a lot of wines struggle with.
Amontillado begins life in the same way as a fino, ageing under flor. Then more alcohol is added, taking it to 17% (flor tends to die above 16%), so the wine continues to mature without the flor, allowing for oxidation. This oxidation means the wine darkens to an amber colour and develops richer, nuttier aromas like cooked fruit and hazelnut. It goes surprisingly well with a Korma.
Oloroso is fortified to above 17% abv at the beginning so the flor never develops. It is aged for a minimum of eight years and so there is slow, gradual ageing. As a result, you have a dark, rich dry sherry with aromas of dried figs, raisins and walnut, brazil nuts, and leathery aromas. It goes really well with strong, blue cheese.
Palo Cortado smells like an amontillado but has the structure and body of an oloroso. The wine starts with the most delicate free-run juice, usually destined to make fino, but fortified to 17% - 18% so that the wine is forced to age oxidatively (like an oloroso), and then can be fortified again, whilst having some of the delicateness of a fino. It is an amber colour and complex aromas including leather aromas, a bit like whisky. Works great with aged cheddar or manchego. Once opened, it can be kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
Cream sherries are the ones that most people in the UK grew up with, sweet and ideal to slosh on cake when making trifle. These sherries are sweetened, often using Pedro Ximénez. Pale cream sherry is a sweetened (usually with grape must) fino or manzanilla - Croft sherry is a popular example of this. Cream sherries are usually sweetened Oloroso (Harveys Bristol Cream is a common example, this is made with a blend of sherry styles). Try Lustau’s East India Solera for something special (aged in a similar way to Madeira!). Good versions can still be very complex and interesting, and the sweet, nuttiness is fantastic with nutty desserts like turron, as well as fresh oranges, and milky desserts like rice pudding. There are also other types of sweet sherries, such as medium (usually based around amontillado) and some which have the fermentation stopped early, being naturally sweet rather than sweetened.
Pedro Ximénez is named after the grape used to make it, and often abbreviated to PX. The grapes are either picked very ripe or dried in the sun to concentrate the sugars, before making a very sweet dessert wine. PX is dark, thick and almost treacle-like. You can get slightly thinner versions (M&S do a version for about £6 which is easy to drink and ideal to keep in the cupboard for when you fancy something sweet). PX tastes like raisins in liquid form, and is yummy poured over ice cream.
Whilst uncommon in the UK, we were lucky enough to visit in May and try ‘en Rama’ sherry, which is unfiltered and so has a sour, funky flavour a bit like you get in some natural wines or craft beers. This type of sherry must be drunk as soon as possible (and within 3 months, hence not easily found outside the regions) – we got ours straight from the barrel!
We hope that we’ve inspired you to give sherry a go! If you just want to try a glass with tapas, then we highly recommend Barrafina for doing both superbly.
Stay salty af (like a good manzanilla,)
Anika and Fleurie