Drinking Wines

Sherry is a very English drink, despite its Spanish provenance. After a dip in popularity, sales are on the up again.

While reading the tavern bill of the loquacious and bawdy drunkard Sir John Falstaff in ‘Henry IV part 1′, Shakespeare’s Prince Hal lamented, O monstrous, but one halfpennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack. In those days, the cost of two gallons of sack, or sherri (sic), was a mere 5s/8d.

Sherry, together with Port and Claret, are still seen as archetypical English wines. Claret sales are relatively stable at the present, and Port is making a steady recovery, although it is still mostly drunk at Christmas. But what of old sack?

Sherry comes from the region in southern Spain around the town of Jerez de la Frontera, originally named Xera by the earliest Phoenician settlers who brought vines with them in 1100BC.

Viciously fought over by successive invading Roman, Visigoth and Moorish armies, Jerez’s diverse cultural identity is amply displayed in its two millennia of documented winemaking. This tradition, including distillation into spirits for medical use, began to flourish in the 14th and 15th centuries with the first accurately recorded exports, or ’saca’s’ - the arabic derivation of Sack. However, it was not until the 1800s that both British and Dutch traders set their minds to exploiting the pale dry wines of Jerez, some even basing themselves in the town to create the household brands like Harvey, Croft Osborne and Williams and Humbert. The superior zone

Most Sherry - 97 per cent, in fact - is made using a somewhat ordinary white grape variety, the Palomino, a relative of the Riesling. The most favoured vine yards are located on soil to the north and west of Jerez, named the Superior Zone, being very rich in chalky calcium carbonate known as Albariza. The distinctive, almost white soil holds the early season rainfall, enabling the vines to flourish during the searing 40C heat of the summer growing season.

Once harvested, the delicately thin-skinned Palomino is gently squeezed using a pneumatic cushion press, so as not to include the skins, seeds or stems. From this initial pressing, the ‘yema’, comes around 80 per cent of the juice, which is used to make the lightest and most delicate Fino Sherry. The wine making process

To begin the winemaking process, a natural yeast, the ‘pie de cuba’, which occurs locally, is added to the juice. After 45 to 50 days, the juice has fermented into wine, but is not yet Sherry. An initial classification, taken after both rigorous scientific analysis and subjective tasting and perusal by expert winemakers, grades the wine as either a potential Fino, the finest, or as an Oloroso, the most fragrant. Finos are then fortified with grape spirit to 15 degrees of alcohol, whilst the Olorosos are strengthened to 18 degrees alcohol. Both are then put into casks. A year later, another analysis establishes which Finos are thought to have evolved more like an Oloroso, and these are then re-fortified to the higher alcohol level.

It is in the maturing system of ’solera y criadera’, that the true magic of Sherry really begins. After fortification, each year’s wine is placed on the top level, or ‘criadera’, of barrels in the maturing cellar (’bodega’). To facilitate this, around 30 per cent of the wine in the bottom layer of barrels, known as the ’solera’, is removed for bottling. The resulting space is then filled with wine from the next level up, and so on until the new year’s wine can be added to the top level, thereby refilling all the barrels. In this way, a perfect blending system is maintained, and constant quality and supply is balanced.

During this ageing and blending system, a thin layer of ‘flor’, a yeasty veil, covers the surface of the wine in each barrel. ‘Flor’ is peculiar to this region, and helps to impart the complex nutty aromas and clean, crisp bite that is synonymous with Fino Sherry.

Though Sherry fell in popularity after its heyday in the Sixties and Seventies, much is now being done to re-establish the clean, fruity, nutty Fino style as a serious competitor in the dry white wine market. With alcohol levels of some oak-aged Chardonnay and Semillon wines now reaching 14.5 per cent, the strength of Fino at 15 per cent is seen to be comparable. Freshly marketed in fashionably sleek, green glass bottles, with sharp informative labelling, Tio Pepe looks very similar to other crisp dry white wines on the off licence or supermarket shelf.

It is, however, in the compatibility with food that Fino Sherry comes into its own. It is time for UK wine drinkers to reclaim Sherry for our own. Whether it be a cool, clean glass of Fino with tapas, mixed with tonic water as a long refreshing lunchtime tipple, or even a glass of pure Pedro Ximinez to accompany a chocolate dessert, Sherry deserves to regain its prestigious mantle once again.

This article is currently published on http://www.Funkyfogey.com and provides the answers to October 2005 Wine Quiz Prize Draw.

Sherry, a magical Spanish wine that has meandered through history with such force that it has played a central role in the works of literary geniuses such as Shakespeare and Poe. No other drink played such a central role in the colonization and exploration of the New World. When Magellan set out to circumnavigate the globe, his expenditures on Sherry were greater than those for weaponry for his entire voyage. As a fortified wine, it was better able to make the long journey across the oceans. As the first wine in the New World, Sherry remains important in the world of wine today.

Traditional Sherry begins its life on the vines of the C?diz region of Spain. It is made of three types of grapes native to the region, Palomino, Pedro Xim?nez, and Muscat. After being hand harvested they are gently crushed to draw the first must. Only this first pressing that is used to produce Sherry, this ensures the highest quality of wine. The pressing is immediately set aside for fermentation.

After the initial fermentation, the new wine is tasted for quality and is divided into one of three categories. The lightest and palest of the wines will be set aside to be turned into Fino and Amontillado, the highest grade of Sherry. The slightly darker but still clean wine will be set aside to become Oloroso, a darker Sherry. The third category destined to become Sherry will require more development before its final product can be determined.

Once its destiny has been decided, the wine begins its journey through the solera, a cascade of barrels through which the wines will move. This is a journey that takes a long time, as each year some wine is moved from one barrel to the next down the line. With a small portion of the wine from the preceding year left in the barrel, these solera are passed down through the generations. A small amount of wine is always left in the last barrel, so through the years, the last barrel in the solera will still have a very small amount of the first wine ever put in it, this wine can sometimes be several hundred years old and helps to ensure a balanced and uniform product. A true taste of history!

Today, Sherry does not have the same importance it once did. I can guarantee that more is invested in arming a ship of the line today, than on Sherry in their larder. However, it is one of the most historic of the wine family, and one of the most versatile wines available today. Sherry can be served as an aperitif, drank alone, and also makes a great addition to cooking, try this wine cake recipe from www.beyond-wine.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix

• 1 5oz box of instant vanilla pudding

• 3 Eggs

• Vegetable oil

• CREAM SHERRY (must be cream)

Set oven to 350

Grease and flour bundt pan

Mix all ingredients called for on the box and ? the amount of water using the cream sherry for the other half. Bake about approx. 40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly and rim the edge with a thin knife before removing. Drizzle a glaze over the cake, powder sugar with a touch of lemon juice or vanilla.

I hope that this has enlightened you to the delights of Sherry, an Old World wine making inroads into the new millennium. Please visit www.beyond-wine.com for wine accessories and everything you need to enjoy your glass of Sherry, from glasses and decanters, to stoppers and pourers. For a limited time, get a barrel stave candleholder free with any purchase of $150 or more.

Jason Brink is a wine enthusiast, amateur historian, and passionate web developer. His birth and rearing in one of the premier wine growing regions in California has led to a deep respect and reverence for the wine grape and all its myriad children. As the lead developer of http://www.Beyond-Wine.com he has expanded his knowledge of wine culture and his love of the wines.

Jason Brink also owns a graphic design and web development company, http://www.jasons-professional-graphics.com

L A G A R

The lagar, in which the grapes are trodden and pressed, is a rectangular wooden trough, 12 feet square and about 2 feet deep, with a 6-foot iron screw in the centre; its floor rests upon four legs about 3 feet high: it has a lip, with a funnel attached to it, through which the sweet grape-juice flows straight into tubs and then into casks, where it ferments away from grape stalks and skins.

The lagar is half filled with 60 hampers of grapes, 1,500 lb. in all, which are evenly distributed and sprinkled with 3 to 4 lb. of yeso, or gypsum. Then the pisadores, or treaders, usually four together, enter the lagar, shod with shoes studded with projecting nails. They goose-step solemnly and rhythmically up and down the mass of grapes in the lagar, from midnight to dawn, and when they leave off, the trodden pulp is heaped round the iron screw and held together by an esparto grass broad tape. The lid of the press is then screwed down on this heap, bringing up to 9? per cent. of the total the grape-juice trodden and pressed out of the grapes. The remaining 20 per cent. extracted later by an hydraulic press is, however, of distinctly inferior quality and never mixed with the juice of the first flow.

CRIADERAS

A few hours after the grapes have been pressed, the casks are taken from the vineyards to the bodegas. There the sweet juice starts fermenting ‘furiously’, and it soon casts off a scum of ‘undesirables’ at the bung-hole of the cask in which it is lodged, in the dark and cool Bodegas. Presently the new wine settles down in peace to a slow, steady second fermentation during which the characteristics of its own idiosyncrasies are developed under the screen of thin flor, or yeast. Then it is that the experts taste every cask, containing no longer mosto but vino de anada, and they decide which criadera, or nursery, will be the right one for each wine to go to: that which possesses outstanding distinction is sent to the Palma criadera; that which has more muscle than breed goes to the Palo Cortado and the stoutest of all to the Rayas criaderas. After being racked off their lees and before being sent to their allotted criadera to age, the wines, which are by this time quite dry, are given a fair taste of brandy, about 4 gallons per butt, and this rules out all possibility of any further fermentation.

ANADAS AND SOLERAS

There was a time when at Jerez, wines from different vineyards and years were kept apart, unblended; they were called Anadas or Vintages. With age the Anadas wines acquired greater body, higher strength, and darker color, making it difficult to build up and keep up constant and ample supplies of Sherry wines of those types and styles for which the demand was greater. Hence the Solera system, introduced long ago and now universally adopted. The Solera is the Spanish method of equalization and rejuvenation of Sherry wines by the gradual introduction of younger wines to older ones. Butts of Sherry, containing wine of one and the same sort, are stacked in tiers, the younger wine above and the older below. To make up his blends, the Sherry shipper draws as much as he wishes from the butts of the bottom tier; the quantity drawn is replaced by wine from the butts immediately above, these are replenished with wine from the next tier, and so on until the topmost tier, the butts of which are filled up with wine from the right Criaderas, where the young Palma, Palo Cortado, Rayas, and oilier wines are kept during the early years of their development.

FINOS, OLOROSOS, ETC

FINOS are Sherries from Palma Soleras: they are pale, and dry without any trace of bitterness; they possess greater grace than strength, and are best before or between meals.

Amontillados are Finos which have acquired with age a greater alcoholic strength, a deeper amber color and a distinctive Montilla-like character. Best served before or between meals.

Vinos de Pasto vary greatly, but as a rule they are less dry than Finos and lack the somewhat assertive flavor of Amontillados; they may be served as white table wines.

Olorosos, the wines of Palo Cortado Soleras, range from golden to brown in color, and from 18 to 20 percent. in alcoholic strength, reaching 24 per cent. when very old. They have more body and power than Finos, but less ‘breed’, and are best with soup or dessert.

Amorosos and Brown Sherries are among the sweeter and darker Olorosos, and are served as dessert wines.

Pedro Ximenez and Moscatel wines are made from varieties of grapes exceedingly rich in grape-sugar; they are more liqueurs than wines. Vinos de color are made from grape-juice boiled to a thick syrup diluted with ordinary ‘must’, which ferments with it. Vinos de color are used to color and sweeten the darker and sweeter Sherries.

MANZANILLA, MONTILLA, PAJARETE

Manzanilla is the chief and most typical wine made from the grapes of the Sanlucar vineyards; it possesses a distinctive character unlike that of other Sherries. It is pale in color, dry with a slightly bitter ‘finish’, 15.5 per cent. only in alcoholic strength, when young, but it does gather higher strength with years. It is best served cold before or during meals. Montilla is an unfortified wine which may reach 16 per cent. of alcohol when completely fermented. It is made from the grapes of La Sierra de Montilla and Los Moriles vineyards, in the Province of Cordoba; it possesses great distinction and an attractive flavor of its own. It should be served cold before or between meals.

Pajarete, or Paxarete, from the Pajarete vinyards between Villamartin and Prado del Rey, is a sweet wine that was popular in England in Victorian days. It is shipped now to the U.S.A where it is known as Blending Sherry and used by Whisky Blenders.

The abortive miniature glasses in which Sherry is served in most hotels and restaurants are a disgrace and an insult. Sherry lovers must refuse them and demand wine-glasses for all Sherry wines, preferably narrower at the top so as to concentrate the bouquet of the wine.

This article is the last in the short series from www.thewinelover.org about Sherry. Please join us for more articles and ebooks about different wine topics.

Andrew Johnson loves a glass of wine. He also likes to write, so a website about wine seemed to make sense. Visit http://www.thewinelover.org for a free wine eBook, more articles, information about wine and a new forum.