Sherry is a very English drink, despite its Spanish origin. After a drop in popularity, sales have risen again.
Reading the garrulous and bawdy drunk Sir John Falstaff’s tavern bill in ‘Henry IV part 1’, Shakespeare’s Prince Hall lamented, “Oh, monstrous, but half a penny of bread for this intolerable amount of sack.” In those days, the cost of two gallons of sack, or sherri (sic), was a mere 5 shillings/8 pence.
Sherry, along with port and claret, are still considered archetypal English wines. Claret sales are relatively stable at present, and port is steadily recovering, although it is still mainly drunk at Christmas. But what about the old bag?
Sherry comes from the region of southern Spain around the city of Jerez de la Frontera, originally called Xera by early Phoenician settlers who brought vines with them in 1100 BC.
Viciously fought by successive invading Roman, Visigothic 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 19th century that British and Dutch merchants decided to exploit Sherry’s pale, dry wines, some even settling in the city to create family brands such as Harvey, Croft Osborne and Williams and Humbert.
the upper zone
Most sherry (97 percent, in fact) is made from a common white grape variety, palomino, a relative of Riesling. The most favored vineyards are found in soils to the north and west of Jerez, called the Superior Zone, being very rich in calcareous calcium carbonate known as Albariza. The distinctive, almost white soil retains the early season rain, allowing the vines to flourish during the scorching 40°C heat of the summer growing season.
Once harvested, the delicately thin-skinned Palomino is gently crushed with a pneumatic cushion press, so as not to include the skins, seeds or stems. From this initial pressing, the ‘yolk’, comes about 80 percent of the must, which is used to make the lighter, more delicate Fino de Jerez.
The winemaking process
To start the vinification process, a natural yeast, the ‘pie de cuba’, which is produced locally, is added to the juice. After 45 to 50 days, the juice has fermented into wine, but it is not sherry yet. An initial classification, made after rigorous scientific analysis and subjective tasting and reading by expert winemakers, classifies the wine as potential Fino, the finest, or Oloroso, the most fragrant. Then, the finos are enriched with grape brandy at 15 degrees of alcohol, while the olorosos are fortified at 18 degrees of alcohol. Both are then put into barrels. A year later, another analysis establishes which Finos are believed to have evolved more like an Oloroso, and are then re-fortified at the higher alcohol level.
It is in the ‘solera y criadera’ maturation system, where the true magic of Jerez really begins. After fortification, each year’s wine is placed in the top level, or ‘criadera’, of barrels in the maturation cellar (‘bodega’). To facilitate this, around 30 per cent of the wine in the bottom layer of the barrels, known as the ‘solera’, is removed for bottling. Then the resulting space is filled with wine from the next level, and so on until new year’s wine can be added to the top level, thus filling all the barrels. In this way, a perfect mixing system is maintained and balances constant quality and supply.
During this aging and blending system, a thin layer of ‘flor’, a veil of yeast, covers the surface of the wine in each barrel. ‘Flor’ is peculiar to this region and helps to impart the complex nutty aromas and crisp clean bite that is synonymous with Fino Sherry.
Although sherry fell in popularity after its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, much is now being done to re-establish Fino’s clean, fruity, nutty 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 percent, Fino’s strength at 15 percent is considered comparable. Newly released in stylish, trendy green glass bottles, with crisp informative labeling, Tio Pepe looks very similar to other fresh, dry white wines on the supermarket shelf or off license.
It is, however, in the compatibility with food that Fino Sherry comes into its own. It’s time for us UK wine drinkers to claim sherry as our own. Whether it’s a crisp, clean glass of Fino with tapas, mixed with tonic water as a refreshing lunchtime drink, or even a glass of pure Pedro Ximinez to accompany a chocolate dessert, Sherry deserves to regain her prestigious mantle once again. again.
