Eight Questions About Sherry You Were Afraid to Ask

(Or Thought You Already Knew the Answers To!)

by Steve Heimoff

Q: What is sherry?

A: "Sherry" is the anglicized term for a fortified wine named after the region where it is made, Jerez de la Frontera, in Spain. In the middle ages, it was called "sack" or "sherris." In Europe, by law, only the wines of Jerez may be called sherry. In this country, any wine can be called sherry. However, only Spanish sherry is the real thing, and is one of the world’s most noble wines.

Q: How is sherry made?

A: Sherry starts out like other white wines, and is stored in wooden barrels called "butts." Then the magic begins. Sherry comes in two main forms, "fino," which is light and dry, and "oloroso," which is fuller-bodied and darker. However, the winemaker has no idea which butts will develop into which! It all depends which ones develop a microscopic airborne yeast, called flor (flower). When flor grows, the surface of the wine becomes covered with a thick, pasty scum. Sherries that have flor turn into finos; those that don’t become olorosos. Finos always are dry. Some olorosos are sweetened. All sherries also are fortified with grape brandy to bring them to an alcoholic strength of 15-25 percent.

Q: Are there more kinds of sherry than just fino and oloroso?

A: Yes. Manzanilla is a kind of fino made only around the seacoast town of Sanlucar de Barrameda It’s the lightest and palest of the finos, and is thought to get a salty tang from the ocean breezes. Amontillado is a kind of fino that, for unknown reasons, with age becomes darker and nuttier in flavor, although still dry. Olorosos that have been sweetened with natural grape juice go by various names. The most popular are cream sherry and amoroso. Another sweet sherry is Pedro Ximenez.

Q: Why is sherry not vintage dated?

A: Because it is blended by the various sherry houses (bodegas) in order to taste the same year after year. The way sherry is blended also is unique, through the "solera" system. A solera consists of a pyramid-shaped stack of barrels, perhaps eight rows high, kept in the cool bodegas, and always facing southeast. The lowest level, called the solera, is the oldest; it may originally have been filled centuries ago. The next highest level is called the first criadera (cradle), then the second criadera, and so on. Each bottling of sherry consists of some (but never all) of the wine drawn from the solera, which is then refreshed with wine from the first criadera, which is refreshed with wine from the second criadera, and so on. By this system, the character of each bodega’s sherry is preserved over the years. The solera system also means that within each bottle of sherry are drops of wine that may be five hundred years old. Ironically, though, once in bottle, sherry does not improve with further age.

Q: What is cooking sherry?

A: Cooking sherry is not that dreadful, cheap stuff sold in supermarkets and labelled "cooking sherry." If you cook with sherry, use the real thing. Real sherry imparts a nutty flavor to traditional entrees like chicken a la king or consomme. It also pairs wonderfully with soy sauce, sesame oil, and ginger in some of the new fusion cuisines.

Q: When is the best time to drink sherry and what are the best foods to eat with it?

A: Time was when proper English ladies of a certain age kept a crystal decanter of cream sherry on the sideboard and would restore their vigor each morning with a sip or two. You can certainly drink sherry whenever you want to; it’s a remarkably restorative tonic. But it’s probably best consumed as an aperitif. I like a nice fino before dinner, slightly chilled. In Spain, the fishermen and workers drink their sherry like beer, from little glasses called "copas," and consume it with "tapas," small plates of salty munchies, like sardines, roasted almonds, shrimp, ham, chorizo, olives, onion rings, or a Jerez specialty, deep-fried bull’s testicles. With each bite of food and wash of wine, the traditional toast is "Salud, amor, y pesetas, y tiempo para gustarlos!" ("Health, love, and wealth, and the time to enjoy them!")

Q: What is the most famous reference in literature to sherry?

A: From Shakespeare’s Henry IV, when Falstaff muses, "A good sherris sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and delectable shapes, which, delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme: it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart, who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour comes of sherris...If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack."

Q: Where can I buy sherry?

A: You can buy sherry from large commercial bodegas in most wine shops. Unfortunately, sherry from the smaller bodegas is almost impossible to find in the East Bay, simply because there’s so little demand for it. Sherries from Emilio Lustau are the best available. Sherry’s somewhat medicinal flavor does take some getting used to. But once you "get it," you too just might become "addicted to sack."