Sherry is one of the world's most misunderstood wines.
And because of that, it's the world's best-value wine. Where else can you find such compelling, complex glassfuls, wines with an average age of perhaps 30 years or more, for such low prices? Yes, there are some expensive bottles here, because historic bodegas with cobwebbed barrels tucked away in dark corners are starting to realize that one-off bottlings of rare Sherries can attract a new generation that is just starting to discover Sherry. But there are also familiar brands you'll find in the supermarket. And just imagine what a Bordeaux of equivalent age and quality would cost.
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Sherry, nowadays, is various. It used to be a matter of Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso (all made from the Palomino grape) and Pedro Ximénez (PX, made from raisined grapes of the same name). Now there are Manzanilla Pasadas and Fino Pasadas which have extra aging in barrel, taking them towards Amontillado in character. There are single-vintage wines, as well as those matured in solera in the conventional system of fractional blending of different years, which I'll explain in a minute. There are single-vineyard wines. As well as big, famous names there are producers so tiny they do their pre-bottling filtration with a plastic coffee sieve. There are small-scale almacenista wines – matured as a hobby by people with day jobs, and selected by buyers on the prowl for individuality. There are single-cask bottlings, and there are VOS and VORS Sherries, of 20 and 30 years' average ages, respectively; the initials stand for Vinum Optimum Signatum and Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum, or, if you prefer, Very Old Sherry and Very Old Rare Sherry.
If you can't find the exact wines here, try another from the same producer; I recommend them all, across the board. Not all are beginner's wines, though. If you're new to Sherry, start with Fino and Manzanilla and work your way towards the old, savory, intense wines. If you don't know what to expect, they can be a bit startling to begin with. All are bone dry unless stated otherwise.
A quick description of Sherry aging – you start with young, fresh Palomino wine, and very dull it usually is, too; low in acidity, even lower in personality. The lightest wines go into a Fino solera and grow flor, a whitish yeast which lives on the surface of the wine in barrel. There they remain, moving through the solera, for at least three years and sometimes, for aged Fino, for 10.
A solera works like this: imagine a row of barrels. At one end mature wine is taken out for bottling, perhaps a third of the barrel at a time, and replaced from the next barrel. This continues down the line, with new young wine put in at the beginning.
Flor keeps the wine fresh and pale; when it dies the wine darkens into Amontillado. Some, because of its particular character, will be classified at some point as Palo Cortado. The origins of Amontillado and Palo Cortado are similar; it's just a question of how the wine develops.
The slightly heavier young wines go straight into an Oloroso solera and never grow flor; they might be in barrel, moving through one solera and then perhaps another, for well over 30 years, getting all the time darker and deeper. Oloroso is the weightiest of Sherry styles, perfect for a winter's evening, or a plate of good cheese.
And before we start, a word about terroir. Yes, Sherry is marked a bit by the vineyard it comes from, but it's far more marked by its aging in barrel. And the terroir that really shows is the terroir of the bodega; after some years, a cask at one end of a bodega can taste very different to a cask at the other end, even though the wine started out the same. It's all about humidity and temperature: whether the sea breeze blows through the bodega, whether the floor is earth or concrete, whether the roof is dizzyingly high or cosily low, and just where each barrel is in relation to all that. In big brands the differences are blended away before bottling, but in smaller bottlings it's the quirky individuality of each cask that is preserved.
Fino and Manzanilla
Both Fino and Manzanilla are flor-aged wines, but Manzanilla comes from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, right on the coast, where the flor grows more thickly and the wines are more delicate. They're supposed to have a salty tang.
Aging under flor yeast radically changes the makeup of the wine. Glycerol plummets, acetaldehyde rises, and the flor protects against oxidation. That's why Fino and Manzanilla feel so thin in the mouth, yet so fresh, in spite of low acidity. It's also why Fino doesn't taste remotely of grapes – it has left the world of the grape far behind. Instead, look for a smell of earth-after-rain; petrichor is the word.
Tío Pepe, González Byass Gonzalez Byass makes a huge amount of Tío Pepe, and does it brilliantly. If you want a benchmark Fino, fresh, thin as a blade, with notes of iodine and sea air, this is it – but check the bottling date on the label to make sure it hasn't been around longer than about six months. It's a perfect aperitif; keep it in the fridge and drink it quickly.
There's also an En Rama version of Tío Pepe, released unfiltered in spring or autumn, when the flor is thickest. It's the same wine but in Technicolor, even fresher and more vibrant. Drink it within a month or two of the bottling date, which you'll find on the back label.
Manzanilla La Gitana Aniversario, Hidalgo-La Gitana La Gitana is another benchmark, for fresh, delicate Manzanilla. This bottling has an extra three years in solera, and it's subtle and detailed, with all the earth-after-rain flavors you want, plus smoke, roasted almonds and a touch of camomile. There are just 1792 bottles of this, in honor of the founding date of the bodega.
La Bota de Manzanilla, 82, Equipo Navazos This is a 2015 vintage Manzanilla from a single vineyard, Miraflores Baja in Sanlucar, and it is number 82 in Equipo Navazos' series of one-off bottlings. Equipo Navazos specializes in such bottlings, from single butts sought out from many sources for their exceptional quality and individuality, and all bottled unfiltered. This is nutty and deep, with notes of smoky preserved lemon, powerful, muscular and atypical. You could partner it with smoked fish.
Nutty Amontillado
Tío Pepe Tres Palmas, González Byass More Tío Pepe? This shows what happens when Fino ages to the point where the flor dies, and the wine develops into Amontillado. It's rarer than Tío Pepe Fino, and more expensive. It's also tensely linear, smoky and nutty, light and savory, with citrus peel notes among the deeper dried-fruits and toast flavors of Amontillado. It's Amontillado that still bears the marks of Fino. Drink it as an aperitif, with cheese, or with curry, or lamb tagine. Yes, really.
Amontillado Olvidado 1/5 Toneles, Sánchez Romate Decades in barrel has given this wine amazing elegance and sleekness, with a wonderful texture. It tastes and smells of honey, walnuts, sourdough toast with a touch of apple and even a savoury note reminiscent of malt whisky; it's bone dry, detailed, compelling, fresh and almost shockingly intense with a huge finish. 1/5 Toneles means there are five barrels of it, and "Olvidado" means forgotten – the barrels had simply been lying in the cellars, untouched and ignored.
Tense Palo Cortado
Palo Cortado is a style between Amontillado and Oloroso, so aged under flor (unlike Oloroso) but darker and weightier than Amontillado. Identifying it by style alone is tricky; I love it for its elegant complexity and a certain tension in the wine.
Palo Cortado VORS 30 Year Old Obispo Gascón, Barbadillo Barbadillo is a Manzanilla producer, based in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and its Sherries have the characteristic lightness of the region. In this old wine that lightness is combined with depth and concentration; it's tense, savory, very fresh, steely, with notes of burnt toast, nuts and spice, and laser-like linearity and focus.
Palo Cortado Macharnudo Single Cask Vintage 2000, Valdespino This is another single-vineyard wine, from the Macharnudo vineyard, and it's also a vintage wine, and from a single cask. When it's gone, it's gone. It's deep, savory, tense, full of spice and coffee and preserved lemon flavors, very detailed and precise. Valdespino, under family ownership, long had a name for obstinately refusing technology; new ownership (well, not that new, now) hasn't affected its impeccable quality.
Deep, rich Oloroso
Fernando de Castilla Antique Oloroso Fernando de Castilla is an old bodega revitalized recently by Norwegian Jan Pettersen. The vineyards are farmed without herbicides or pesticides, and the Sherries are all bottled unfiltered and unfined. This is an elegant, fresh version with notes of prunes and dried figs, bitter coffee and black chocolate. Drink it as an aperitif on a cold Sunday morning, or with cheese.
Oloroso Faraón VORS 30 years old, Hidalgo-La Gitana Another one from Hidalgo-La Gitana, but a much bigger wine, dark, savory and bitter, all burnt toast, black coffee, bitter chocolate, fresh nuts and citrus peel; intensely aromatic and concentrated, refreshing and enlivening.
Cream
Matusalem VORS 30 years old, González Byass I shouldn't really include a third González Byass wine, but Matusalem is a bit of an icon. Cream Sherry is normally sweet and often cheap; this is remarkably good value, but tastes barely off-dry. Sherry with several decades on the clock can be so intensely austere that it can need just a touch of sweetening to soften it up for drinking. Matusalem is dark and complex, savory and fresh, all burnt toast, espresso, nuts, fruit cake and leather, deeply aromatic and elegant.
Sweet Pedro Ximénez
The Pedro Ximénez grape is used these days only for sweet Sherry, though in neighboring Montilla-Moriles you'll find dry wines made from it as well. In fact the PX grapes used for Sherry generally come from Montilla-Moriles, and are raisined in the sun to concentrate their sweetness.
PX San Emilio, Solera Familiar, Emilio Lustau The sweetness of PX here takes one of the most exotic forms in all wine; black with a greenish rim, thick and sticky, and with an aroma of freshly cut grass and lemon peel. The texture is like silk velvet. It's incredibly seductive, but you only want a little. In Jerez they pour it over vanilla ice cream, and the result is pretty amazing.
Moscatel
Moscatel Toneles, Valdespino There isn't much of the Moscatel grape grown in Jerez, and this is by far the greatest example you'll find. Valdespino again, you see; these great names are very hard to beat. This is intense, perfumed with citrus – burnt lemons – and burnt apple peel, bitter, burnt and sweet all at the same time. It's brilliant, vivid and elegant. Drink it after dessert.
