Category: sherry

  • The Cobbler is Hot in Cold San Francisco

    I wrote a story for the San Francisco Chronicle about cobblers, mostly Sherry Cobblers. Read it here.  

     

    While hot weather bears down on much of the country, summer in San Francisco is more of a state of mind than a change in the weather. And many bartenders around the city are addressing the abstract concept of hot temperatures by placing cooling, ice-filled cobblers on their seasonal drink lists. 

    At new downtown venues the Dawn Club and Heartwood, the drink appeared on their opening menus; at Pacific Cocktail Haven, also downtown, and Canteen, in Menlo Park, the cobbler joined the list for the season; and bartenders at the Treasury in the Financial District are swapping out their spring sipper for a new summer variation. 

    The cobbler, a century-old low-ABV classic, most likely takes its name from the cobblestone-shaped pebble ice used in the drink. Along with the julep, the cobbler helped popularize American-style iced cocktails around the world, as well as the use of the drinking straw.

     

    Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 8.51.59 AM

     

  • Sherry, As Simply as I can Describe It

    I was asked recently about sherry and it reminded me of a story I wrote one hundred million years ago in 2011 for the Los Angeles Times Magazine. The publication has since closed (not the LA Times, just the magazine) and the story is no longer online, but I scooped it from the Internet Wayback Machine so I could share it again here. (As far as I know the information is still current.) 

    I think it offers a concise overview of the sherry category. And after you read it, check out this set of cool charts on sherry I made here, as it displays the information in easy visual form. I know you people hate reading. 

     

    Sherry in LA Times Magazine
     

     

    FEBRUARY 2011
    Los Angeles Times Magazine

    Sherry, Reconsidered
    Camper English

    As a wine category, sherry has practically everything going for it: a tremendous range of flavors, a rich history dating at least as far back as the Romans, the ability to pair magnificently well with food and an increasingly hip status as a cocktail ingredient used by top bartenders.

    Most people, when they think of sherry at all, consider it an ingredient their grandmothers cooked with rather than something ripe for sipping on its own. Sherry is about due for a comeback, but it’s so unfamiliar to us now that it really needs a thorough reintroduction.

    SPANISH BODEGAS
    In the three main cities of the delimited sherry region in the southern corner of Spain next to the Atlantic—inland Jerez de la Frontera, coastal El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda—sherry remains both big business and a tourist attraction. More than 230,000 people visit the González Byass each year to ride the miniature train around the bodegas. At Grupo Estévez, visitors browse a gallery filled with Picasso sketches. At Williams & Humbert, they sit for a horse show inside a bodega so large you can’t see one end from the other.

    Unlike the vineyard-adjacent grand mansions of California’s wine-tasting rooms, sherry bodegas are usually urban warehouses that may or may not be attached to a visitor’s center. Inside, hundreds to tens of thousands of barrels, usually no more than four high, are stacked on their sides beneath vaulted cathedral ceilings that help stabilize the temperature. The wines will be transferred over the years from the top-row barrels down to the ground-level ones, blending with the wine in each lower barrel in a method known as the solera system.

    THE SOLERA SYSTEM
    Like port and Madeira, sherry is a fortified wine—meaning distilled spirits are added. Historically, these coastal wines were largely produced for export and needed extra alcohol to survive the sea voyages to Holland, England and America without spoiling. (Christopher Columbus and Magellan both loaded up on sherry before setting sail; Sir Francis Drake allegedly sacked Jerez to get it.)

    Until the early 1800s, sherry was heavily fortified and unaged. But around that time, wine traders began experimenting with methods of aging and edification that resulted in the solera system, which is still in use.

    Through blending and aging that’s designed to produce a consistent product with characteristics of older wine, the system is almost mathematic. Consider a barrel of three-year-old wine that is ready to be bottled. Instead of emptying the barrel into bottles, only a third of the liquid is used, and the barrel is then filled with wine from a two-year-old barrel; the space in the barrel of two-year-old wine is filled with wine from a one-year barrel; and to the empty space in the one-year-old barrel, new wine is added.

    The next year, when the wine is ready for bottling, two-thirds of the barrel will be four years old and a third of it will be three. The following year, after one third of that barrel is removed and refilled as before, there will be three-, four- and five-year-old wine in the barrel—and in the bottle. Run this system for 100 years or so, and some tiny portion of very old wine will be sharing space in the bottle with three-year-old juice.

    Because of this (admittedly highly simplified in this description) continuous blending system, sherry should not vary wildly from year to year, and there can be no vintage solera sherry, because it is always a blend of years (though there is a small category of vintage-dated sherries aged outside of the solera system called añadas). Even the newly approved age-dated sherry (VOS, VORS) of 20 and 30 years are average ages based on a complicated algorithm.

    THE MAGIC OF AIR AND YEAST
    Sherry is made in three styles: dry, sweet and blended. The sweet wines are made from Pedro Ximénez—often known as PX—and muscatel grapes. The grapes are left out in the sun after harvest to further concentrate their sugar, and their fermentation process is halted early to ensure the resulting wines are sweet. The wines are then fortified and aged in the solera system.

    These naturally sweet wines can be blended with the five types of dry sherry (fino, manzanilla, palo cortado, amontillado and oloroso) to make wines classified as medium (the brand Dry Sack is a medium sherry) or cream (like Harveys Bristol Cream, the top-selling sherry in America). Yet another type of blended sherry is pale cream, which is fino or manzanilla sweetened with concentrated rectified grape must instead of other sweet wines.

    Then there are the dry sherries. The five types mentioned above are all made from palomino grapes (since recovering from a phylloxera infestation in the early 1900s) and aged in barrels by the solera through radically different methods: under air so the wine oxidizes, under a layer of yeast called flor or a combination of the two.

    After fermentation, the winemaker decides the aging method for the sherry. The juice destined for aging under air—to become oloroso—is fortified to around 18 percent alcohol as it enters its solera cycle. The barrels, which rest on their sides, are not completely filled, to increase air contact with the wine and change its flavor over time. As it ages, oloroso becomes darker and woodier, with walnut and autumn-leaf flavors.

    While oxidative—or air—aging is the muscle that directs the flavor of some sherries, flor is the magic. Flor is a living layer of yeast in the barrel that floats on top of the wine and consumes nutrients within it. (Wine destined for aging under flor is fortified to only about 15 percent alcohol, which permits the flor, but not other organisms, to live.) Not only does this impart pungent, doughy flavors to the wine, the layer of flor prevents the wine from oxidizing like an oloroso.

    Wines that age entirely under flor are classified as fino or manzanilla sherries. These differ not just in flavor but in where they are aged: Manzanilla comes from the ocean-adjacent Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where salty ocean air affects the aging environment of the barrels and the makeup of the naturally occurring flor. It cannot be replicated elsewhere. The top-selling finosherry brand in the U.S. is Tio Pepe, and among the top manzanilla brands is La Gitana.

    These sherries, aged entirely under flor, taste nothing like oloroso sherries that are aged entirely under air. Except for the solera system binding them together, these sherries are as distinct as red and white wine. Following this analogy, the two remaining dry-sherry categories are analogous to rosé wines, with production and flavor characteristics of the other two styles. Amontillado sherries are aged under flor for at least three years (often several more), then the flor either dies naturally or is eliminated, and the wine continues aging through oxidation.

    Palo cortado sherry spends less time under flor and is redirected to oxidative aging earlier on. Traditionally, these wines were oddball finos salvaged by redirecting them toward olorosos, but with better technology, this method is deliberate and no longer a happy accident. Each bodega interprets palo cortado differently, putting their house signature on the style. Palo cortado is often the focus for sherry obsessives.

    MIXING IT UP
    Adventurous cocktailians in the States use any type of sherry at their disposal—and have been doing so pretty much for more than 200 hundred years—while in Jerez, about the only cocktail you’ll find with sherry is the rebujito, a mixture of fino or manzanilla sherry with Sprite.

    Classic sherry drinks include the Sherry Cobbler (sherry with sugar and muddled fruit and berries), the Adonis (with sweet vermouth and bitters), Bamboo (with dry vermouth and bitters) and Coronation (a Bamboo with maraschino liqueur). Not only does sherry pair with vermouth in low-alcohol cocktails as above, it can sub in for either dry (fino/amontillado) or sweet (oloroso) vermouth in drinks like the martini and Manhattan.

    These classics pop up on cocktail menus from time to time, as do new creations like the Dolly Dagger at the Varnish (dry sherry, rum, lime juice, sugar-cane syrup, vanilla syrup) and the Bomb at Seattle’s Zig Zag Café (amontillado sherry, triple sec, orange juice, bitters).

    For those who want their sherry unadorned, serving directions are simple. No need for the special sherry copita; a white-wine glass will do nicely. Chill the fino and amontillado down to slightly above refrigerator temperature, and serve the others at slightly below room temperature. In Spain, a grand meal often begins with a subtle fino, moves into oloroso to pair with the main course and ends with sweet, rich Pedro Ximénez with (or for) dessert. ¡Salud!

    Should you choose to serve sherry in cocktail form—perhaps one of the sherry drinks featured in these pages, which were developed by top bartenders from around the country—you’ll find them as diverse as the flavors in sherry itself. Maybe sherry skipped a generation, but now you and your grandparents have something in common.

     

    Recipes

    THE BOMB
    by Murray Stenson
    Zig Zag Café, Seattle

    “From the 1977 Jones’ Complete Bar Guide, by Stan Jones. It’s on our current drink menu and is unique and delicious.”

    • 1 1/2 ounces amontillado sherry
    • 1/2 ounce Cointreau
    • 3/4 ounce orange juice
    • 1 dash orange bitters
    • 1 dash St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

    Combine ingredients in mixer with ice and shake. Strain into cocktail glass. Serve without garnish.

    PÉTANQUE
    by Andrew Bohrer
    Mistral Kitchen, Seattle

    “I like to make delicate flavor balances tailored especially for mood and food. it would be perfect with a charcuterie plate. This was created to show the adaptability of sherry.”

    • 2 ounces fino sherry (Toro Albalá Fino Eléctrico)
    • 1 ounce Luxardo Amaretto di Saschiro liqueur
    • 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
    • Luxardo Maraschino cherry for garnish

    Combine ingredients in a mixing glass, stir with ice and strain into grappa glass. Garnish with cherry.

    SHERRY SHRUB
    by Neyah White
    Nopa, San Francisco

    White, currently brand ambassador for Suntory Yamazaki whisky, created this drink, which won the prestigious Vinos de Jerez Cocktail Competition in 2008. It has been influential as bartenders have begun making their own shrub syrups with local produce. Shrub syrup is a colonial-era preservative (a liquid jam, in a way) that’s drinkable with soda water or used in cocktails in place of the acid ingredient. “The beauty of this cocktail,” White says, “is seasonality and custom flavors; it should be made with whatever produce is peaking that week. The base recipe is equal parts sugar, vinegar and cut fruit. The sugar-to-acid ratio varies by the sugar of the fruit.” White has made this with plums, peaches, apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, rhubarb, quinces, persimmons and beets. “I never use melons, citrus or pineapples, as there are some sanitation issues with aging those fruits.”

    • 3⁄4 ounce shrub syrup*
    • 2 ounces Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana manzanilla sherry
    • Lemon twist for garnish

    Combine sherry and syrup, stir with ice and strain into small sherry glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

    *Shrub Syrup

    • 1 quart fresh elderberries, trimmed from stems
    • 1 cup fresh huckleberries
    • 5 cups evaporated cane sugar (available at Whole Foods)
    • 1 quart cider vinegar
    • 1 ounce kosher salt
    • 5 brown cardamom pods
    • 1 ounce white peppercorns

    In a large bowl, gently press fruit with the bottom of a metal shaker, until every berry is at least bruised. In mixing glass, muddle spices until all pods are cracked and add to berry mixture. Add sugar, cover and let stand five hours in a cool place—refrigerate if preferred—until a syrup has formed. Add salt and vinegar and stir until salt has dissolved. Cover and return to cool storage. Let age for at least a week. To remove seeds, filter successively through a chinois (china cap) and then through cheesecloth. Bottle in sterile glass containers, leaving a few inches of air. It is now ready to use, but another week of aging allows for a more lingering flavor.

    SMOKED PEACH
    by Kevin Diedrich
    Burritt Room, San Francisco

    “I chose sherry for this drink because it gives it a nice nutty flavor—kind of a stone-fruit aspect. Also, it dries out the sweetness of the honey and peaches. The cocktail is in balance, matching scotch and honey, sherry and scotch and peaches and honey. I almost didn’t have to do any work with this—it just came together naturally!”

    • 1 1/2 ounces Dry Sack Medium sherry
    • 1 ounce Glenfiddich 12-year-old scotch
    • 1/2 ounce honey syrup*
    • 3/4 ounce lemon juice
    • 4 thin peach slices, plus extra slices for garnish

    Muddle sliced peaches into mixing glass. Add liquid ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into rocks glass with ice. Garnish with peaches presented in a fan shape.

    *Honey Syrup
    Dilute one part honey with half part of hot or boiling water. Store in capped bottle in the refrigerator.

    O.G. (ORIGINAL GIN)
    by Zahra Bates
    Providence, Los Angeles

    “I roast red grapes that I then add to the sherry to evoke a mulled-wine flavor. Sherry is a great way to add warmth to a cocktail without creating a cloying, sweet taste.”

    • 2 ounces Bols Genever
    • 1 ounce red-grape sherry reduction*
    • 1 ounce Lillet Blanc
    • 1 dash anise bitters or 1⁄2 teaspoon Pernod
    • Orange peel for garnish

    Combine liquid ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass and stir until well chilled. Garnish with flamed orange oil: Hold quarter-size orange peel in your fingers and squeeze it with peel side facing cocktail about six inches from glass, with lit match in front of the peel.

    *Red-Grape Sherry Reduction

    • 1 pound red grape, preferable Kyoho
    • 1/3 bottle dry sherry

    On baking sheet, roast grapes at 350 degrees with a bit of salt and no oil or grease of any kind for 11–15 minutes. Grapes are done when they split and juices start running out. Muddle grapes in saucepan and add sherry. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer until reduced to about half the volume. Strain out the solids and let liquid cool. Store in refrigerator.

    EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY
    by Brian Miller
    Death + Company, New York

    “I was playing around with making some classic cocktails with rum. I got inspired by the Boulevardier and the Negroni, and this establishment was a nice little twist on it. I won the NYC semifinal for the AppletonReserve Remixology contest with this one, and it’s still on the Death + Company menu.” Miller recently left the bar and is currently consulting.

    • 2 ounces Appleton Estate Reserve rum
    • 3/4 ounce Lustau East India Solera sherry
    • 1/2 ounce Ramazzotti
    • 2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bittersh

    Combine all ingredients, stir with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

    RED BAMBOO
    by Kenta Gogo
    Pegu Club, New York

    “This is my way to reintroduce the Bamboo, a clean, dry aperitif cocktail—the first cocktail created in Japan. It sometimes is nice to step away from hard liquor. I was picking apples somewhere in Hudson Valley on my birthday last year, and everything just came into my mind—add fall essence to give the drink a whole brand-new face without losing the fundamental structure. A modern twist on classic.”

    • 2 ounces Eve Apple vermouth*
    • 1 ounce Harveys Bristol Cream
    • 1⁄2 teaspoon Drambuie
    • 3 dashes absinthe
    • 1 dash Angostura bitters
    • Apple slices for garnish

    Combine all ingredients and stir with ice until well chilled. Strain into a small chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with apples presented in a fan shape.

    *Eve Apple Vermouth
    by Audrey Saunders
    Pegu Club, New York

    • 1 liter Dolin dry vermouth
    • 8 McIntosh apples

    In a nonreactive container, slice apples deli thin and add vermouth. Cover and chill 5 days. Strain and store in refrigerator.

    DOLLY DAGGER
    by Alex Day
    The Varnish, Los Angeles

    “I started playing around using sherry as a base and other spirits as modifiers, inverting the ratio that most people use in cocktails. I made it into a swizzle, because I felt Smith & Cross was so aggressive that using crushed ice and getting it super cold had the ability to round out the flavor better. I also like using mint only as an aromatic component of a drink.”.

    • 1 1⁄2 ounces Dry Sack sherry
    • 1 ounce Smith & Cross rum
    • 3⁄4 ounce lime juice
    • 1⁄2 ounce sugar cane syrup
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla syrup (homemade or Trader Tiki’s)
    • Mint sprig for garnish

    Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker and shake without ice. Pour into pilsner glass filled with crushed ice. Swizzle until outside of glass is frosted. Garnish with mint sprig.

     

  • Sulfur Control in Sherry Casks Headed to Midleton Distillery

    Lustau bodega barrelsWhile in Jerez for the launch of the Redbreast Lustau Edition, I had the opportunity to speak with Midleton Distillery Head blender Billy Leighton. Since I had a couple extra minutes, I asked him about the effect of sulfur in barrels used for their whiskies.

    As some background, the whisky writer Jim Murray, who seems to enjoy generating controversy to increase book sales, said that sulfured casks are ruining scotch whisky. I don’t know much about the topic, so I asked Leighton if it was an issue.

    He said, “The use of sulfur to sterilize casks for shipping or storage is a common practice, but it has to be done carefully. In the year 2000 we stopped the cooperage from using sulfur candles when they’re shipping casks to us. There is always a little bit of a risk of infection or secondary fermentation when you do that. Also, we have only shipped barrels typically between Oct and Feb [the lower temperature months in order to avoid that fermentation/spoilage], though it’s expanding because of [increased sales] volume."

    Cask with flor[Irish Distillers has a relationship with the cooperage Antonio Paez to build and prepare their sherry barrels, so they don't buy their casks on the open market. If they did they'd not be able to control/track this.]

    He continued, "Historically you would have found a presence of sulfur from time to time. Now we have stopped that for 16 years. We don’t have the same problem certainly in our first fill casks. We could still see some sulfur raising its ugly head again in refill casks [casks purchased before 2000 that aged whisky and then were reused]. And one cask affected with it can ruin a vat. So even now every single sherry casks is personally screened by me."

    That’s new info to me, and I thought I’d share.

     

     

  • Why Sherry Cask Whiskies are Aged in Spanish Oak But Sherry is Aged in American Oak Casks

    Redbreast casks at Lustau bodega3This is a simple point but one I didn’t know before. Often you’ll see that scotch and other whiskies are aged in Spanish oak barrels that previously held sherry. However, I’ve always been told the barrels in the sherry soleras are American oak. What gives?

    Thanks to Billy Leighton, Head Blender at Midleton Distillery, I have an answer. He says that yes, the true barrels on the sherry soleras are American oak and as old as possible. They do not want wood influence in sherry so the barrels don’t lend any flavor.

    Traditionally, sherry was shipped to the UK in barrels (rather than bottles), and for that they would use the much less expensive/lower quality (at least at the time; I can’t speak for that now) Spanish oak casks, rather than American oak ones.

    After being emptied, those casks would have been the ones reused to age scotch and other whiskies.

    The Redbreast Lustau Edition is aged in ex-bourbon American oak barrels and sherry conditioned Spanish oak casks.

    REDBREAST LUSTAU 700ml Bottle

  • More Than 40 Drink Books Published in 2014 for Reading or Gifting

    This has been a great year for cocktails and spirits books- tons have come out, and the majority are written by well-respected bartenders and other experts. I haven't had time to read the majority of them, unfortunately, but below is a list of all the ones I know about. 

    IMG_6595

    Notable Cocktail and Spirits Books Published in 2014:

    Whisky Books:

     

    Other Spirits:

     

    Beer, Food, Sake, Sherry, Mixers, Etc. 

     

    Cocktail Recipe Books: 

     

    Bartending/Technique Books:

     

     

    Books from Bars or About Bars:

     

     

    Historical Books:

     

     Fun Drink-Related Books:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • A Handy Chart for Categorizing Sherry

    In my talk on sherry at Tales of the Cocktail, I was trying to summarize sherry in a way that makes it easy to understand what is in the bottles you find on shelves.

    I think the three slides below get us pretty close (though I had 90 slides during the talk!). The last chart is the most important one if you want to skip ahead. 

    Sherry is aged in three ways:

    • With a layer of yeast called flor that floats on top of the wine in the barrel. This is biological aging. This sherry usually tastes yeasty, light, and often salty/ocean-influenced. Fino and Manzanilla sherries are exclusively aged biologically. 
    • Explosed to air in the barrel. This is called oxidative aging. This sherry is darker in color and richer in flavor, tasting of leather, walnuts, and tobacco. Olorso sherries are exclusively aged oxidatively. 
    • Or some of each. Amontillado and Palo Cortado sherries are aged first under biological and then oxidative aging; with Amontillado sherry spending more time under flor than Palo Cortado. 

    SherryAgingCategories

     Each of these types of sherry can be unsweetened, or sweetened to different levels, and all are aged.

    Sherry is not sweetned with sugar, but with naturally-sweet Pedro Ximenez (PX) and/or Moscatel wine made from those grape varietals respectively. These wines are aged in the solera system and are also sold on their own as sweet wines. Another sweet wine (that I've not seen on US store shelves) is Dulce sherry, which is a sweet wine made from any of or a combination of PX, Moscatel, and the Palomino grapes. 

    Oloroso, Amontillado, and Palo Cortado sherries are either dry (without a sweetness label) or labelled as Dry, Medium, or Cream.

    Fino and Manzanilla sherries, when sweetened, are often sweetened with rectified wine musts instead of PX/Moscatel (because those wines are dark and would alter the color of the wine). These are called "Pale Cream" sherries. 

     

    SherrySweetnessLevels

    Thanks to Sandeman sherry for providing this information.

    When Fino and Manzanilla sherries are aged a long time (this is not easy to do, and more often the case with Manzanilla), they can be labelled as "Pasada," as in Manzanilla Pasada. 

     

    The other sherries can have average age statements (the solera aging and blending system makes exact age statements impossible). The only approved average ages allowed to be put on bottles are for 12, 15, 20 (VOS), and 30 (VORS) years of age. 

    Anada sherries, which are hard to find outside of Spain, are vintage-dated wines not aged in the solera sytem. 

    Finally, many/most Fino and Manzanilla sherries are filtered through carbon to make them light in color, though this will affect the flavor also. "En Rama" sherries are unfiltered (except to get rid of the flor). 

    So, putting it all together, I came up with this chart:

    TypesOfSherry
    I hope all that makes sense.

    For more information on sherry, check out all posts about sherry here on Alcademics, and Sherry.org has some great information as well. 

     

  • Sherry is to Tequila as Vermouth is to Whiskey

    Sherry and tequila are showing up together on more and more cocktail menus. I wrote a story about that in the Sunday, February 20th San Francisco Chronicle. 

    Del rio
    (Del Rio cocktail by Josh Harris of the Bon Vivants. Photo: Craig Lee)

    More drinks including Tequila and Sherry
    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Sherry and Tequila are having a love affair. Bartenders are using more of each ingredient lately, but increasingly you'll see the two sneaking off in a drink together, canoodling in a corner of the cocktail menu.

    One of the first outward signs of this attraction came in the form of La Perla, a drink created several years ago by beverage consultant Jacques Bezuidenhout, which is still on the menu at Bourbon & Branch. The cocktail contains reposado (lightly aged) Tequila, manzanilla Sherry and pear liqueur.

    A not-too dissimilar flavor combination has popped up recently. At the Hideout at Dalva, a tiny backroom cocktail bar in the Mission District, Josh Harris serves the Del Rio. The drink is made with blanco, or unaged, Tequila, fino Sherry, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, plus a dash of orange bitters and a grapefruit zest.

    At Gitane, the Sherry-centric Claude Lane restaurant, bar manager Alex Smith and two other bartenders collaborated on a drink called the Flor Delice, made with reposado, manzanilla, St. Germain and orange bitters, plus maraschino liqueur.

    In New York, this combination shows up yet again on the menu at Mayahuel, a bar dedicated to Tequila and mezcal. The Suro-Mago uses blanco, manzanilla, elderflower and orange bitters, and adds a rinse of mezcal to give it a smoky touch.

     Read the rest of the story and get the recipe for the Del Rio, a simple and delicious drink.

  • Sherry, Reconsidered in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

    **Update: This story is no longer on the LA Times Magazine website, so I have pasted it here.

     

    In yesterday's LA Times Magazine I have a huge feature on sherry.

    Sherry2 (photographs by Nigel Cox)

    As a wine category, sherry has practically everything going for it: a tremendous range of flavors, a rich history dating at least as far back as the Romans, the ability to pair magnificently well with food and an increasingly hip status as a cocktail ingredient used by top bartenders.

    Most people, when they think of sherry at all, consider it an ingredient their grandmothers cooked with rather than something ripe for sipping on its own. Sherry is about due for a comeback, but it’s so unfamiliar to us now that it really needs a thorough reintroduction.

    The story features eight drink recipes from the lofty likes of Murray Stenson, Andrew Bohrer, Alex Day, Zahra Bates, Kenta Goto and Audrey Saunders, Brian Miller, Neyah White, and Kevin Deidrich.

    Go read the story, and then go make the drinks!

    Sherry3 (photographs by Nigel Cox)

  • Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana

    In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana, which is located in Sanlucar de Barrameda. 

    Bodega Hidalgo La Gitana2_tn

    (La Gitana is their most famous brand. It's a manzanilla; similar to fino but aged in Sanlucar.)

    Bodega Hidalgo La Gitana6 (2)_tn
    (The bodegas were wonderfully old, moldy, and dusty.)

    Bodega Hidalgo La Gitana bulfight poster2_tn
    (One of the old bullfight posters taped to the wall in the bodega.)

    Bodega Hidalgo La Gitana7_tn
    (Our host, a curmudgeonly sort who basically disagreed with everything we learned all week. We liked him anyway.)

    Bodega Hidalgo La Gitana6_tn
    (A view of the bodega.)

     

    • More humidity and less exreme temperature swings in Sanlucar
    • Flor is thicker and remains year round
    • Make a single-vineyard manzanilla. It may be the only single vineyard sherry
    • The vineyards and grapes not nearly as important as the place where the solera is
    • Sanlucar is the oldest part of the sherry region- producing wines there the longest
    • Most of the casks in these bodegas over 200 years old. They hate new casks. 
    • Replace staves with staves from old casks bought on market
    • La Gitana has 14 level solera. 
    • Manzanilla typically has more ciraderas (levels to the solera) than fino. Have to move it faster between levels.  
    • Tastes like salt spilled in the relish. Yum.
    • Manzanilla can pair with asparagus- is most versatile with food
    • Says you can leave an open bottle in the refrigerator 4-5 years and it will still be good 
    • During the peninsular war, they supplied both Napoleon and the Allies. Now have both Napoleon and Wellington brands. 

     

  • Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Lustau

    In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Lustao. 

     

    Lustau2_tn(Barrels in the Lustau bodega.)

    Lustau vinegar2_tn
    (The vinegar aging room smelled heavenly. I'd love to go back and just study vinegar.)

    Lustau casks for jameson7_tn
    (These new casks are being prepared for Jameson Irish whisky that is aged in ex-sherry casks. These casks were not part of the solera system- just the wine in them. They hold sherry that absorbs into the wood. The sherry is then distilled and not used for sherry.)


    Lustao vinagre de jerez_tn

    (At lunch afterward, we drank Lustao sherry and had Lustao Vinagre de Jerez on a few dishes.)

     

    • Albero soil used in bodegas is same as used in bullfighting rings
    • It took two and a half years to move the bodega from one place to another
    • Only company to have sherry aged in Jerez, Puerto, and Sanlucar
    • The vinegar solera smells delicious!
    • Brandy bodega smells like buttered popcorn
    • Casks for Jamesons made here with their oloroso 
    • Fino bodegas must have higher ceilings, cooler temps, more humid
    • Different vineyards produce grapes better for fino, amontillado, oloroso sherries