SHERRY
AMONTILLADO
Checking dictionaries on line I find:
A=near (in Spanish); Montillado is a place name, a village.
(Pronounced a - mon- tea-yado)
So now its in the style of wine which used to be made in that area.
That's where they grow PX short for Pedro Ximenez
Pedro (Portuguese and Spanish for Peter) Ximenex X pronounced ch (as in loch lomond) men - ez.
PX is a red grape.
when made into a wine it is raisoned, made a black stick syrupy wine you can pour over ice cream, too sweet for most people, even me, and I love sweet wines, makes you feel sick with overdose of sugar. But it is added to other mixtures to add a great flavour without being overwhelming.
You can read about this in articles on Berry's website.
Fino (fine = finest grapes grown on chalky soils) means aged biologically, under yeast.
The result is a a pale wine with a nutty flavour. It goes well paired with nuts and olives.
Oloroso - means more alcohol is added. The alcohol kills the yeast.
It ages, oxidises, goes brown, darker.
It goes well with raisins.
Got it?
Yes - fino is finest.
OK - but now, to confuse the consumer or customer, we have
Amontillado.
Amontillado combines both. Amontillado is half way in colour.
The only way to test this and be really sure you can tell the difference is to pour out glasses of all three and first look at them, taste them blind (not seeing the labels) then with the labels, showing. (I prefer to learn the other way, knowing what I'm tasting first. (This is done preparing for a wine exam including wine tasting, an exam often taken by sommeliers, who are the head of the wine waiters in hotel restaurants and large restaurants.)
The exam is administered by WSET Wine and Spirit Education Trust).
(I had trouble remembering these initials at first. I didn't know which letter came first. Think of West - but it's easier to think WINE first. Whatever you choose: Letter W first. More bottles of wine in the supermarket than spirits. S Spirits Second. Choose between the two - that's education. So third letter is e for education. Finally trust - admin term. Also we trust people who have been educated by them because we trust them. WSET.
Here are pictures of sherries showing different colours - but they are all olorosos.
They all smell different. Enjoy!
Choose your favourite. Then you know for life which to buy. (Until your tastes change. Do another test a year or two later. Or ten years later.)
What if you can't tell the difference? Or like them all equally? Never mind. The good news is you can then simply buy the cheapest. Very satisfying. You will save money. You can tell friends or guests that you like all sherries equally. You can tell family going on holiday who are bringing you back a gift, 'Just buy me the cheapest, darlings, because I like the cheapest just as much.'
Tasting At Home
If you want to do a tasting test before buying, do a test at home with your existing bottles. Check the prices at home before travelling.
Get out bottles you already have.
Alternatively, buy bottles on offer at supermarkets. If you want to save money and space, and stop yourself drinking too much, buy only one. Do a tasting with family, friends, neighbours, or colleagues. Buy and paying for one bottle each. (Or paying half each for the bill for two bottles and then toss a dic for who takes home which - or just agree.) It's a fun thing to do at a weekend family meal, with a group of friends, a dinner party, or even a club meeting. (Instead of a case of ten identical bottles of cheap plonk - bought by club funds or a benefactor/sponsor.)
No point when travelling in adding weight to your luggage, and paying the airline extra and risking bottles breaking over your clothes in a suitcase, nor risking leaving duty free behind in the overhead locker, nor struggling around carrying weight, then paying a porter, if the wines are less than 50 p cheaper in your walking distance supermarket at home.
Wine Shop Tastings
Tastings - where? You can often taste wines in the UK at wine shops. Get on their mailing list or phone them up.
You can also join the Wine Society (£40 - at Stevenage). They have tastings throughout the year.
Or go to a wine shop with an Enoteca - that's the brand name of a wine dispenser. The shop puts about a dozen bottles in the machine. You buy a card and add the amount you want to spend. You can then try a tiny amount of quite expensive wines. This is to encourage you to buy, without your risking buying something you don't like. The shop changes the bottles every month or so, so that you can try new things every time, so you need to keep popping in or phone to ask what is currently in the machine.
Result - now you know what to look for!
Sherry - originally from Jerez in Spain.
..............
AMONTILLADO
Checking dictionaries on line I find:
A=near (in Spanish); Montillado is a place name, a village.
(Pronounced a - mon- tea-yado)
So now its in the style of wine which used to be made in that area.
That's where they grow PX short for Pedro Ximenez
Pedro (Portuguese and Spanish for Peter) Ximenex X pronounced ch (as in loch lomond) men - ez.
PX is a red grape.
when made into a wine it is raisoned, made a black stick syrupy wine you can pour over ice cream, too sweet for most people, even me, and I love sweet wines, makes you feel sick with overdose of sugar. But it is added to other mixtures to add a great flavour without being overwhelming.
You can read about this in articles on Berry's website.
Fino (fine = finest grapes grown on chalky soils) means aged biologically, under yeast.
The result is a a pale wine with a nutty flavour. It goes well paired with nuts and olives.
Oloroso - means more alcohol is added. The alcohol kills the yeast.
It ages, oxidises, goes brown, darker.
It goes well with raisins.
Got it?
Yes - fino is finest.
OK - but now, to confuse the consumer or customer, we have
Amontillado.
Amontillado combines both. Amontillado is half way in colour.
The only way to test this and be really sure you can tell the difference is to pour out glasses of all three and first look at them, taste them blind (not seeing the labels) then with the labels, showing. (I prefer to learn the other way, knowing what I'm tasting first. (This is done preparing for a wine exam including wine tasting, an exam often taken by sommeliers, who are the head of the wine waiters in hotel restaurants and large restaurants.)
The exam is administered by WSET Wine and Spirit Education Trust).
(I had trouble remembering these initials at first. I didn't know which letter came first. Think of West - but it's easier to think WINE first. Whatever you choose: Letter W first. More bottles of wine in the supermarket than spirits. S Spirits Second. Choose between the two - that's education. So third letter is e for education. Finally trust - admin term. Also we trust people who have been educated by them because we trust them. WSET.
Here are pictures of sherries showing different colours - but they are all olorosos.
They all smell different. Enjoy!
Choose your favourite. Then you know for life which to buy. (Until your tastes change. Do another test a year or two later. Or ten years later.)
What if you can't tell the difference? Or like them all equally? Never mind. The good news is you can then simply buy the cheapest. Very satisfying. You will save money. You can tell friends or guests that you like all sherries equally. You can tell family going on holiday who are bringing you back a gift, 'Just buy me the cheapest, darlings, because I like the cheapest just as much.'
Tasting At Home
If you want to do a tasting test before buying, do a test at home with your existing bottles. Check the prices at home before travelling.
Get out bottles you already have.
Alternatively, buy bottles on offer at supermarkets. If you want to save money and space, and stop yourself drinking too much, buy only one. Do a tasting with family, friends, neighbours, or colleagues. Buy and paying for one bottle each. (Or paying half each for the bill for two bottles and then toss a dic for who takes home which - or just agree.) It's a fun thing to do at a weekend family meal, with a group of friends, a dinner party, or even a club meeting. (Instead of a case of ten identical bottles of cheap plonk - bought by club funds or a benefactor/sponsor.)
No point when travelling in adding weight to your luggage, and paying the airline extra and risking bottles breaking over your clothes in a suitcase, nor risking leaving duty free behind in the overhead locker, nor struggling around carrying weight, then paying a porter, if the wines are less than 50 p cheaper in your walking distance supermarket at home.
Wine Shop Tastings
Tastings - where? You can often taste wines in the UK at wine shops. Get on their mailing list or phone them up.
You can also join the Wine Society (£40 - at Stevenage). They have tastings throughout the year.
Or go to a wine shop with an Enoteca - that's the brand name of a wine dispenser. The shop puts about a dozen bottles in the machine. You buy a card and add the amount you want to spend. You can then try a tiny amount of quite expensive wines. This is to encourage you to buy, without your risking buying something you don't like. The shop changes the bottles every month or so, so that you can try new things every time, so you need to keep popping in or phone to ask what is currently in the machine.
Result - now you know what to look for!
Sherry - originally from Jerez in Spain.
..............
WINE SOCIETY (Details at end of this post)
Cost of joining about £40 which includes £20 off your first purchase of wine.
Tastings of 6-20 wines are held at regular intervals for members who can take one guest such as a spouse of friend.
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.................
How do you know which is sweet or dry?
You have to search the internet or ask the seller or maker.
The alcohol level has by law to be listed on the label.
Dry Sack won't tell you it's a semi sweet or off dry nearly 3 per cent sugar.
Dry - the other two olorosos in the picture.
Harveys Bristol cream, founded by importers Harveys in Brsstol, (imported from Jerez in Spain pronounced Hereth) a popular UK branded cream sherry, is sweet, an oloroso, with lots of either muscat grape, or sugar.
The fino and Manzanilla (pronounced manthanilla) are about 17 and a half percent. Other wines are about 20 per cent. So you have a tiny glass and/or don't go driving/working with machinery afterwards.
For duty free information see next post.
Harveys Bristol cream, founded by importers Harveys in Brsstol, (imported from Jerez in Spain pronounced Hereth) a popular UK branded cream sherry, is sweet, an oloroso, with lots of either muscat grape, or sugar.
The fino and Manzanilla (pronounced manthanilla) are about 17 and a half percent. Other wines are about 20 per cent. So you have a tiny glass and/or don't go driving/working with machinery afterwards.
For duty free information see next post.
FROM THE WINE SOCIETY WEBSITE
The Wine Society
Gunnels Wood Road
Stevenage
Hertfordshire
SG1 2BT
Gunnels Wood Road
Stevenage
Hertfordshire
SG1 2BT
Enquiries: 01438 741177
Orders: 01438 740222
To send us an enquiry via e-mail, please use our enquiry form.
.......
TYPO Type O ?
PS apologies for weird typos. I keep correcting my posts. Then later I re-read them I find some kind of automatic correction of spelling has changed them!
Even I am puzzled.
You can usually work out what I mean by checking through your brain or this post for similar words or relevant contrasts, such as in a post on wine sweet and dry is more likely than sweet and high, sweet and dye, sweat and die.
Orders: 01438 740222
To send us an enquiry via e-mail, please use our enquiry form.
.......
TYPO Type O ?
PS apologies for weird typos. I keep correcting my posts. Then later I re-read them I find some kind of automatic correction of spelling has changed them!
Even I am puzzled.
You can usually work out what I mean by checking through your brain or this post for similar words or relevant contrasts, such as in a post on wine sweet and dry is more likely than sweet and high, sweet and dye, sweat and die.
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