Spanish Sherry, Sweet Or Dry - Special Flavours Revealed - where to try and buy

A Suitable Setting For Spanish Sherry Tasting

 I was invited to a tasting of six Spanish sherries at the Spanish Embassy in London. It is not just a building in Belgrave square, amongst the elite of ambassadors residences and offices. It has lovely shady garden of flowers at the back. Inside the walls are adorned with paintings from the prestigious Prado art gallery in the capital of Spain, Madrid. But on a hot day in London, to taste Spanish sherry, we sat indoors around a grand, long table.

Angela Lansbury, left. The Ambassador. Emma, Right.  Photo by Trevor Sharot.

As the lady ambassador, Emma, said, in her introductory welcome, the alliance of Spain and England as trade partners, goes back several centuries. Spain acted as producers and sellers of sherry, the British favourite. England is one of the top three buyers. The greater numbers of Americans being a little ahead of us, although we match the Americans in enthusiasm. I remember as a student going to sherry parties held by the professors, when I was at University College, London, in the late 1960s.

The popularity of sherry goes way back to Shakespeare's time. He mentioned sherry many times in his plays. So did other famous authors. For more than a hundred years poet laureates were paid in advance with a barrel of sherry. Charles Dickens drank sherry, mentioned it many times in his works and gave it to a long-lived pet parrot.

What is special and different about sherry, compared to ordinary wine? A slide show revealed or reminded the audience of how sherry is produced. It's redundant to say sherry is from Spain. That's like saying Spanish wine comes from Spain.  The name sherry comes from the English pronunciation of the Spanish city name Jerez, at the heart of the production of sherry. 

The head of the organization which is charge of defining and controlling the use of location names,  showed us the slides. Wine making in the area now known as Spain started with the Phoenicians who also introduced their alphabet. The denominations of origin started in Spain in 1933.

The three dry sherries are on the left. The three sweet sherries are on the right. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

One of the slides reminded us of the solera method. New wine is poured into the top barrel. In the classic slide, easy to demonstrate and understand three barrels are piled on top of each other and connected. Drip, drip, drip. In the old days they probably relied on gravity. But the solera system can be used horizontally, aided by pumps. 

Only gradually over the years will the flavour change, the good and bad years balancing each other out, but you would select only the best grapes for this lengthy process.  So your bottle of sherry might contain the crops, the vintage, of vines from several years.

The old French oak barrels add more flavour. The oldest wine has the strongest flavour. Older bottles which have corks lose a little of wine to evaporation, so the flavour intensifies. But you are drinking a blend, from the lowest barrel. You have as many as 120 different varieties in your glass!

Dry Sherry

Sherry is not a spirit but a fortified wine. The sherry is made in a bodega, where the wine ages in a cool cellar. 

Yeasts

Each bodega has different yeasts! These yeasts add their own unique aroma and flavour.  So even if you use the same grape variety as your neighbour, the results are different. The best results might come from different soil, being on the right or left bank of a river, lower or higher on a slope, being in more sun for more of the day, benefitting from a breeze or wind. Areas around Jerez have ideal, varied, conditions.

The first three wines were made using the most important local grape variety Palomino.

The first three sherries we tried were dry. Although I am a lover of sweet wines, I found these dry wines very pleasant.

Comparing Colours

We looked at the colours. Ranging from the first two, pale yellow, amber, then red, more intense colour, more intense flavour.

Then we swilled the sherry around and sniffed it. The first fina had a yeasty note. 

The dry wine is drunk before meals as an aperitif to stimulate your tastebuds. Great for tapas, tiny tastes, which was originally a piece of bread or meat or pie across the top of the glass of wine.

Sweet Wines

But the overwhelming delight was the three sweet sherries. Each has its own different, distinctive aroma and flavour. 

First Sweet Sherry

First I tasted, honey, butterscotch, caramel. After comparing colours, aromas, flavours, the lasting finish, I rated each wine out of seven, like we do at the Central London Wine Society, which meets on two middle Wednesdays each month at the Civil Service Club. All the dry wines had reached the level three of acceptable, in fact beyond that, 4 for good, maybe 5 for very good. 

But the first sweet wine surpassed them at 6 for special, superb, interesting, different, delicious. Given an opportunity and need, I would buy it, if it was within my budget.

The last two hit the rare rating of 7. Wonderful. Must buy. If expensive, ask for it for a treat, a birthday dinner, or a Christmas dinner or celebration. Highly recommended.

The Second Sweet Sherry

The second, totally different, more intense, aromatic. Herbal. Flowery. What was it? Oranges. Seville oranges, Bitter oranges. Sweet oranges. Tangy, like lemons. Lip-smacking good.

Third Sweet Sherry - Sweetest - and Best? 

The third sherry came from the kingdom of the Pedro Ximenez grape. Known as PX for short. Pedro is Spanish for Peter. The ending ez means son or offspring, like Peterson is son of Peter. So Ximenez means son of Simon, pronounced Shimon in Hebrew. Maybe he was a soldier, or a Catholic Cardinal, according to which myth, legend or speculation you prefer. 

Colour very dark and dense.

Aroma

Finally, the third, the sweetest. Burned caramel aroma. Rich. 

Flavour,

Raisins, caramel. Unctuous. Syrupy.

Pairing with Food

A dessert wine with dessert? Perhaps PX is better as a contrast with a savoury cheese, a slightly salty blue cheese.  (Like that other famous pair, Portuguese Port and stilton.) 

However, one favourite use for PX is to pour it over ice cream!

Useful Websites

Information on Sherry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Xim%C3%A9nez

Sherry in Literature

https://www.sherry.wine/news/sherry-literature

Buying Sherry

https://www.thewinesociety.com/buy/wines/fortified-wine/sherry

Spanish Food

https://camino.uk.com/menus/

Sherry Tasting Visits

Sherry Museum

https://thesherrygallery.com/

https://www.getyourguide.com/jerez-de-la-frontera-l413/palacio-san-dionisio-jerez-wine-museum

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g227869-Activities-c42-t205-Jerez_De_La_Frontera_Costa_de_la_Luz_Andalucia.html

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The Secret of Stoppers Instead of Corks In Your Wine Bottle

Problem
Which wines have stoppers instead of corks and why?

Answers
Madeira, port, sherry will have stoppers. They are all fortified wines. they don't need to breathe through the cork. The purpose of a cork in a bottle is to allow maturing in the bottle. But fortified wine such as Madeira, and any spirit, is sold ready to drink, doesn't need a conventional cork.

A stopper is a cork at the base, but it has a plastic top. You can pull it out easily, without a corkscrew, and push it back easily.

In addition, you need to put the stopper back it, because you might drink a whole bottle of wine between two or four people over the course of an evening, but fortified wine with its higher alcohol content is too strong, so you need a stopper to keep it - because it's too expensive to throw away.

Madeira In Cooking
What about keeping it for cooking? Apparently Madeira is used a lot in French restaurants. That is to say, according to books by experts, the wine is sold more to the trade than the public.

So there you have it. Mystery solved, about the corks. But another mystery, about uses for Madeira.

There is an antiquated sauce Madère which uses Madeira. We have been trying to find out for ages what French restaurants use Madeira for.

Maybe just for a tipple after the chef's finished the evening of cooking? Maybe the happy owner has counted the takings!

Nope. It is used for cooking. How do we know the Madeira is used for cooking? It is adulterated by salt and pepper because alcoholic drinks in every country are taxed, the charge is lower, so it can't be used for drinking, so the seller and buyer don't fiddle the customs and excise people by using it for drinking.

Containers
There's no chance of your being sold an undrinkable Madeira, nor of a burglar making off with the wrong kind by mistake. Madeira for cooking is not even sold to restaurants in the drinking bottle, but in bulk containers. I don't know what it looks like. I don't have a picture. I haven't seen one, so I can't tell you. But when I get to Madeira I shall report back.

If you know the answer, please tell me. It is all, as they say, a trade secret.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please see my other blog post on Luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Aperitif In England And France

In England the traditional pre-dinner aperitif would be sherry from Spain.

In France the traditional pre-dinner aperitif would be Port from Portugal. Tanwny Port.

What's Tawny Port?
   When wine is picked from the grape it is red colour. Fresh bright red like fresh blood and fresh red grapes. After it ages in the barrel it goes brown like the barrel, like dried blood, or dried plums which turn into dark coloured prunes.

Here's a Tawny Port as an aperitif. You can see the tawny brown colour, like a tawny owl. My picture makes it look slightly red on my screen. the plate is red, but the drink is brown.

Eating English Cheese, Buying Cheese In England, Paired with Wines

  In the nineteen eighties we went to France on holiday and were amazed to be offered an entire trolley of cheese, with cheese from cows on top and goat cheese underneath.
   (The French eat cheese after the main meat course, finishing with something sweet. Dessert, double S, after the service.)
  Traditionally in England you would drink a sherry before the meal such as Harveys Bristol Cream. (You could even have a sherry party, serving only sherry, bread and cheese. It was a stand up party. I soon found I could not stand up after drinking sherry.)

   In England on special occasions in restaurants I was sometimes persuaded to drink sweet muscat at the end of the meal with dessert.
   My favourite sweet wine is now Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise. This wonderful wine has a perfume and strong flavour.

  But nowadays the cheese board as an alternative is becoming increasingly common in British restaurants.
   In England you eat cheese at the end of a meal, after dessert.  The English system was eat the (strong) cheese (stilton) when you pass the Port.

   If you want to try English cheddar, supermarkets stock many varieties. So many cheddars, at the exclusion of other English and French and foreign cheeses, that a member of my family wrote a complaint.
   Other well known English cheeses are the blue Stilton, and red Leicester.



From Wales we get Caerphilly.
   Most UK supermarkets stock quite a few cheeses. You may have to ask an assistant to help you look for them. Popular cheeses are Dutch Edam, with its distinctive red wax covering, and Gouda.


The favourite French cheeses in England are Brie and Camembert.

 From Italy we enjoy Parmesan.
    Cream cheese is dominated by Philadelphia from the USA, now available in the larger supermarkets in savoury flavours such as chives. A recent addition is sweet cream cheese - chocolate flavour!

  Waitrose supermarket has recipe leaflets and a plasticised pamphlet on varieties of cheeses from different countries.


  For In London, however, if you want a speciality cheese shop, you can find a few. From Baker street tube station you can walk across the road outside Madame Tussauds and find La Fromagerie.
   Fromage is French for cheese. So Fromagerie is cheese-seller, like the French word patisserie.
   My favourite French hard cheese is Comte which has a crunchy, salty effect. You can also try and buy goat cheeses.

    Near Piccadilly and Green park there's Paxton and Whitfield. Their shop also sells cheese boards which make good souvenirs or gifts. And cheese knives.

   In Borough Market there's another cheese shop offering tastings.

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer and speaker.
See more from and about Angela Lansbury the author on Lulu.com Facebook LinkedIn and Youtube.

Vineyard Travel Tourist

Madeira, Port, Sherry - you see them in the supermarket or wine shop. When travelling, what to buy at the airport, or where to make a vineyard visit. Easy to remember.

MADEIRA

MADEIRA FROM MADEIRA

PORT

PORT FROM PORTUGAL

SHERRY

SHERRY FROM SPAIN

What am I going to try and buy in Europe? The letters of the alphabet provide a helpful mnemonic or memory aid.

MM - Madeira from Madeira
PP - Port from Portugal
SS - Sherry from Spain

Angela Lansbury is an English teacher, author, speech coach and speaker.
Books on Lulu.com
Blogs, videos on Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn. 

Ports and Sherries

PORTS and SHERRIES Tasting and Buying
Want to buy Port on holiday in Portugal,

 or going out on holiday to a self-catering apartment, 

or coming home with stocks for yourself 

or gifts for family, friends, colleagues, boss, employee?

TAST AT HOME
Do a taste test at home first.
Check your home supermarket online.
Then check the airport duty free prices, also online.
Then check the foreign wine suppliers in the country you are visiting.
If you search online type in Taylor you get coffee.
type in drink or port
Google gives you links to drinks by the case from Tesco and Majestic. Also under that Taylor company.

WEBSITES TO VISIT CELLARS OR BUY
http://www.taylor.pt/en/visit-taylors/port-cellars/
www.taylor.pt/
http://www.harveyscellars.co.uk
www.worlddutyfree.com/our-airports-consumer-heathrow-terminal-3
http://www.wikihow.com/Drink-Port

Tasting & Buying Sherries

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.
..............

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.
.................

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.

FROM THE WINE SOCIETY WEBSITE

The Wine Society
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. 

Wine Books To Read on the Plane/train & Plan Meals

This is big, expensive and heavy.

If you are serious, take a course. Some books are provided as course materials at higher levels.

For the diploma you get course material in a ring binder, plus a copy of The Oxford Companion to Wine.

Matching food and wine.

Just for sherry.