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Barrels in a cellar in the sherry region in Andalucia with Manzanilla, copyright BKWine Photography
BKWine Photography
For many people, sherry is sweet, high in alcohol and old-fashioned. Sherry is indeed a fortified wine, so it is higher in alcohol than a normal wine. However, much of the sherry production is dry and not that high in alcohol. And even though some of the high-quality sweet sherries are magnificent wines, we are particularly fond of the dry ones. These are truly unique wines. And they go surprisingly well with food.
Sales of sherry have declined since its heyday. People drink less but are more demanding and ask for higher quality. Premium sherry is increasing its sales; inexpensive sherries and cream sherries (many will remember Bristol Cream) are decreasing.
Carlos Gonzalez-Gordon from Gonzalez-Byass is confident: ”Sherry is coming back, and dry sherries are growing. These are gastronomic wines, and there is a lot of interest from young consumers, for instance, to combine the dry style with salty food.”
Carlos Gonzalez-Gordon of Gonzalez-Byass in the sherry region, copyright BKWine Photography
BKWine Photography
In recent years, a new dynamic has been palpable in the three sherry towns that form the famous sherry triangle: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Puerto Santa María. More or less, all of the producers, small or large, have their cellars in one of these towns. Sanlúcar and Santa María are on the Atlantic Coast, and Jerez is half an hour inland. Traditionally, it has been the big houses that have ruled, just like in Rioja and Champagne. Still, smaller producers have emerged, adding new dimensions to this old and classic wine region.
Gonzalez-Byass is one of the most famous sherry houses. It was founded by Manuel María González Ángel in 1835. Their delicious Tio Pepe, a fino, the driest style of sherry, is found in most markets around the globe.
So, what is so special about sherry? Carlos Gonzales Gordon talks about five factors that stand out and make sherry the wine it is: the soil, the grapes, the solera and the two kinds of ageing, biological and oxidative.
The Albariza Soil
Sherry is made in Andalusia, Spain's southernmost region, where the sun is abundant. The summers are hot and dry, and it is hard to understand how the vines can survive here. The secret is in the soil. This calcareous soil, called albariza, soaks up water like a sponge when it rains and supplies the vines with moisture during the rainless summers. “Despite the dry climate,” says Carlos, no producers here irrigate.”
The white albariza soil in the sherry region in Andalucia, Spain, copyright BKWine Photography
BKWine Photography
The Sherry Grapes
A white grape, palomino, is the most important and most planted variety. It is used for all styles of sherries, fino, manzanilla, amontillado, oloroso, palo cortado. Only the very sweet sherries are made with another grape called pedro ximenes, also a white variety.
Palomino thrives in the albariza soil of the sherry region. It gives a wine with a relatively neutral taste. But a sherry is much about the winemaking and the ageing in the cellar. The finished product is complex and intense in style, anything but neutral.
The harvest and fermentation proceed as usual, and the wine ferments completely dry to an alcohol content of 11–12%. It is then placed in barrels that are not filled completely. After tasting, the barrels are carefully checked and divided into two main groups: a group for fino and manzanilla, the lightest wines, and a group for oloroso.
The Sherry Solera
Sherry is not sold with any particular vintage, but once the casks have been classified by style (fino, oloroso, etc.), they are placed in a so-called solera where casks of wine from different ages are stacked on top of each other. The oldest wine is at the bottom, and from here the wine is bottled and then topped up with the same amount from the cask above, which in turn is topped up, etc. This way, you can maintain a constant quality year after year and get a certain amount of old, characterful wine in all the bottles.
A barrel cellar in the sherry region with a solera of manzanilla, copyright BKWine Photography
BKWine Photography
Biological Ageing
The fino/manzanilla group is fortified with spirit up to 15%. This allows the flor to develop, which will protect the wine from oxidation and at the same time give the wines a very special character. This aging is called crianza biológica.
Flor is a yeast film that forms on the surface of the wine as a barrier between the air and the wine. The yeast consumes the glycerol in the wine, contributing to a fino's special, very dry character. The flor also helps the alcohol in the wine to oxidize. This produces acetaldehyde, which gives the wine a kind of saltiness and aromas of almonds.
The difference between a fino and a manzanilla is that the manzanilla has aged in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
”The flor gives taste and elegance,” says Mercedes Cantos Ruiz, owner of Bodega Juan Piñero, one of the newer cellars in the region, located in the centre of Sanlúcar. ”Here in the area, we have always made wines with flor. The yeast comes naturally thanks to the climate.” Mercedes and her team make some lovely salty, fresh and very dry manzanillas. A favourite is Maruja Manzanilla Pasada En Rama with 12 years of ageing. It is intensely delicious and complex, with a great length.
Mercedes Cantos Ruiz, owner of Bodega Juan Piñero and two cellar workers in the barrel cellar, copyright BKWine Photography
BKWine Photography
Oxidative Ageing
The Oloroso group is fortified with spirits to raise the alcohol content to around 17%, thereby killing the yeasts that could have developed flor. Instead, the wines undergo oxidation during ageing, which causes the colour to darken and the aromas to concentrate. This aging is called crianza oxidativa.
Oloroso is sometimes sold dry (dry oloroso/oloroso seco), a fantastic wine, but can also be sweetened with pedro ximenes wine.
A barrel in a cellar in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, filled with sherry where you can see the "flor", copyright BKWine Photography
BKWine Photography
Amontillado is a stronger variant of fino. An amontillado has undergone three years of crianza biológica. After these three years, the wine is fortified up to 17-18%, and oxidative ageing occurs instead. An amontillado is also a dry wine, but richer than a fino.
Sherry is adapting to new consumer trends. The minimum alcohol level will probably soon be lowered from 15 to 14 %. A few innovative producers now make non-fortified wines with flor in the same style as fino.
A fino or a manzanilla will taste very different from anything else the first time you taste it. But after the second sip you realize just how well it pairs with salted almonds, olives, Iberico ham, tuna, grilled octopus, gazpacho, gambas in garlic olive oil… And it is a wine you cannot gulp down; every sip demands reflection.
—Britt Karlsson
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