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JR's notes:

WINE magazine conducts one or more blind tastings every month and this article is a report on a tasting held in the autumn of 1998. I was asked to pull together the opinions of the tasters, and this article appeared in October, 1998. The previous tasting mentioned in the text is ASSUMING THE MISSIONARY POSITION - August, 1997. The WINE magazine website is at www.wilmington.co.uk

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TASTING: DRY SHERRY

FLOR POLISH

Dry Sherry - from fresh, flor fino to obscure, otiose oloroso, arouses a mixture of passions and prejudices amongst the WINE tasting panel. John Radford attempts to sort them out.

'Good, old-flor nose, mature fino of highest quality; excellent, top-quality full fino - superb.' 'Quite a good nose. Fairly fresh but a suggestion of bottle-age. Good length.' 'A touch [of flor] only in the nose. Tastes rather young.' 'Rather earthy. Unattractive nose.'

I can see that you're ahead of me here. Yes, those four quotes are all comments on the same wine (Lustau Solera Reserva Manzanilla Papirusa), by two wine writers, a distinguished Sherry expert and an MW who is buyer for one of our most respected wine-purveying institutions. The marks ranged from 95 to 70 out of 100 respectively.

The last dry Sherry tasting conducted by WINE magazine was about a year ago, and the comments were surprisingly consistent throughout the tasting panel. The general consensus was (a) it's quite difficult to taste finos and manzanillas alongside dry amontillados and olorosos, as the latter pair tend to overpower anything within twenty paces; but (b) that Sherry is still getting better and better, in terms of absolute quality as well as value for money; and (c) that the major problem, when it occurs, is fino and manzanilla wines which have been too long in the bottle and are lacking freshness; but (d) on the whole these are magnificent wines, so why can't we sell them?

The main divergence of opinion this time was over the freshness of the fino styles, which is why I highlighted the opinions expressed above right at the start. Derek Smedley commented that 'freshness is an essential and some good wines, good when drawn from the solera, were tired and lacking. The answer to this problem has been discussed for as long as I have been in the wine trade...'

The problem, if so it be, begs a further question. What are our expectations of fino styles? Miguel Valdespino, head of the family firm in Jerez, believes that it was a mistake to allow journalists access to the young soleras in the first place. They go on to raise expectations in the drinking public, he says, which can never be fulfilled unless you happen to live next-door to a tapas bar in Jerez or Sanlúcar. Far better to fortify wines for shipment up to the full 17°, as in the past (the modern trend is to ship wine at solera strength - 15°5), secure in the knowledge that the wine will be stable for at least a year. Indeed, his own Inocente Macharnudo fino scored 85 in the tasting and drew comments on the maturity and strength of its flor on the nose, bone dryness on the palate and 'outstanding' length.

However, you can't put the genie back into the bottle and the weight of opinion veered (just) in favour of those who demand more freshness, but opinions were very widely divided. Compare these comments: 'a number of [fino/manzanilla] wines were very tired, becoming flat and showing signs of oxidisation' (Jonathan Pedley) and 'some really bad wines... which can only do the name of Jerez and Sherry a great deal of harm' (Derek Smedley); with these comments: 'what was really encouraging was the showing of the finos and manzanillas... there wasn't a single out-of-condition, oxidised wine. Very heartening' (Charles Metcalfe) and 'Good to see lots of freshness and clean wine, especially in the fino section' (Caspar Auchterlonie).

Most tasters agreed, again, that tasting young-and-fresh flor fino wines against ancient solera amontillados and olorosos was a difficult task ('It's good to be finished!' Hilary Lumsden; 'Enjoyable range - hard work towards the end!' Richard Cochrane) but the majority were deeply impressed by the quality of the older wines. If we look at the results of the tasting, for example: only one of the top ten wines is a fino, there are four in the 11-20 bracket, seven in the 21-30 bracket and nine in the 31-40 bracket, so tasters were consistently marking the older wines higher than the younger ones. This may be a question of individuality ('many of the manzanilla/finos seemed similar and difficult to differentiate from each other' Jacqueline Franklin) or simply that, by their very delicacy, freshness and transparency the younger wines engender differing reactions on different palates. Meanwhile, five hundred years of addiction to Sherris-Sack may have printed a template for that t ype of wine on our collective, inherited taste-consciousness.

In terms of sheer, overall quality, however, the consensus was very positive. Nearly all the oloroso/amontillado group and most of the fino/manzanilla group won praise from most of the panel: 'Superb... not as much variation as I'd expected... maybe quality is consistently high in this category.' (Nicola Danberry); 'A very heartening tasting' (Charles Metcalfe); 'Really fascinating tasting - puts Sherry in its context as the world's greatest apéritif' (Tim Johnston); 'Although some sweeter wines slipped through the net... the majority were fabulous and brought the more savoury wines into perspective' (Caspar Auchterlonie); 'The overall standard was surprisingly good, with some real world-class wines towards the end... I am wholly confirmed in my enthusiasm for dry Sherry' (Julian Jeffs).

Which brings us to the Great Imponderable, expressed much as it was by the panel last year: if they're this good, why can't we sell them? Well, the good news is that Sherry sales are on the increase again, but not very quickly. What's probably needed is for the trade to put more weight behind them: 'a recommendation for consumers... so many of [these wines] would be excellent with food, tapas or whatever' (Nicola Danberry); 'The problem is not the quality of the product but how to fit them into the current social vogue' Peter Lunzer; 'it is a great pity top Sherries are not appreciated more. People don't know what they're missing' (Charles Metcalfe); 'There is no doubt that they will come back into fashion' (Caspar Auchterlonie). Many of us will share Caspar's pious confidence - but it would be a brave spirit who would put a date on the wine's triumphant return to the best-seller bins. It took Spanish wine generally the better part of twenty-five years to shake off its 1960s image of Don Cortez ('always on the bottle!'), student parties and sangria. Sherry's equivalent is maiden aunts, country vicars and visits to the family solicitor. Perhaps when these three social groups make their own comeback, we shall see Sherry back on its pedestal once more.

However, one thing is certain - those aficionados who do like Sherry like it very much indeed. Of the 45 wines tasted, 40 achieved a score of 80 or more on the 100-point scale and the 30 wines which were placed from 11 to 40 have only seven marks between them, which says a lot about the quality.

The top five (score 90-95) are all rare and expensive old wines, including the rarest of all - a single-vintage Oloroso from 1970. However, the second five (score 88-90) are much more accessible, both in terms of price (Lustau Almacenistas at around £9) and availability - as witness Tio Pepe. Quite how González Byass maintain the quality of this wine, given the quantity they ship, I cannot tell, but it comes up consistently time after time in blind tastings, year in and year out: a perfect testament to the brilliance of the solera system for maintaining quality control. You may also be interested to know that the four tasters quoted in the first paragraph, whose opinions were so diverse on the subject of Lustau Papirusa, all gave precisely the same mark to Tio Pepe.

I'll leave the last word to Hilary Lumsden, who sums it up for many of the tasters on the panel: 'What an inspiring range of this fine wine, which is heading swiftly back into fashion...' Let's hope so. And a Sherry Christmas to one and all.

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