Archive

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JR's notes:

Chris Losh took over responsibility for WINE magazine after Susan Low left for the world of the web, and he wanted a Christmas piece about Sherry which explored the world of 'dark-but-dry' wines. We associate dark wines with seetenes, but this is not always the case. This article was published in WINE magazine in December, 2000. [Note the 'declaration of interest' at the end, by the way. I had just been asked to help with the relaunch of Tío Pepe and some people are intent on seeing a conspiracy everywhere!] The WINE magazine website is at www.wilmington.co.uk

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OLD, GOLD AND BOLD

The Sherry Renascence isn't just happening to Fino and Manzanilla.

The new generation of aficionados is also beginning to discover that maturity is not necessarily obscurity. John Radford explores the dark labyrinth that is fine old Sherry.

Let's get one thing straight right at the start. With the exception of wines made purely from Moscatel and PX (which would require a separate article) there is no such thing as sweet Sherry. All Sherry wine starts its life bone-dry and fully fermented, and it is only the activities of the blanders - sorry, blenders - which put that sticky brown (or pale) stuff on to the supermarket shelves for your grandma and the vicar and those who, through no fault of their own, know no better. After all, the advertising spend behind the major blands - sorry, brands - is a megabuck industry, and quality mustn't be allowed to get in the way. But what is the real old, gold and bold Sherry?

After fermentation and before fortification Sherry may or may not grow a thin film of flor (a yeast culture) on the surface of the wine. Wines sourced from lower, cooler vineyards will grow the most flor, and these will become the light, fresh Finos and Manzanillas at 15-17% alcohol-by-volume (abv) which will be drunk at anything from about three to nine years old - usually with tapas, fresh fish, or on their own as an aperitivo. These younger wines need not concern us here, but some do go on to grander things...

AMONTILLADO

Some Finos may come through their original solera in a stronger, darker style which the capataz (cellar-master) considers to be capable of further ageing. With these wines the flor may have died off earlier and the strength increased or there may simply be the odd barrel which has been situated in a hotter part of the bodega which has developed differently from the rest. In either case the wines will go forward to an Amontillado solera for a further ten to fifteen years and often much longer.

There is a half-way house called Amontillado-Fino which still retains some of the freshness of the fino with a delicate, nutty maturity. One of the very best is actually an aged Manzanilla - Emilio Lustau's Manzanilla Amontillada Manuel Cuevas Jurado. A delicate shade of pale walnut in colour, it's bone dry with the barest hint of butterscotch on the palate, and with one of those lightweight salads with poncy leaves and pine nuts and lardons or chicken-livers or duck breast it's about as perfect a combination as is possible to imagine.

Amongst the very best traditional wines are AOS Solera from Osborne, Amontillado 51-Primera from Domecq and Amontillado de Bandera from Gil Luque, but these are rare and expensive. Probably the best widely available example is Amontillado Del Duque from González Byass but all of these share a deep, raisiny depth, tremendous power, fragrance and length and a surprising richness whilst remaining completely dry. In Spain they drink them with roast beef but that's a bit adventurous for most of us, and cheese and nuts is a more appropriate consummation - especially in midwinter. Sadly, though, the vast majority of wines labelled 'Amontillado' are simply commercial blends, sweetened to suit some supermarket-buyer's palate and to sell at an £x.99 price point, so do beware.

PALO CORTADO

This is one of the safest 'classic' Sherries to buy, as there's so little of it that there's never been a mass market. It comes about when a wine in its first year suddenly stops growing flor. This may be due to climatic changes or something in the physiology of the wine itself, but it has to be taken out of the Fino production process, which depends on flor for its freshness and flavour. However, it can't go into an Oloroso solera because it has grown flor and this would upset the delicate balance of the existing wines. For this reason it goes into a separate solera and is called Palo Cortado. The style is rather like Amontillado but with a more youthful, savoury palate with a subtle hint of half-forgotten flor and, for Palomino wines a bone-dry finish; for those with some PX, a hint of richness. This is a wine you really could drink with roast meat, although we might prefer it with a hefty, garlicky fish stew or the mind-boggling gazpacho de Castill a - a casserole of game, meat, game, vegetables and game served on a giant tortilla which regularly defeats even the most powerful red wines of the region.

Capuchino from Domecq and Apóstoles from González Byass (winner of a gold medal in the 2000 Wine Challenge) are amongst the best, but expensive. Obispo Gascón from Barbadillo, Solera P-D-P from Osborne and Palo Cortado Bandera from Harvey's are very good but prices can vary enormously in such a small and volatile market. If you want to try a Palo Cortado without breaking the bank, Lustau's Península is a good entry-point.

OLOROSO

The wines which grow little or no flor will have come from higher, hotter vineyards and will become Oloroso wines with anything from 17% abv upwards. The best will be destined for great ageing and they will turn gold and then brown during the process, due to oxidation. Most white wines would be destroyed by this process but the nature of Sherry and its fortification allow a very much longer life. Wines labelled 'Oloroso', like those labelled 'Palo Cortado', tend to be a fairly safe bet because the bland blends are likely to be called 'Cream' or something equally fanciful. True, old Oloroso is (as with all Sherry) completely dry and fabulous with cheese, nuts or dried fruit after a meal but, as it ages for anything up to 100 years and takes on a natural richness, it's a wine which can also be sweetened by the judicious admixture of some PX. When this is done well the result is one of the world's greatest sweet wines. When it's done on the cheap (with arrope instead of PX) you get the sticky brown stuff (allegedly) so beloved of country vicars and maiden aunts.

Some of the greatest classic Olorosos include Osborne's Alonso El Sabio and Bailén, Sibarita and Rio Viejo from Domecq, Solera 1842 from Valdespino and others only to be found from specialist shippers. Matúsalem (a sweet version) from Gonzalez Byass, Royal Corregidor from Sandeman and Emperatríz Eugenia from Lustau are more widely available, but wines of this maturity from these soleras are not likely to be cheap.

In pure quality terms, however, the dark-but-dry wines which are the fons et origo of Sherry offer value-for-money undreamed-of elsewhere in the wine world. The most expensive of them might stagger towards £30 - for a bottle of wine perhaps 60 years old. No other wine region in the world can compete with that.

The Solera

The Solera system is a series of rows of barrels in which the oldest wine is taken from the 'bottom' row (the solera) and this is replenished from the row 'above' (known as the 'first criadera') which is itself topped-up from the next row 'up' (known as the 'second criadera') and so on. Soleras may have anything from three to seven criaderas and the 'top' criadera is refilled with the new vintage wine. In this way, the wine which comes out at the end has been allowed to take on the characteristics of wine from much older vintages - indeed, in ancient soleras from the 19th century there will be a minute proportion of wine which is over a hundred years old. This serves to give the current wines a generous burnish of venerability.

Suppliers Mentioned

Most top-quality Sherry is sold through specialist wine-merchants, although there is an encouraging tendency in some supermarkets to stock quality wines (often in half-bottles). For the latest information, it's usually best to ask the importer where to find his wines:

Barbadillo - John E. Fells, Berkhamsted 01-442-870-900

Domecq, Marqués del Real Tesoro - Private Liquor Brands, East Grinstead 01-342-318-282

González Byass - First Drinks Brands, Southampton 023-8031-2000

Domecq, Harvey's - Allied Domecq, Bristol 0117-978-5000

Gil Luque - Southdown Wine Services, Worthing 01-903-520-382

Lustau - Morris & Verdin, London 020-7357-8866

Osborne - Heyman, Barwell Jones, Ipswich 01-473-232-322

Sandeman - Seagrams, London 020-8250-1801

Valdespino - Hall & Bramley, Liverpool 0151-525-8283

DECLARATION OF INTEREST: John Radford does consultancy work for González Byass

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