WHAT’S IN A NAME?

SPAIN HAS A WINEMAKING CULTURE THAT STRETCHES BACK CENTURIES. PROBABLY ITS MOST FAMOUS EXPORT IS SHERRY. FIONA MCDONALD TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS FORTIFIED WINE STYLE.

SPAIN A TASTE OF

D O 1 9 3 3 S U P E R I O R S H E R R Y

WINE SHERRY

Alexander Fleming, founder of the miracle drug penicillin once said: “If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life.”

It still rankles some producers that South Africa signed away their rights to use the words “sherry” and “Port” on the locally made fortified wines as part of a trade agreement with the European Union. The ban came into effect in 2016 but consumers still associate the deliciously sweet, spicy and nutty wines enjoyed in winter with the traditional terms.

Of course, half the reason wine producers are miffed is that the millions of Euros that the European Union were supposed to send to South Africa as their side of the bargain – and earmarked for transformational projects within the local industry – never materialised! Small wonder that South African producers feel as if they got shafted… But to the man in the street, the guy who buys a bottle of richly sweet Old Brown for a night’s fishing with mates or someone who wants to sip something red and raisiny flavoured next to the fire to ward off some of winter’s chill, does it really matter? Sedgwicks, for example, have stuck to the bargain and dropped the “sherry” from their labels and their famous product is simply called Sedgwicks Old Brown. But consumers who know and love it still call it Old Brown Sherry… Obies for short!

Behind the ban on the terms sherry and Port is the protection of a geographical area of origin. Just as sparkling wine made the traditional way cannot be called Champagne unless it is made in the designated geographical area of Champagne in France, the same logic applies to these fortified wines. Sherry occupies a special place in the hearts and minds of wine lovers. It’s a product that has been deeply unfashionable for years – but it seems to be clawing back a little bit of market share. Much of this can be attributed to the change in food culture. The swing to tapas and a variety of small snack plates at restaurants means that people have become more adventurous with flavour – and sherry is also the natural accompaniment to tapas.

SO WHAT IS SHERRY? It is a fortified wine, made in a range of styles (see sidebar on p18), which is from the Jerez region of Andalucia in southern Spain. The area of Jerez has been an important grape growing and wine making area for centuries – even as far back as a few hundred years BCE. The Moors are credited with having introduced distilling when they conquered the area in the 700s which led the making of brandy and grape spirits. Under Moorish occupation the town was know as Sherish – from which both the words Sherry and Jerez are derived. It was also because the Brits battled to correctly pronounce the name of the city – which phonetically is said Hereth.

Conveniently for Francis Drake, nearly 3 000 barrels of sherry were on the quayside about to be loaded when he sacked Cadiz in 1587. They were shipped back to England as one of the spoils of war and this style of fortified wine became extremely popular. To be a true sherry, the wine can only come from the geographically defined area of Jerez, coincidentally the first ever declared wine DO (denominacion de origen) in Spain in 1933. There are three towns which conveniently make up the ‘sherry triangle’: Jerez, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlucar de Barrameda.

The grapes used to make sherry are predominantly Palomino (used in 90% of all sherries), muscat d Alexandrie (muscadel) and Pedro Ximenez.

What makes sherry so special is that it’s never a single vintage product. If you have Chardonnay made in 2016 – it’ll forever be a 2016 Chardonnay. But sherry uses a fractional blending system known as the solera method – so the final, bottled product will contain more than one vintage. In a very simplistic explanation, imagine barrels stacked upon one another, for example, three high. Three barrels form the base, two in the middle and one on the top. Each year, some of the bottom barrel’s contents are drawn off and bottled. (A maximum of 30% by Spanish law.) Wine is then taken from the middle two barrels to top off and fill the bottom barrels – and vice versa with wine from the top barrel being used to top off the slightly depleted middle barrels. The top barrel is then filled with fresh new fortified wine.

But that’s not all… the most important part of sherry is a very special yeast, called flor. This yeast blooms on top of the wine in the barrel and forms a fuzzy white skin atop it. This controls the oxidation of the contents by forming a barrier between the wine and the air in the

ABOVE: It’s alive! The flor yeast, so crucial to the development of great flavour in true sherry, forms a protective layer atop the maturing wine.

What makes sherry so special is that

it’s never a single vintage product.

barrel. It also contributes a nutty, dried apple flavour to the sherry. For this yeast to survive, it needs that addition of fresh wine to provide nutrition for its growth. Historic records reflect that South Africa was making “sherry” before the 20th century and by the 1930s was well established. By the mid-1960s there were in the region of 50 different “sherries” available locally.

WINE SHERRY VOLUME 31

ABOVE: A sherry bodega in El Puerto de Santa Maria. Some of these barrels may even be snapped up by Scottish distilleries for use in their spirit maturation process, adding character to their whisky.

Perhaps the most recognisable local producer is Monis. For his Cape Wine Master dissertation in 2014 Conrad Louw looked at the making of this fortified wine in South Africa, noting that locally mainly Chenin Blanc and Palomino grapes are used.

Giacomo, Pietro and Roberto Moni left Tuscany for South Africa in 1906 and soon made inroads producing wine, cheese and later, pasta. In 1956 Monis wines bought 50% of Nederburg wines which is why the Monis brand is an important one within the Distell stable.

Monis also observes the ban, simply labelling their products Medium Cream or Full Cream, for example. The difference between them is in the sweetness levels with the former being between 83 and 122g per litre of residual sugar and the latter then going up to around 176g/ l.

Sherry has made a magnificent

comeback, thanks to a wave of high-end

releases that have reinvigorated interest.

Those in the know are aware that Paarl producer, the KWV, has some real treasures lurking in their vast cellar complex. Fortified sherry-style wines that have lain undisturbed for years, some decades even. The company has a proud history of making this style of wine for at least 100 years – and continues to do so. But in 2016 SA’s largest independent wine and spirit producer and distributor, DGB, decided to offer local consumers a taste of the real thing, importing sherry from Spain.

“We knew the timing was right to introduce a superior range of Sherries into the South African market,” marketing director Jacques Roux said at the launch.

“Sherry has made a magnificent comeback, thanks to a wave of highend releases that have reinvigorated interest in the category among foodies and fine wine drinkers,. We watched this with interest, and the upshot of it is that we are now seeing an increasing resurgence of the various styles of sherry on wine lists and in craft cocktails.”

The sherries were sourced from the bodegas (wine cellars) of Caballero in Spain’s Sanlucar de Barrameda, Puerto de Santa Maria and Jerez de la Frontera. Caballero is recognised as a top sherry producer, having been named 2011 Best Spanish Wine Producer and the International Wine & Spirits Competition’s best sherry producer in 2014.

And then there is Old Brown which locally is a blend of Jerepiko/ Jerepigo (which is essentially sweet grape juice fortified with grape spirit to prevent fermentation) and ‘dry sherry’. There are a variety of local producers – from Sedgwicks to Mooiuitsig and Orange River Cellars.

STYLES OF SHERRY?

FINO – the driest and youngest of all sherries being between three and five years old. Only from Jerez and El Puerto de Santa Maria.

MANZANILLA – also young and dry, like Fino, but only ever from Sanlucar de Barrameda.

AMONTILLADO – has a higher level of fortification with grape spirit so the alcohol level is up to 18% and its aged longer in barrel. Darker brown in colour than Fino and Manzanilla. OLOROSO – also fortified to 18% but instead of being protected against oxygen, it is allowed to age with exposure to air.

CREAM SHERRY – typically a blend of Oloroso and PX Sherries with levels of varying sweetness. The most commercial of styles very popular in the British market.

PEDRO XIMENEZ (PX) – the sweetest of all sherries with the Pedro Ximenez grapes being left to dry in the sun and raisin after picking which concentrates the sugars. Then pressed to make wine and fortified.