SHERRY WEDNESDAY The heritage, flavour and heady complexities of sherry

Wednesday Sherry

very Wednesday, at 3pm the cry “Sherry Wednesday!” rises from my lips. It’s an afternoon treat that’s become a ritual whether I’m at home or settling into a dreamy corner exploring the world. I realised late in life that I wasn’t drinking enough sherry – and while this may sound like a good problem to have, when you consider that sherry is the best value and most underrated fine wine on the planet, there’s no time to lose.

Just a few weeks ago, strolling through a golden sunset in Jerez, I found myself meandering by monuments, crumbling alleys, civic squares and birds chasing the light. I’d spent a blissful day in the company of one of my wine heroes, Antonio Flores, the cellar master at González Byass. His life is woven into the bodega, infused with the serenity of the barrel halls where the sandy floor feels like soft fudge underfoot and the roof is so dark and tall that it feels like dawn and dusk have finally settled their differences and built a home together in the sky. The signatures of dignitaries and Hollywood legends adorn the shadowy barrels. Spielberg is there, Roger Moore over here. And look, is that… Orson Welles?

I ask Antonio his first memory of the winery. He points towards a little arched door that would look at home in the cloisters of Ely Cathedral. “I remember my father once left that door open and I ran through the barrels, I’ve never looked back”. He was three years old. Born on the premises, Antonio is a senior player in the world of wine at the peak of the sherry triangle and training his daughter, Silvia, in the art of blending. For that’s the core of sherry. In wine, we talk about terroir – the ‘somewhereness’ of the drink that makes it unique. We speak less about the human hand in that ‘somewhereness’ and in the case of Antonio, there’s a sense in which he is the bodega – in the same way that a great chef knows his recipes backwards and instinctively moves through the kitchen, indivisible from the moment.

In the case of sherry, the landscape plays a vital role, with the chalky albariza soil gleaming through the grapes – whether bright Palomino, fruity Pedro

EXiménez or scented Moscatel. The thing is, with the combination of aging and fractional blending, sherry relies more than any other wine on the invisible aspect of its ‘somewhereness’. To weave the best bottles into being, the most crucial element of all is time. And it’s well worth the wait. Let’s take flavours first. Whether you’re a fan of a dry Martini or a wedge of juicy fruitcake, there’s a sherry for you. Manzanilla and Fino are the dry light ones – serve chilled with olives or savoury nibbles. Pedro Ximénez is sweeter than treacle, which I love to sip with Christmas pud, while Amontillado and Oloroso are the nuttier tangier ones that I adore for their unique and provocative complexity. But you can taste all the styles of sherry and decide all that for yourself. Right now, I want to take you back to the bodega in dusky Jerez. I am there, whispering and chuckling with Antonio as we blend Las Palmas – the top bottles of González Byass. These four bottlings are named palmas after the chalk strike made by the cellarmaster on the barrels. In this case, one to four denotes the level of richness,

With a rich heritage and an abundance of flavour, there is much to enjoy about the complex taste of sherry as Olly Smith discovers

With the combination of aging and fractional blending, sherry relies more than any other wine on the invisible aspect of its ‘somewhereness’ ”

Colours

A FLAVOUR FOR EVERYONE

It is said there is a sherry to suit every taste and they range in colour from the palest yellow of Fino and Manzanilla with their light, delicate flavour to the warm amber of Amontillado and Pale Cortardo with their richer flavours to the dark brown of sweet sherries such as Moscatel.

which broadly corresponds to the unique character and age of each cask. One is the youngest and four palmas is bottled from a single cask more than 50 years old with the most exquisite evolution and scrumptiousness.

Blending Las Palmas is a bit like being beckoned to the stage by Pavarotti and being asked to sing along. It’s a huge honour and distinct responsibility. And once the work is done, the biggest surprise of all… Antonio asks me to sign my own barrel. While everyone else seems to have found a natty phrase to scribble alongside their name in chalk, looking back, there’s a bit of me that wishes I’d written ‘Sherry Wednesday’ on my cask, but somehow ‘SHERRY FOREVER!’ seemed more apt. And it’s also true. Wednesdays are all well and good, but for me, sherry is for always – and we need to invest valuable time right now working out in which order to enjoy all of its magnificence. So I suggest you head to the bar and order a cold glass of Fino with a bowl of green olives and salty snacks to consider the options… which happily, as far as sherry is concerned, are limitless.

Read Olly’s last book Home Cocktail Bible, Quadrille Publishing ollysmith.com

Olly Smith stands with Antonio Flores, the cellar master at González Byass

“Blending Las Palmas is a bit like being beckoned to the stage by Pavarotti and being asked to sing along. It’s a huge honour and a distinct responsibility ”