Things You Didn’t Know About Sherry

BY GAETANO MARANGELLI

We Americans don’t have an approving image of you.

"You Americans don’t understand me," says Sherry.

But we could say to Sherry: "You aren’t exactly making the best choices for yourself. Why are you showing up on wine shop discount shelves? Why are you going to stodgy country clubs? And what were you doing with Niles and Frasier Crane?"

Thing is, Sherry doesn’t care who you are or what you do or where you’re from. Sherry just wants to hang out with you. If you really give Sherry a chance, you’d discover Sherry is a wonderful friend.

I first met Sherry at 10 o’clock on a summer night at a Madrid bar for tapas—Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes served with aioli), Gambas al Ajillo (garlic shrimp) and Ajo Blanco (chilled almond soup). After tapas, there was dinner with Sherry at a restaurant. And then there was dancing with Sherry at a club. It was the night I began to discover how much fun Sherry is. Sherry has two primary styles: Fino and Oloroso. Because the Fino style is light and bright, it’s what the spring and summer seasons want from us right now. (We’ll leave the Oloroso style for the darker sides of the equinox.)

Fino Sherry is a fortified, dry, white wine. The name Sherry is Anglicized from the name of the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera in the province of Cádiz in the region of Andalusia in the south of Spain. The wine region of Jerez is hot and dry, with 300 sunny days a year. Its primary grape is palomino, which thrives on the region’s chalky albariza soils. The sun on the rolling hills from Jerez de la Frontera to the Guadalquivir River makes the region’s albariza vineyards reflect a dazzling white.

The region’s bodegas are warehouses where Sherry ferments and ages. Bodegas ferment Sherry to an alcohol of 14%, then evaluate the wine. If the Sherry is light and delicate, it’s classified for the Fino style. Fino Sherry develops a floating yeast called flor, which is primarily composed of Saccharomyces beticus, and which caps the wine in its barrels. The flor prevents air from prematurely oxidizing the alcohol, while also partly oxidizing the alcohol to the nutty tasting organic chemical compound acetaldehyde.

After classifying a Sherry as Fino, bodegas lightly fortify the wine with neutral spirits to about 15%. They then blend the new Fino Sherry with Fino Sherries of older vintages. The practice of blending fractions of Sherries of various vintages creates a reliability of quality and style. The Spanish call their fractional blending system solera. Bodegas age Fino Sherry in their soleras for about three to five years, then bottle the wine.

The qualities of a Fino Sherry’s flor shape the Sherry’s character and style. Because the seaside town of Sanlucar de Barrameda has a cooler climate than Jerez de la Frontera, the flor of its soleras are active every month of the year. The way Sanlucar flor behaves yields its Finos a more delicate texture and saltier tang than the Finos of Jerez. It also designates Sanlucar Fino Sherry with the distinctive name of Manzanilla.

Because the flor of quality Fino Sherry is critical to its character, it’s best to shop for unfiltered Finos, which are typically labeled as en rama. It’s also best to drink Fino Sherry cool, not cold, and from white wine glasses, not copitas. And you should always drink Fino Sherry with food, not—like Niles and Frasier Crane—without it. As an aperitif, Finos go with classic tapas of olives, Marcona almonds, fried fish, seafood, Jamon Serrano and light cheeses. But please, don’t be shy! Finos are up for whatever you are. And please don’t be judgy. Sherry just wants to hang out with you.

Gaetano Marangelli is a sommelier and playwright. He was the managing director of a wine import and distribution company in New York and beverage director for restaurants and retailers in New York and Chicago before moving to Wauwatosa.