We had the recent pleasure of presenting a Spanish food and wine pairing exercise to the members of Innis Arden in North Seattle this past week. We thought it appropriate to present what is perhaps Spain’s greatest and definitely Spain’s most underrated wine, Sherry. Though once enormously popular, Sherry has suffered one of the deepest and longest slumps in vinous history. The industrialization of the Sherry trade, which led to overproduction and disastrously low quality, has left many of us to believe that Sherry is better to cook with than to drink. While this is true of some of the industrial dregs that wind up on grocery store shelves, fine Sherry is a treat. Below is some information on the marvelous Manzanilla we poured for the Innis Ardeners:
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HILDAGO MANZANILLA LA GITANA, SANLUCAR DE BARRAMEDA, ANDALUCIA, SPAIN
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This is a very special style of sherry called manzanilla, which can only be produced in the town of Sanlucar de Barrameda in southwestern Spain. The unique yeast that grows on the wine during production, called flor, is especially strong here, and lends the wines a delicacy that is not found elsewhere. The Palomino grape used for most fine sherry production is grown on a specific water-absorbent chalk called albariza.
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Sherry can be divided into two main styles: fino and oloroso. The distinction between the two styles has everything to do with the presence (or absence) of flor; Finos grow flor, olorosos don’t. Flor forms a thick, cream-cheese like layer on top of the wine in the barrel, and this protects finos from oxygen. Because olorosos do not have this protective layer and are exposed to oxygen, they become far more nutty in flavor, richer in texture and darker in color. Olorosos are given an extra whallop of alcohol, which kills off the flor ( flor typically does not survive in solutions above 16% alcohol) and adds viscosity and richness.
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Manzanilla is, technically speaking, a fino, though it is more delicate, fresher, and more vibrant than most finos. The fact that flor is stonger in Sanlucar de Barrameda than in other nearby towns, such as El Puerto de Santa Maria and Jerez de la Frontera, has to do with the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean, which Sanlucar de Barrameda is slightly more prone to.
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There are other styles of sherry that fall somewhere in between the freshness of fino and the rich caramel nuttiness of oloroso, such as amontillado (a fino that has been aged until the flor dies off, giving it a slightly more nutty flavor and an amber hue) and palo cortado (sherry that starts out as fino, but by a fluke of nature, loses it’s flor and turns into an oloroso). Palo cortado is the rarest style, as it’s creation is completely dependant on the vagary of nature, and it is a rare blend of the finesse and elegance of fino and the power and richness of oloroso.
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Sherry production is complex and involves a system of fractional blending called a solera, which, in it’s most simple form is a series of casks used to age the wine. At the end of the series, mature wine is drawn off the last cask. Wine is moved through the series to replace the drawn wine, with new wine being added to the cask at the beginning of the series. The point of this in fino production is to keep the flor alive; as wine ages, it loses the nutrients that the flor needs to sustain itself. It is used in oloroso production as well. The solera offers vintage diversification; wine from a good vintage ameliorates the qualities of a lesser vintage. Due to the fact that not all of the wine in a particular cask is drawn off, the oldest of soleras contain wine that is hundreds of years old.
(diagram taken from http://www.wineaustralia.com)