+SHERRY+

I hope y'all are fully recovered from Mardi Gras and not too sad it's over.

Apologies in advance for the length of this one. We're going to start
serving sherry on Mondays and since I needed a refresher course on it
as well I thought I would do that, forgetting what a massive topic
even the basics of sherry is. Sherry is, and has always been, one of
the great wines of the world. It fell out of favor (I'll address this
at the very, very end of this email) and that's why it's way
undervalued in terms of price etc. but it's very dear to both Uzzi and
I's hearts. Hope you enjoy.

To start off sherry isn't a single wine, it's a name for a group of
sweet and dry fortified wines from the appellations of
Jerez-Xérès-Sherry and Montilla-Moriles near Cadiz in Southern Spain.
Montilla-Moriles wouldn't be considered as a true "sherry" by purists
but I'm including it here because the style is identical and there are
wines just as great coming from the region as its much more famous
neighbor.

Sherry is, like Champagne, very much a wine of both place and style,
neither of which can be extracted from the other, tied up with
tradition so much that technique becomes terroir and vice-versa. It's
also one of the most tradition-rich wine regions in the world, with
production of wines dating back some three thousand years, which an
interplay between Spain and the Moors, who came in the eighth century
and introduced techniques that would forever change the winemaking of
the region.

The place itself is one of the hottest grape growing regions on Earth,
a hot desert that receives some 300 days of sunshine a year, often
getting above 100 degrees fahrenheit, and only tempered by a cooling
wind off the coast that brings morning dew that the clay rich soil
traps and keeps the grapes alive. Pre-Phylloxera there was over a
hundred grapes authorized in the production of Sherry, now there
basically three, Palomino, the main grape in making dry sherries, and
Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez (the best grape name period), used mainly
in making the sweet styles of the wine. Thankfully starting in 2020
ancient varieties that some producers have begun to plant again are
allowed in the production of sherry.

The harsh climate of Southern Spain is what leads to the style of
winemaking in Sherry. Whereas in cold climates the winemaker can
typically count on long cold winters and cool underground caves to lay
the wines down after fermentation, in Jerez this isn't the case. After
fermentation wines left in the heat will quickly oxidize and become
vinegar, so at some point around a thousand years ago with the
introduction of distillation from the Moors winemakers began
fortifying the wines with neutral grape spirit after fermentation was
finished, and the added alcohol acted as a prophylactic against
oxygen, which meant the wines could be kept longer.

The next part of the sherry is the magic part. At some point after
fortifying Sherry some brilliant winemaker noticed that as the barrels
drained some of them started to form a layer of yeast on the top of
the wine and the barrels that had the yeast oxidized a lot slower, and
soon encouraging this yeast, known as flor, became the norm and then
came the quest to get perfectly oxidized wines, which led to a system
known as the solera. (the famed oxidized wine of the Jura, Vin Jaune,
is made in a similar style, without fortification, and definitely one
of the most interesting comparisons to traditional sherries.)

A solera is a system where instead of simply having  a single vintage
of sherry, multiple vintages are utilized to get wines that both have
freshness from new vintages and rich oxidative flavors from vintages
past. This happens by stacking rows of barrels on top of one another
with the oldest wine in the bottom and the newest wine on top, and
then they are slowly blended over time and bottled from the bottom
barrel. It's a much more intense process than I could ever explain
further, so below is a primer if you're really curious.

https://www.sherry.wine/sherry-wine/production/ageing

And finally after all that there's the various styles of sherry.
Sherry falls into two distinct types, dry and sweet. Dry is fortified
dry white wine, typically palomino, and sweet is fortified wines that
are left hanging on the vine while the palomino is harvested to over
ripen, and then left to dry out and concentrate on mats before
pressing and fermenting, leaving a thick sweet wine. After that their
are different breakdowns in the two styles. Of the following styles we
have a Fino, a Manzanilla, an Oloroso, an amontillado for dry wines
and a PX and a Moscatel for sweet wines.

Fino: Fino is what people think of when they think of sherry. It's
clear, crisp, lower alcohol, and less oxidative than many of the other
dry styles. It's perfect for a hot Spanish day, and I suggest throwing
in one of our olives to balance it all out. We're going to carry the
finest basic in the world, Valdespino's Fino Inocente, which comes
from a single vineyard, Marchanudo, widely considered the finest
vineyard in sherry. Our Fino, Manzanilla and PX are from Valdespino,
which dates back to 1264 and is considered the standard bearer for
traditional sherry bodegas.

https://www.rarewineco.com/wholesale/producer/valdespino/

Manzanilla: Manzanilla for me is the height of Sherry. It's typically
like Fino, but it's made in Sanlucar, near the Ocean where the
humidity and slightly cooler temperature allow the flor to grow
thicker and provide more protection from oxidation, resulting in an
exceptionally fine sherry.
 Manzanilla Pasada is a type of Manzanilla that is aged longer and
when you can find it without paying an arm and a leg is almost worth
it.

Oloroso: Oloroso is sherry that is aged without flor, traditionally
because the winemaker over fortified a barrel which kills the flor,
but now this is something that is done with intention. More alcoholic
and stronger oxidative notes than Manzanilla or Fino. We have a
fantastic example from one of the few small producers in the region,
ultra-traditionalist Bodega Manuel Aragón that  owns a small 9
hectares of organic vines and makes some of the best oloroso around.

https://demaisonselections.com/portfolio-items/ma-oloroso/?portfolioCats=138

Amontillado: The most famous of the sherries due to Edgar Allen Poe
and the rarity of it when it was a happy accident. Amontillado was
traditionally a fino or a manzanilla that was aged under flor and then
for whatever reason the flor broke or dissolved, oxidizing at the
last. Nowadays this is done with control. We have what is considered
the standard for basic Amontillado, from La Cigarerra, aged about 6
years.

https://www.sherrynotes.com/2017/reviews/amontillado/amontillado-la-cigarrera/

Palo Cortado: Palo Cortado is an amontillado that is aged much longer,
coming closer to an Olooroso in strength and flavor, but somewhere in
the middle and having an almost ethereal quality, and in fact some
producers will label a wine palo cortado only in years when it seems
good enough. Rarely seen, these are some of the finest sherries
produced and almost always worth it.

PX: PX, short for Pedro Ximenez, is the main sweet wine produced in
the region. Dark brown and viscous, this is one you'll have to try for
yourself.

Moscatel: The least grown of all the sherries, Moscatel is aged like
PX but simply from a different grape. We have gotten lucky enough to
be able to pour both side by side. Ours is from Manuel Aragon.

https://demaisonselections.com/portfolio-items/ma-moscatel/?portfolioCats=138

And finally, the sherry that almost killed sherry, Cream sherry, or
Vinos Generosos de Licor. These wines, tradiationally a blend of dry
and sweet sherry but later a blend of dry sherry and cooked sweetened
grape must, were hugely popular in victorian england and up until the
1980s when sweet wines started to fall out of favor. The popularity of
these wines was such that sherry became synonymous with cheap,
industrial, sweet wine instead of the multitude of styles in the area,
a reputation it is sadly struggling to throw off. However this is
still a traditional style and there are great examples if you were to
seek them out (sadly none come to our market).

I'm going to shut up now, my head is full of nothing but sherry info,
please taste all these wines at your leisure, they are singular and
it's impossible to come to any understanding without trying them side
by side.

Until next week,

Cory