You may know it as Grandma’s tipple, but in its native Spain, sherry is the drink of cigar-smoking macho men. In fact, in standing-room-only tapas bars, it is the food wine of choice in all its seven styles, from the driest, briny fino to the sweetest, nuttiest pedro ximenez.
Thanks to adventurous wine geeks and passionate sherry advocates, the fortified wine is gaining buzz. It’s certainly a good time. With the globalization of wine styles, it’s more and more common for a cabernet sauvignon from Chile to taste eerily similar to a cabernet sauvignon from Napa or Australia.
But, sherry, in all its layered complexity, is distinctive and evokes a sense of place, says Kevin Hogan, wine buyer for The Spanish Table in Berkeley, Calif. “For those of us into wine, sherry has become a real revelation,” he says. “There are a lot of wines you can make in a lot of places, but sherry has retained an authenticity and genuine character.”
And, despite the sweet reputation, the majority of sherry produced in Spain is dry.
“We have finally gotten past the blue bottle,” says Hogan, referring to Harveys Bristol Cream, a style of sherry originally created for the British export market. “It reminds me of the Lancer’s reputation that first turned people off dry rose.”
In terms of sherry’s personality, another good comparison is Champagne. Both are grown in chalky, white soils amid extreme temperatures; both are best enjoyed with food and sipped from special, narrow stemware (copitas, in the case of sherry) that emphasize aromas and flavors; and both, to be blunt, are such a pain to make, it’s a wonder the traditions are still alive.
Sherry is the English word for the wines made in southwestern Jerez, along the sea in the province of Andalusia. It starts out as one or a combination of three white grape varieties – moscatel, palomino, and the sweet pedro ximenez, which are harvested, crushed and blended, then fortified with brandy to make sherry. Unlike most wines – and because of the unique way it is made – sherry has little, if any, fruit character.
Basically, the wine is progressively blended and aged in ceiling-high stacks of old barrels, known as a solera. At the very bottom is the barrel containing the oldest sherry. At the top of the solera is the sherry of the current vintage. A small amount of young wine is repeatedly drawn off and added to older wines.
Much like fine Champagne, sherry is not the product of any single vintage. Rather, it owes its complexity and unique, oxidated qualities to blending and the presence of flor, a yellow-foamed yeast that grows on the surface of the wine as it develops.
Yet, unlike Champagne or aged Burgundy, sherry is a bargain. At most wine shops, a good bottle runs $15 to $30. And because the alcohol content is higher (up to 22 percent) than traditional table wines, a little goes a long way.
“It’s one of the greatest values in the wine world,” says Sean Diggins, wine director of Gitane Restaurant & Bar in San Francisco. Gitane specializes in the Basque region, and Diggins has made it his mission to promote sherry and its versatility. He features 30 on the wine list, which can be sampled by glass or flight – and always with food.
Sherry is so food-friendly that Chicago-based restaurateurs Cathy and Tony Mantuano dedicated a chapter of their cookbook, “Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave With Wines to Match” (Potter, 2008) to sherry-loving tapas such as Saffron-Pickled Cauliflower and Falafel Crab Cakes.
Cathy, a wine expert, likes pairing the latter with a manzanilla, the bone dry, straw-colored sherry with the salty, sea flavors reminiscent of the coastal hamlet, Sanlucar de Barrameda, from which it hails. With the earthy cauliflower, she goes straight for a dry, tangy fino, the ultimate “tapas sherry.”
“Fino is easy to drink with a variety of flavors, from fried fish to cured olives and all sorts of vegetables, like roasted and fried peppers, to this Moorish-influenced dish, ” Cathy says. “It is also low in alcohol, another good reason to drink it when starting a meal.”
For people put off by sherry’s oxidated qualities, Diggins skips the dry styles and starts folks off with an amontillado, which is an off-dry, aged fino, or an oloroso, a dark, nutty, and rich sherry that is sweetened with a little pedro ximenez, a grape that doubles as a type of sherry. In Spain, most people enjoy pedro ximenez poured over ice cream, Diggins adds.
Now, that’s something everyone can enjoy, including grandma.
POMEGRANATE-GLAZED SALMON WITH MEJADRA
Serves 4 as a main course
Mejadra is a Biblical dish made with lentils, spices and, typically, rice. Cathy Mantuano suggests serving this with a Palo Cortado Viejo, Hidalgo or Palo Cortado “Peninsula” Emilio Lustau.
1/2 cup dried lentils
1/2 cup long-grain rice
Small pinch saffron threads
Sea salt, fresh black pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced jalapeno pepper
4 6-ounce skinless salmon fillets
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses
1. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the lentils and just enough water to cover by an inch to a boil. Cook until just tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. In another saucepan, bring the rice, saffron, 1 cup water and a pinch salt to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender and nearly all the liquid has been absorbed, 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
3. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger and jalapeno and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the lentils and rice to the pan, tossing to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil in a large ovenproof saute pan, preferably nonstick, over high heat. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides and, when the oil is hot, add it to the pan. Cook until the bottom has a toasted brown crust, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn over and brush the fillets with a generous amount of molasses.
5. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook until the fish is opaque throughout when prodded with the tip of a knife, about 4 minutes.
6. Divide the lentils and rice among four warm plates, top with a salmon fillet, and serve immediately.
-Cathy and Tony Mantuano, “Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match” (Clarkson Potter, 208 pp., $27.50)
SAFFRON-PICKLED CAULIFLOWER
Cathy Mantuano suggests serving this with a La Ina, Domecq.
2 cups white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sea salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads or 1/4 teaspoon powder
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Combine the vinegar, salt, sugar, shallot, garlic and saffron with two cups water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cauliflower florets and cook until crisp-tender, two minutes.
2. Take the pot off the heat and transfer the cauliflower and liquid to a nonreactive container. Season with pepper and refrigerate for at least three hours before serving. Store in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
-Cathy and Tony Mantuano, “Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match” (Clarkson Potter, 208 pp., $27.50)
SARDINAS ASADAS EN HOJAS DE PARRAS
(GRILLED SARDINES IN GRAPE LEAVES)
Serves 8 as an appetizer
Kevin Hogan suggests serving this with a San Leon Reserva de Familia Manzanilla.
8 whole fresh sardines
8 grape leaves, from a jar
4 bay leaves (fresh or dried)
1/4 cup sea salt
2 lemons, cut in wedges
1. Prepare your grill (gas or charcoal) as you normally would. Clean the sardines – remove the scales, innards and gills, but leave the heads and tails on.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the cleaned sardines, making sure to get some salt inside the fish as well as outside. Place half a bay leaf inside the belly cavity of each sardine.
3. Roll up each fish in a grape leaf (use two leaves if they are small or if the sardines are big), leaving the head and tail partly exposed.
4. Grill the wrapped fish over a hot fire for about five minutes on each side. The grape leaves will “shrink wrap” around the fish and prevent them from drying out or burning.
5. Unwrap the cooked sardines, squeeze a little lemon over the top and eat the fish, discarding the bones and the grape leaf wrapper.
-Kevin Hogan, The Spanish Table