21. Let’s Talk About Sherry!

Welcome to the Wineitupanotch Podcast, a podcast where we talk about wine, life and everything in between! 

My name is Anshu, I am your host and I am so thrilled that you've decided to spend a little bit of time with me today. Thank you for doing so. 

Welcome to Episode 21 of the podcast. We are now into the beginning of 2023 as I'm recording this, it's a blustery, cold, wintry day in January and I'm looking back on 2022 (last year) where I kicked off this podcast and recorded my first twenty episodes. And I'm just really grateful for everybody who's been listening and really so pleased to be able to continue on this journey in this new year! 

Before I get going, if you are a loyal listener of the podcast, I just want to say thank you and I really want to ask you to help me out by passing this podcast along to anybody in your network that you think would benefit from it or enjoy it. It means a lot to me when you share my work and encourage other people to listen. And obviously, the more people that listen, the more I can do with this podcast. So hit "share" or share it on your social media - I would love your support in that regard. And with that, let's get into this episode. 

At the end of last year, so if you go back to episode 20, I finished off with an overview of fortified wines and I explained in episode 20 that I was all about fortified wines at that moment in time because I was studying the topic. If you're new to the podcast or haven't listened to it for a little while, let me just remind you that I'm currently registered in the WSET Level Four Diploma in Wines program. To date, I have completed four of six units. Now, I just finished writing my fortified and sparkling wine exams and I've just found out that I've successfully passed, much to my happiness, the first two units which were on wine business and then Viticulture and Viniculture - or said differently, the practice of growing grapes and turning them into wine. 

Now, having finished my fortified wine unit, I can say that I definitely learned a ton about the category. And while the program doesn't cover every aspect of fortified wines, it does go fairly deep on a few and I want to share the knowledge that I've acquired with you. And I'm thinking I'm going to try something a little different. 

This particular episode is a high level overview for the average wine enthusiast, and I'm going to be talking to you about Sherry. So this episode is all about Sherry, and we'll get into what Sherry is, where it's made, what grapes are involved, and what some of the winemaking techniques are that are very specific to Sherry. But I will not be going into a very deep review, which would be commensurate with what I needed to know when I was in Level Three of the WSET program, or certainly what I needed to know for Level Four (WSET Diploma). What I'm planning to do is actually do another episode, which I'll release next week, which will talk a little bit more about the very nuanced details that if you're a student of wine, you need to know. Now, that episode, I intend to be definitely consumable by anybody who's interested in wine but also pitched towards a student who's trying to study. So if that's you, mark your calendar and come back for Episode 22. We will do a deeper dive on Sherry, but for today, let's do a high level overview of what Sherry is and why you should think about adding it to your repertoire if you don't drink it already, or if you do, why you want to maybe think about having some more! 

To start off, as I said, Sherry is a fortified wine. It is made in Spain, specifically in the Jerez region of southwest Spain, in the Andalusia region. In this part of Spain, they are right on the Atlantic Ocean. They're quite low in latitude, getting very close to the equator, so it is a Mediterranean climate. It's quite warm there all the time, with mild, rainy winters, but long, hot, prolonged summers. And this weather is just perfect for the production of Sherry. 

Now, Sherry can only be made and called Sherry in Andalusia. However, having said that, there are Sherry-type wines made in other places as well. Maybe you may even see them being called a certain, you know, country or region of origin Sherry. But when I'm talking about Sherry here, I'm talking about the Sherry that's made in Andalusia in Spain and more specifically in the Jerez region.

This Sherry is made primarily from the Palomino grape. Sometimes you may find Sherry that has a little bit of Pedro Jimenez, or "PX" as it's sometimes called, or Moscatel, which is basically the Muscat of Alexandria grape, if you're familiar with grapes. But those are pretty much the only three grapes that you're going to find in this region. And 95% of plantings and wines that are made are based on the Palomino grape. The Palomino grape is not a grape that is seen very often in the wine world. In other regions, it's not commonly used like a Chardonnay or Sauvignon blanc may be, which I think makes it quite special and unique. And it's a rather neutral grape, so it doesn't actually impart a lot of flavor on its own. It is also well suited to the region because it is able to handle some of the drought-like conditions that arise in the region, which makes it sort of uniquely positioned to grow well here. 

Now, Sherry has been made in this region for a very long time. There's a long history of trade and relationships between the area of Spain in which Sherry is produced and the English in particular, who have been big consumers historically of Sherry, in particular sweet Sherry. So we'll talk about styles of Sherry in a moment, but it is, I would say, an iconic drink of the country, the region and a very historic piece of history, if you will, for the region and its trade relations with the UK. 

So what makes Sherry so special? Sherry is special because of the winemaking that goes into producing this drink. As I mentioned, it's made from the Palomino grape and the Palomino grape itself is very neutral and it is the reason why it's prized. The neutrality of the grape makes it ideal for the way in which Sherry is produced. So let me tell you a little bit about this. I think it's a really fascinating story. 

There are actually two ways in which Sherry is produced. One is what's called biological aging and the other is called oxidative aging. And so those are the two broad categories of Sherry that you can find. And then there's a third category in the middle and one that I'll put off to the side. The category in the middle is wines that are both biologically aged and oxidatively aged. And then off to the side again, which I consider to be sort of an extraction of these three categories, are sweetened Sherries. These are sherries that have, in the first instance, been made as oxidatively aged, biologically aged or a combination of the two, and then sweetened after the fact. There is a small percentage of Sherry that is made as primarily just a sweet wine and I'll cover that right at the end, but it is a very small percentage of production. So in terms of styles and categories, we have biologically aged Sherry, oxidatively aged Sherry, Sherry that's been aged in both ways, Sherry that is sweetened after it's been produced and then, as I mentioned, a small category of what is made from the Pedro Jimenez grape. It's called PX Sherry and it is a naturally sweet Sherry. So what does all that mean? Essentially, one, the grape is perfect for the wine that is being made. Secondly, the conditions in the area are perfect and I'll talk a little bit about the conditions that are created in order to produce perfect Sherry. And then thirdly, there is the winemaking approach. 

So to make a Sherry, a typical wine is made - just like a regular wine. The winemaker will produce a fully dry wine and this is actually quite unique in the world of fortified wines. If you've listened to episode 20, you might recall that I talked about the fact that fortification can happen at any point in the winemaking process. Often it's done at a midpoint. So the fermentation process is actually stopped through the addition of a spirit. But in the case of Sherry, the fermentation actually happens after the fact. So a wine will be produced using the Palomino grape to full dryness. And then it is fortified. And it will be fortified to different levels depending on what they think they want to do from an aging perspective. 

If the winemaker feels that they wish to perform biological aging on the wine, they will fortify that wine up to 15 to 15.5%. And if they believe that they want to oxidatively age the wine, they will fortify it up to about 18%. So there are differences in the amount of alcohol by volume in Sherry depending on how it has been aged. And there's a reason for that. 

The reason for fortifying biologically aged wines, or wines that are intended for biological aging up to 15 to 15.5% (which may seem high when you think about regular table wines but actually, in the context of fortified wines, is considered to be a low level of alcohol) is to ensure that a certain type of yeast is able to grow on top of the wine. And this yeast is called flor. It's a really funky, interesting yeast that is found on the skins of the grapes in the region of Jerez, which makes it very special. It's also found in the wineries. And the winemakers will create certain conditions to ensure that it thrives and grows. But it cannot survive in extremely high alcohol environments. It needs alcohol in order to be able to reproduce and create all of the fun characteristics that it does in a Sherry wine but too much alcohol will kill it off. So that is the reason for fortifying to about 15 to 15.5% and then waiting patiently to see this flor development. And essentially this yeast will start to multiply, reproduce and create a thick layer on top of the wine. It's really funky to see if, if you can find a picture of it, it's really interesting. It's like a very thick layer on top of the wine. And it essentially is like a blanket which prevents any oxygen from hitting the wine. So the wine is done, it's been made, but now it is aging in a barrel under this thick blanket of yeast. 

And so it starts to take on these really interesting characteristics that are very different from what you would detect in a typical table wine. These wines are not fruity in the first instance at all. They are definitely more complex and layered and nuanced. The flor actually imparts its own characteristic, which is called acetaldehyde. It's actually a chemical compound which gives it sort of a nutty, bruised apple flavor. You can actually get some lemon on these wines as well, but primarily, you're going to get these like bruised apple notes. Even if it's lemon that you detect, it's kind of a bruised lemony note. They also tend to be salty and briny, kind of like olive brine, if you will. 

Sometimes they have a really beautiful herbaceous character and I would definitely describe them as being complex. They're not necessarily friendly and fruity and gluggable. They're, to me, more intellectual wines - wines that demand more from you and ask you to really think about them. And I can see in my mind, in the “olden days” if you will, hundreds of years ago, scholarly people sitting around with a small glass of Sherry and having long conversations as they sip slowly over the Sherry. That's the sort of wine that we're talking about here, whether it be biologically aged or oxidatively aged. 

But certainly the biologically aged ones, they have a really interesting character. They're still fresh because they have not been exposed to oxygen- it's just that they're not fruity in the first instance. Instead, they tend to have a fresh sort of herbaceous, complex character. 

For oxidatively aged wines, it's quite the opposite. The winemaker does not want the flor. They want to produce a fortified wine that feels as if it's been highly oxidized, in other words, very exposed to oxygen. So they actually will do everything they can to ensure that the flor does not grow and in fact, the wine is exposed to oxygen. And there's a range of ways in which that's done. 

(Now, the thing to know about oxidatively aged wines and biologically aged wines, and the wines that are done in both ways is that the aging system is very unique. It's called a fractional blending system. These wines are aged in a solera. I'll come back to that in a moment, but I just want to plant that seed now, because that also makes these wines quite unique.) 

So in an oxidatively aged Sherry, you will find extremely nutty, bitter chocolate, dark coffee grind, almost caramel notes, because the wine has seen so much contact with oxygen. And if there's any fruit, it's going to be a very dried fruit character. But sometimes it's almost impossible to even detect a lot of fruit notes on these wines. 

Now, let me give you the names of what these wines are called, because I'm telling you that they're different wines. They actually have different names as well. So if a wine that is a Sherry is biologically aged, it is called either a Fino or Manzanilla Sherry. Fino is a more common term whereas Manzanilla is slightly more particular in that the grapes and the winemaking has to have happened in a smaller region. And if they are purely oxidatively aged, they are called Oloroso Sherries. So if you're looking at a label or you're at a restaurant looking at a menu, that's how you can tell if you're going to be getting fresh herbaceous, biologically aged Sherry or you're going to be getting an oxidative, very complex aged feeling Sherry - they have completely different characteristics - and that would be called an Oloroso. 

And I mentioned there's something in the middle. So the ones in the middle are called Amontillado and Palo Cortado. There is a slight difference between an Amontillado and a Palo Cortado in terms of the way that they are produced. But for this particular episode, I won't get into that. What I will tell you though is that in the instance of these two categories, these wines have first been aged under flor, so they've been biologically aged. Then the winemaker stops that aging process by fortifying, or I should say refortifying the wine from 15 to 15.5% up to 18% to kill off the flor, and then they move them into an aging system that allows them to be aged oxidatively for a period of time. So you get both characteristics in these wines, and actually, they happen to be one of my favorite categories when it comes to Sherry, because you get both those biologically aged characteristics and you also get the oxidatively aged characteristics! 

And one thing I forgot to mention that I really should go back to is the fact that in biologically aged wines, you will not only get bruised apple characteristics, but you also get a lot of bready doughy yeasty character. Because the wine has spent time directly in contact with the flor yeast, and as the yeast die off they're called lees. They sit in the barrel and that really imparts that bready doughy character - again, adding to that complexity, it's almost like you're eating a meal, some sort of like a sandwich or bread with olives when you're having Fino Sherry, in my mind. So they're beautiful wines, they're super interesting. And they're not terribly expensive, I find, for what they are. So they can really actually represent fantastic value. And to me, whether you're talking Palo Cortado and Amontillado (so wines that are aged both biologically and oxidatively), or you're talking about Olorosos (which are purely aged oxidatively), or you're talking about Fino and Manzanilla (which are the wines that are aged biologically), to me, these wines make beautiful aperitif wines, as I mentioned. For me, they're very intellectual wines and I don't feel that I need to have food with them. They just are great sippers as you are having a conversation, reading a book, watching TV indoors on a day like today, where it's really cold and dreary outside, they're just perfect for that. And they're consumed actually very readily in tapas bars all over Spain, and in particular in the area of Jerez as snacking wines - if you will, as “pre-meal” wines. 

But having said that, you can enjoy them with your food as well. I think in particular, if I were to be wanting to pair a Fino or a Manzanilla with food, I would be looking to seafood. I think that the salinity in the wines would make a great pairing for a seafood based dishes, especially something that is steamed or baked or a little bit more simple. And if I'm moving into the Palo Cortados and Olorosos, I think they can stand up against meat. So I could see having an Oloroso with a piece of dark meat, I think that could make a really interesting combination. Or a palo cortado or an Amantillado with a stew…. I think that could be really interesting as well. 

Now, mind you, these wines are typically extremely dry, so that's one thing to keep in mind. They're considered to be bone dry amongst the driest wines that you can find in the wine world. So that's to be kept in mind, I think, as you're thinking about food pairings, because that dry a wine will not necessarily go with absolutely everything. So you do have to keep that in mind. And these wines can tend to have - especially the ones that are biologically aged - they can have a little bit of a weight in the mouth, which is impressive. I think it's got some depth. So again, that should be taken into consideration when pairing with food. 

Now, I mentioned that there is another category which are sweetened wines. In the case of sweetened wines, essentially there are three types. In terms of what they're called, there's a pale cream, a medium cream and a cream. So you'll see Sherry and then you'll either see pale cream, medium cream or cream. And that is not necessarily differentiating in terms of sweetness levels. It's actually differentiating in terms of how the wine was aged prior to being sweetened. 

In the case of pale cream, those are wines that have been biologically aged. So it's a Fino or it's a Manzanilla that has then been sweetened often with concentrated grape syrup, which is called rectified concentrated grape must, or they might be sweetened with a little bit of wine that's made from Pedro Jimenez or PX ie, the other grape that I earlier said is sometimes turned into a sweet wine. Often, though, these wines have been actually sweetened with a grape syrup, if you will, called RCGM or rectified concentrated grape must. 

Then we have medium cream and cream. Medium cream is easy to remember, because if you think medium is in the middle of a biologically aged and an oxidatively aged wine, in other words, both. This is either an Amontillado or a Palo Cortado that's been sweetened (most often it's an Amontillado) and these wines are often sweetened with wine that's made from Pedro Jimenez. 

And then lastly, we have cream cherries. These are oxidatively aged wines that are then sweetened after the fact, most often with Pedro Jimenez. 

These are your main sweetened Sherries. And then I mentioned right at the end, there is this last smaller category, but no less delicious Sherry wines that are made from the Pedro Jiminez grape. And they're made entirely differently. The Pedro Jiminez grape is actually very prone to accumulating sugar quickly, and so it is left out to dry in the sun and then turned into a sweet fortified wine. These wines are dense, they're thick, they kind of remind you of maple syrup. They sometimes have a little bit of a licorice flavor to them, but a lot of sort of chocolate and, you know, syrupy notes. And they're very much prized for drinking with dessert. And a lot of people love them on vanilla ice cream in particular.  They usually come in a smaller bottle because they're so sweet so if you find one, you could buy one and enjoy it as part of a meal at the end of the meal, or even, I would say, as part of a brunch. I think it would be really lovely! 

So let's just review quickly the types of Sherries one more time. So, in terms of Sherry that has been biologically aged, we have Fino and Manzanilla, if you want to take note of those names. In terms of wines that have been oxidatively aged -so the complete opposite of biological aging - we have Olorosos, and then down the middle we have wines that are both biologically and oxidatively aged, and those are either called Amontillado or Palo Cortado. There is a little bit of a difference between a Palo Cortado and an Amontillado, but generally for the average consumer, you can't tell the difference. You also then have a category of sweetened cherry, which will either be a pale cream, a medium cream or a cream Sherry. And then finally there is a fully sweetened Sherry that was produced to be a sweet wine, never made as a dry wine and then fortified thereafter, always a sweet wine. And that is made from the Pedro Jimenez grape, often called PX. 

So you can see the world of Sherry is quite broad and there's lots of opportunities to dabble and try different things and sort of get off the beaten track of the wine world if you want to try something new!! 

I want to also just address for a moment the other unique aspect of these wines and how they're made, which is the environment in which they're made and then the aging system. So let's talk about the environment for a moment. The conditions that are necessary for the flor to grow and thrive are very particular. And what's really interesting (and what I would love to see one day - I'm dying to get to this region, and I hope to do it sometime soon!) is that the bodegas where these wines are aged are treated and created in a very specific way to ensure that there is good humidity and that the conditions are constant throughout the year and relatively warm so that the flor can survive and thrive and remain thick and constant through the year. So they do things like create bodegas with very thick walls. They have windows that they position in certain ways with shades to cover the sun, but open all the same to let the wind in so that the humidity can accumulate. They will wet the floors - often these are dirt floors - so they'll wet the floors of the bodegas to create a humid environment. And this is all to protect and encourage the thriving of this much prized flor. It's sort of the pride of the region which I think is really, really cool and distinctive and interesting. 

And then the second part of the conditions in which Sherry is made is this fractional blending system system which is known as a solera system. So to put it quite simply, this is a system of barrels that has different ages of wines in it by level. So there's a base level and then there'll be a first level, second level, third level, and that can go all the way up. The highest number of level, which is called a “criadera” in the system, has the youngest wine in it, whereas the lowest level, which is actually called the solera level (although the system as a whole is also called the solera), yhat solera level has the oldest wine in it. 

And essentially they have a system of adding new wine as they produce it every year to the top, and then flowing that down in a fractional, blending way all the way down to the bottom to ensure that the bottom row, or the solera, essentially has the oldest wines, but it's made up of the combination of years prior. So every step in the solera system is actually made up of a blend of all the years prior and its own year, except the very top, which is the youngest wine. 

The whole solera system is fascinating, and I'm definitely simplifying it here to give you a little bit of a visual picture, because it can span multiple warehouses, different rooms, it's not necessarily as clean as barrels in rows stacked on each other, but that is the general idea and the basic framework of how a solera system works. And what makes it so interesting is you're essentially - every time you're drinking a Sherry - drinking a combination of blended wine from multiple years, what we would consider to be a non-vintage wine, so it is not specific to a particular year, kind of like getting a snapshot of history, if you will, over a period of time. 

Your better quality producers will have bigger solera systems with more wines that they're blending. But some of your smaller producers or producers that are producing in high quantities may not be using as much older wine or blending as much. Because either they're trying to get the wine out faster and they want it to be young because they're producing in mass quantities or they just don't have the financial resources to create these massive solar systems. But generally, everybody follows that same process of fractional blending, which again, is relatively unique to this region. Certain other parts of the world have taken on this concept of a solera system. In fact, there are some champagne producers that use solera systems as well. But whenever you hear that term solera, it is definitely indigenous to and very well associated with the Sherry region, and one of those factors that makes it very cool. 

So there you have it. There's a little bit of an overview about Sherry. There's quite a bit to know in the world of Sherry, but today we did cover where it's made, what grapes are used, what makes it special in terms of winemaking techniques and the environment in which it's made, and the fractional blending system that's used to produce Sherry. And we also talked about the various styles that, as a consumer, you can find of Sherry and why they may produce different outcomes for you on the palate as you're drinking them and also, what you might consider pairing them with. 

So hopefully that gives you a good overview of this category. If you're a student of wine, this could be a great bird's eye view episode to get yourself started on going deeper into your studies or if you've studied the topic before, a nice overview to remind you or refresh you on the topic. And don't forget, next week I will release a deeper dive on the topic of Sherry that is aligned to the materials that you need to know if you are a student of the WSET program. WE’ll be going a little bit more into detail on the nuances of the climate, the growing environment, the winemaking techniques, the aging techniques and even some of the characteristics of the wine, all of this more aligned to what a student of wine who is about to write an exam would need to know. So if you're interested in that, please come back for that episode. 

And as always, I wish you lots of peace, love, light and great wine. Until next time, take care! 

Thank you for listening to the Wind it up a Notch podcast. I hope you're enjoying the podcast thus far. Be sure to hit subscribe to be notified of future episodes, or leave a review to let me know what you think. Take care.