WTN: #SundaySherrySunday

So . . . to better understand and appreciate a style of wine that I've always found appealing, I've started a new routine in my week tagged #SundaySherrySunday. Just trying different sherries that are available to me and using them as vehicles to better understand these fascinating wines. A blog post and a couple of articles by Eric Asimov of the New York Times provided a great primer and made me quite thirsty to understand more.

To start of the journey I headed over to The Spanish Table in Berkeley and chatted with Gerhard who is an incredible wealth of information. The selection of sherries at The Spanish Table makes it clear just how much I have to learn and how much fun I will have doing so!

For my first bottle to inaugurate #SundaySherrySunday, went with a fino, specifically the Valdespino Inocente from the Macharnudo Vineyard. As I'm unfamiliar with pretty much all of the sherryworld, I did some sleuthing around on the internet and it appears that Valdespino has a historic sherry bodega that supplied the Spanish royals and was acquired by José Estévez in 1999. Crush has a very interesting assessment of the bodega since the Estévez acquisition that highlights that despite moving the sherry production to an updated facility, they are the only bodega that continues to ferment their sherry in American oak--the traditional method before stainless steel tanks became popular.

Now, due to my sherry ignorance, I must type that all of this was unknown to me, but what caught my eye and Gerhard highlighted for me was the fact that this is a single-vineyard sherry, something pretty much unheard of as I understand it (though I'm sure Victor de la Serna will correct me if I'm wrong!). Macharnudo is a higher altitude vineyard (something I always seem to love, no matter what style of wine). There's plenty of debate out there about terroir and sherry that requires more experienced palates than mine (like Peter Liem and BrooklynGuy) [I highly recommend the post by BrooklynGuy with the great Peter Liem quotes for a mighty useful quick introduction.] According to said post, the Macharnudo Alto vineyard is a single plot within the Macharnudo pago of which Valdespino owns only a portion, but has been bottling single-vineyard sherries from there since the mid-nineteenth century.

In addition to the single-vineyard provenance, Gerhard at The Spanish Table mentioned that Valdespino leaves the wine to develop in the solera system much longer than is typical for the fino style . . . internet sources seem to indicate 10 years for Valdespino versus less than half that for a typical fino.

Suffice to say there's a quite a bit for me to digest on what makes the wine distinctive, even within the already distinctive world of sherry!

What did I think of it? It appears a light clear gold with a beautiful blonde hue. The aromatics are absolutely crazy and made me think of sour beer, but in a wonderful parallel universe: crazy hay, glue, wafting and strong but utterly beautiful, and olives, lots of olives. The taste, especially the intro is sooooo much softer than the nose, gentle and guiding toward a very settled core. I was actually surprised by how rich it was in the midpalate which is something I am not used to with my limited fino experience and in particular with the contrast with both the intro and finish of this wine itself. The body to the wine is serious, but it enters silently and leaves without a trace. Utterly phenomenal. If this was the only sherry I drink for the rest of my days, I'd have to say I would not be an unhappy man. But it's only the last sherry until next #SundaySherrySunday !

...it enters silently and leaves without a trace.

Nice note. Although I'm guessing the alcohol left a bit of a trace? That has always been my stumbling block with Sherry. That, and the fact that I barely have time to explore the other styles/regions I'm already into.

Thanks for that note, Keith. IMO sherry must be a strong candidate for being the world's most underrated wine type and is due for a revival. I must however confess to not playing my modest part in bringing that about as I drink it very rarely nowadays. The problem is finding a suitable pairing; we don't eat much tapas for which Fino and Manzanilla styles seem ideal and I hesitate to bring out dry Oloroso or Palo Cortado with strong meat and game even though some people say that it is superb; they could be good with some cheeses but I haven't done much experimenting. The sweeter styles suffer from the same pairing drawbacks as table wines with RS.

The other problem is that sherry is so strong that the two of us wouldn't want to empty a bottle at a sitting, which we often do with French, if not most Spanish, table wine. In my experience Fino gets as rapidly stale after opening as a table wine but the heavier styles are more resistant.

Sherry was not always underrated. When I was young in the UK in the 50s, it was almost ubiquitous as an aperitif wine for consumption on empty stomachs or, at best, with nibbles such as almonds. Its image was, however, staid and its taste often not too good as it was usually badly mistreated, being left out at room temperature in decanters for many months. Just occasionally one was lucky enough to get a taste from a bottle fresh from the cellar. Gin and its derivative cocktails were considered more racy and to be truthful they were much pleasanter in taste than mishandled sherry.

It is still a good aperitif but people seem to drink these quite rarely nowadays; fortunately, when they do, it is with more substantial nibbles.

Although I'm guessing the alcohol left a bit of a trace? That has always been my stumbling block with Sherry.

For me, no, there was nothing about the experience with this wine that would suggest that it was 15%. It wasn't a quaffing wine for sure, but it was quite moreish. It will be interesting to see how this experience compares as I explore further. That being typed, a 375ml bottle was the perfect size (and indeed the fact that so many amazing sherries are available in that format suggested sherry as an ideal avenue of exploration for me, as my schedule makes opening 750ml bottles of wine a bit of a challenge).

The problem is finding a suitable pairing; we don't eat much tapas for which Fino and Manzanilla styles seem ideal and I hesitate to bring out dry Oloroso or Palo Cortado with strong meat and game even though some people say that it is superb; they could be good with some cheeses but I haven't done much experimenting.

Indeed, tapas and fino has to be one of the most stellar wine pairings I've yet experienced. And I don't imagine anything I'm planning to cook will be an ideal match for sherry, but I'll pass along any epiphenomenal discoveries.

I've been reading more backposts on Brooklynguy's blog . . . very interesting indeed to read about his experiences with having bottle-aged Inocente--sounds like quite another variable to add into the mix!

... there was nothing about the experience with this wine that would suggest that it was 15%. It wasn't a quaffing wine for sure, but it was quite moreish. It will be interesting to see how this experience compares as I explore further. That being typed, a 375ml bottle was the perfect size (and indeed the fact that so many amazing sherries are available in that format suggested sherry as an ideal avenue of exploration for me, as my schedule makes opening 750ml bottles of wine a bit of a challenge)

Fair enough. I suppose 15% in a 375 is certainly easier on the system than many of these 13-14% wines that are so common in a 750.

I just have memories of drinking sherries from 750s that were very moreish and easy to quaff, but with much hiding underneath to punish the quick drinker! That said, it is obviously an under-explored category for many folks and can offer great value.