Got together with friends last weekend in Los Angeles for a sherry tasting in which the wines were divided into three flites and paired with three courses of food, all contemporary American cuisine (made by me and a friend) in the hopes of making the twin points that not only does sherry go with food, it goes with foods other than Spanish food. Most in this group were pretty unfamiliar with sherry. That is, most don't drink it and instead associate it with sweeter style for late night drinking or the bulk cheap and dry for use in cooking. But drink it? No. Drink it with food in place of conventional wine? Never. One couple naively only brought 375's. Bob and I were pretty much the only ones who drink sherry on a fairly regularly basis and we don't do it THAT regularly, but when we do we drink it strictly as an aperitif and had never thought about pairing it with food until I read Eric Asimov's articles on sherry over the last three years. The wines were not served blind as virtually no one had any biases to worry about, and instead it was thought that by seeing/handling the bottle tasters would bond better with their favorites.
By the end of the night, with the exception of one person who reached the conclusion that she doesn't like sherry at all and never will, which is fair enough, most seemed to find the experience instructional and enjoyable. Because I was so busy in the kitchen my notes aren't very comprehensive, but it was certainly clear to me which had the kind of complexity I like.
With seared scallops on a pistachio-tarragon sauce and side salad of peas, pea leaves and soft lettuce in a hazelnut-lemon vinaigrette, this flight of finos/manzanillas, all 15% abv:
1) Bodegas Cesar Florrido Fino, from 375: flat nose, not a lot of personality. Turns out it was bottled April 2012, so fading probably explains the issue. No votes.
2) Valdespina Innocente: dead-on dry sherry nose with classic dry sherry flavor and good body, made up for in intensity what it lacked in multi-facetedness. Some votes.
3) Alexander Jules 22/85, bottled May 2013: An odd but intriguing cheesy-leesy nose segued into a very complex and interesting fino. My #1.
4) Alvear Fino from 100% pedro ximenez: super nutty, tangy, complex and fruity. Very engaging. Lighter bodied than the other previous wines, but that probably enhanced it's appeal to the neophytes. Group #1.
5) Valdespino Deliciosa Manzanilla from 375: Delicate, bright and complex. Some votes.
For the amontillado course, we served a deliberately spicy version of Shrimp & Grits, in which the shrimp were briny wild gulf shrimp and the sauce was a meaty version made with crumbled andouille sausage and tomatoes. Each serving was garnished with a bright little tangle of raw brussels sprout slaw and a coarse bright green powder of dried okra. These wines were all 18-20%.
1) Bodega dos Baco, S. L., Elite: sweet, smooth and simple. A wine more suited to dessert than food, for my tastes, and hard to appreciate next to the two drier wines in its flight.
2) Equipo Navazos No. 37 La Bota de Amontillado: my bottle and the #1 wine of NYT amontillado tasting a month or so ago, which is why I sought it out. Possibly predisposed by the bottle of same that Bob and I sipped over the week prior (one of three we tasted with different foods to calibrate our palates), but the experience in our small home sampling held up in the larger group situation: it was my #1. And revelatory, as I have never before had a sherry anything like this: pale for the amontillados in my experience, bone dry in a way that's almost severe relatively speaking but nutty and full of complex botanical elements that loved every single element on the plate.
3) Valdespina Palo Cortado Viejo C.P.: Also my contribution, and my #2 wine. I've never had this one before, and it's only the third Palo Cortado of my career so I don't have much to compare it to. The others I've had were a mind-blowing 30 year old PC I bought several years back and just some Lustaus locally available at around $20 we've had since. Based on those meager experiences and what I read in Julian Jeff's 1982 book on sherry, which I read last week, had I tasted this and the above La Bota blind, of the two I'd have guessed the Equipo to be the Palo Cortado. This was darker in color and richer/less delicate in flavor, more cooked and roasted than the bare complexities I so loved in the other. But still excellent.
As I was busy in the kitchen preparing the next course, I have no idea which of the amontillados the group preferred, but I could hear that the discussion in general was about how much they favored the finos over the amontillados.
For the Olorosos, we matched heavy for heavy with full meat course of prime grade rib eyes pan-seared in butter (two slices per plate) and homemade oxtail ravioli with a reduced sauce of beef consomme finished with a little cream and a few spoonfuls of a good basil pesto.
1) El Maestro Sierra Oloroso, from 500 ml bottle: this one whapped me with its reported 22% alcohol, it was like drinking brandy and I made no other notes about it. However it was oddly more popular with the group than the following, which I preferred:
2) Hidalgo Gobernador Oloroso Seco: Noticeably lighter at 20% alcohol, with a more open complexity similar to the amontillados. Easily my favorite.
3) Lustau East India Solera: I wouldn't have put this on the table with the other two, but I wasn't in charge of that part, so here it is. Attractive but very sweet and it should have been served later.
Two PX's went on the table for the dessert round but I detest the motor oil viscosity of PX wines and all I did was taste them in order to determine that yup, still don't like this!, and I went back to the level 2 wines for something to end the night with.
