Good Morning!

Yes, I am feeling better and asthma can not keep me down for very long. Thanks for all the emails asking how I was feeling!

So yesterday I went to the wine shop and I was talking to a really dapper older fella who said the most fantastic gift to give at Christmas is Sherry. This caught me off guard and I had to ask more questions and learn more about Sherry. I honestly am not sure if I had ever had Sherry. My mom had a bottle of cooking Sherry in the cabinet when we were kids and my brother and I took a swig and almost died from the nasty taste of it…(it was in there for years and years).

After I educate myself on Sherry, I have to figure out why I have never given it as a gift or at least thought about giving it. An even better question is why hasn’t someone ever given it to me and of course, I have to buy some because I am not sure I have ever tasted it and I am not gonna let a chance to try a new drink pass me by!

Here is what I found out; Sherry is a fortified wine from an area of southern Spain. It is considered one of the 3 great fortified wines, the other two are Port and Madeira. Just to remind you fortified wine was originally used as a method to preserve some wines. Fortification is the addition of brandy or neutral spirit in order to boost a wine’s alcohol content, most fortified wines have an alcohol content of 17-21 percent. As well as most fortified wines are sweet because when you get a wine with a higher than 16% alcohol the yeast can not work, the yeast quits converting the natural sugar. The earlier the fortification process occurs the more residual sugar remains and the sweeter the wine.

Sherries range broadly in color, flavor and sweetness, but fundamentally only two types Fino and Oloroso. The difference between fino and oloroso is all about a particular yeast called Flor and it relates to the level of alcohol. Major difference in Fino and Oloroso is Fino develops a layer on the wine’s surface so there is no oxygenation, so it’s color is pale and it is lower in alcohol. Oloroso does not create this layer and they leave a space in the barrel so, this wine becomes oxidized and is darker and it is left in the barrels much longer than most sherries and it becomes deep gold and brownish in color and this sherry is higher in alcohol and much more expensive.

I found out that there are many versions of both the Fino and Oloroso and the quality is normally high because the Spanish use the solera system of topping off older barrels of sherry with the most recently made sherries. But the Solera System is another subject for another blog. There are many sherry-style wines made all over the world and sherries can be enjoyed before or after dinner and they are normally served chilled and really sweet sherries are served at room temperature.

That’s what I learned but why did this well dressed man at the wine shop tell me it was the best gift ever? He was obviously a salesman and he was looking at me like me like I was a rib-eye and he had not eaten in a week. I stepped up and tasted his 4 samples of sherry. Two were smooth, rich, thick and only slightly sweet and I could see why you would love this taste sensation after a meal. The other two were seriously like pancake syrup, sweet and coying and just did not make me wanna wrap up a meal with this, it made me want to make a stack of flapjacks and pour it over them. (for those of you asking about the breakfast wine options, this might be your answer)

I ended up buying four bottles of Sherry for friends for Christmas, I will let you know what they think of them after the holidays, but it is kinda nice not to be so predictable and just give everyone a bottle of bubbles during the holidays!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi