NEED A BREAK FROM WHITE AND RED? TRY A DRY SHERRY
While it might be a shock to the palate at first, xeres-style wines — a.k.a. sherries — are quite exceptional
As rosé has become more widely accepted as a legitimate table wine rather than that halfway wine to be drunk as an apéritif when you want a break from white or red, it’s time to champion another unfairly marginalized wine style. My vote goes to xeres, or sherry for you of English descent.
Why? In the somewhat baffling move by consumers toward sweeter red wines, I have noticed that people want drier and drier whites. I don’t know why, because white wines hold their sweetness much better than reds. But that is a question for another day.
While xeres comes in all sorts of styles, including very sweet wines, no wine is drier than a fino. Light bodied, delicate aromatics and with lots of complexity, it is one of my go-to wines when the sun is out, and I want to snack on such things as nuts, chips and olives. It is also one of the best things to drink with sardines, ham and lighter cheeses.
The reason for the dryness is because of how it is made. Xeres comes from the “Xeres triangle,” a coastal area in southern Spain in the region of Andalusia. The grape used in making dry sherry is called palomino. Once the harvest is done, the best wines are chosen to undergo a special aging process called “biological aging.”
After fermentation, the wine is fortified to 15.5 per cent and put in barrels. A thin, yeasty film called a “flor” forms on top of the wine. This film protects the wine from oxygen, as well as adding complexity with aromatics of almonds, spice, bread and white flowers. While there is no residual sugar in the wine, this biological aging also feeds on the glycerol in the wine, which would normally bring a sensation of sweetness to the palate. The resulting effect is making the wine seem even drier.
After two years under the flor, the wine is classified as a fino. One variation on the fino is the manzanilla, which is a fino made in the coastal town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The humidity makes the flor a touch thicker and the result is an even more delicate fino, with a characteristic salty note.
Understanding the complex family of xeres takes practice, but essentially the wines aged under flor are all dry.
So fino and manzanilla are dry and fresh, while another style, amontillado, is a fino that spends eight to 10 years under flor, and then, as the flor breaks down, it comes into contact with oxygen. This process adds extra nuttiness, caramel notes and texture to the wine.
The last dry style is called a palo cortado. It is a result of a fino that loses its flor quite early in the aging process, and thus undergoes extended oxidation. Think of it as a super amontillado.
While it might be a shock to the palate at first, the wines are exceptional. Try the Tio Pepe Extra Dry, Lustau’s Fino del Puerto, La Guita’s Manzanilla and, for a treat’ Lustau’s Palo Cortado. Most of the bottles are under $20, so they’re a relatively inexpensive way for you to try something new. twitter.com/BillZacharkiw facebook.com/ billzacharkiwwine You can hear Bill Zacharkiw pair wine with rock on CHOM-FM (97.7) Fridays at 7:45 a.m.