If you already love sherry, disregard the next 500 or so words of zealous waffle and get straight to uncorking the bottle in your fridge door. You are, however, a rare breed. To the likes of us, sherry remains one of the most intriguing, culturally ancient, varied and criminally underpriced styles of wine on the planet. To many others, however, particularly younger consumers, it’s seen as, well, a bit meh. It’s a wine with a bit of baggage, and lack of interest and education has typified the entire output as a sticky-sweet, treacly wine, enjoyed by grandmothers and mostly at Christmas.
So how to give sherry a sexy makeover for the modern age? Understanding how and when we might enjoy sherry is always the key to unlocking the fascination. For me, the salinity and freshness of fino and manzanilla lend themselves to start-of-a-meal drinking, in much the same way that you’d use a more complex, nutty sparkling wine. Sherry can be just as surprisingly versatile a pairing as a rich champagne, particularly with nuts and cured meats (especially Spanish ones, obviously), while the yeasty notes gained from time spent ageing under a layer of “flor” pair especially well with pizzas.
At the other end of the scale, sweet pedro ximénez and moscatel deserve to be enjoyed within the meal itself, rather than confined to the sofa, when you’re bloated and couldn’t-possibly-have-another-bit-thank-you full. They can even be a part of dessert themselves, poured over ice-cream or cheesecake, say. Medium and cream sherries, meanwhile, strike a perfect balance between bitter and sweet, so pop them in sauces to accompany high-acid, fruit-driven desserts.
And amontillado has a period of ageing under flor followed by some oxidative ageing in partially filled barrels called botas. These sherries are brown and super expressive, and often good for typically “tricky-to-pair” dishes such as asparagus, truffle and aubergine. That’s one reason I also recommend amontillado as a good “takeaway” wine, because it stands up to spice, heat and complexity. Fans of funky and layered orange wines may get a lot out of these wines, too.
And for those tricky oloroso sherries, which only undergo oxidative ageing, I’ve been enjoying the dark, nutty edge they bring to cocktails. Mix it up with some vermouth and bitters for a twist on a cocktail I enjoyed at Brooklyn’s Maison Premiere last month. The weather certainly calls for it.
Four sherries worth trying
Waitrose Fino £9.99, 15%. A textbook fino. Nutty, revitalising and (just) under £10.
Diatomists Oloroso £18.95 The Deli Society, £19.95 Jeroboams Shops, 19%. Deep and nutty, with a twist of orange, this is aged for 12 years in botas. Excellent on its own or in a cocktail.
Gonzalez Byass Viña AB 12-Year-Old Amontillado £18.99 Majestic (or £16.99 on the mix-six deal), 16.5%. An excellent 12-year-old from one of the most iconic sherry producers. Distinctive, polished and food-friendly.
Morrisons The Best Pedro Ximénez £6.50 17%. Superbly luscious and sweet, with all the classic notes of chocolate-covered raisins, dark fruit jam and figs.
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Hannah Crosbie is a wine writer and broadcaster. Her book Corker: A Deeply Unserious Wine Book, is published by Ebury Press at £16.99. To order a copy for £14.95, go to guardianbookshop.com