Sherry

Here are some essential sherry facts:

Location

Cadiz, Andalucia

Aged in bodegas in Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlucar de Barrameda (below)


Climate

Humid, despite low rainfall. Sunny and hot. Mediterranean.

Winds - from east (levante) hot, dry conditions; from west (poniente) cooler, more humid.

Soil

Albariza - white, water-retaining, over 60% chalk

Barros and Arenas soils are much less important, especailly in these days of reduced demand for sherry - many vines on these soils have now been grubbed up. However, Moscatel is grown in some arenas areas.

Grapes

Palomino, PX and Moscatel

Viticulture

Pruning - vara y pulgar (similar to Guyot)

Training - bush vine (en vaso) or head-pruned (trunk is trained into a knob at the top)

Yields - high - max 80hl/ha

Vinification

For Palomino, there are two distinct pathways - one for free-run juice and one for press wine. The below chart is a bit simplistic but the majority of the free-run juice will end up as fino and the majority of the press wine as oloroso-styles (i.e. matured without the influence of flor - see earlier post on flor). The relatively high fermentation temperature (28 C) is due to the fact that primary fruitiness and fermentation esters are not wanted.



For PX and Moscatel, the grapes are dried in the sun until they shrivel and become raisin-like. The high concentration of sugars means the fermentation stops naturally at about 5% abv, leaving 200-400g/l residual sugar. PX is fortified with mitad y mitad at around 54% abv and is aged oxidatively in a solera.

Styles

Fino - flor prevent the wine from oxidising; "salty", acetaldehyde nose and taste

Manzanilla - fino aged in Sanlucar de Barrameda - climate moderated by sea

Manzanilla Pasada - older than c.8 years - flor starts to die and wine oxidises

Pale Cream - fino sweetened with rectified, concentrated grape must (RCGM)

Amontillado Seco - aged first under flor (min 3 years), then oxidatively (usually by refortifying and moving to new solera, but sometimes by allowing flor to die away); "hazelnut" on palate

Blended Amontillado - sweetened using younger amontillados/fino/other

Palo Cortado - like Amontillado, aged first under flor then oxidatively; fuller-bodied; PC solera wine sometimes not under ullage

Oloroso Seco - aged oxidatively (without flor), sometimes for several decades; "walnut" on palate; although not aged under flor, may have some flor influence as flor forms on all sherry pre-fortification

Oloroso Dulce/Cream Sherry - sweetened oloroso (using PX or other)

PX and Moscatel - 15% abv, solera-aged

Trade/Legal

Bodegas de Crianza y Expedicion - shippng companies which dominate production, located in 3 main sherry towns (Jerez, Sanlucar, Puerto de Santa Maria)

VOS - average age at least 20 years old

VORS - 30 years

Also 12yo and 15yo

See also my post on fortified wine comparisons.

(Sources: WSET materials, The Oxford Companion to Wine)

Flor

1. Flor is a benevolent film-forming yeast which, in a winemaking context, can form on the top of partially-filled barrels of maturing sherry, protecting the wine from oxidising. It is typified by those yeasts native to Jerez.

2. A by-product of the action of flor yeast is the chemical acetaldeyde, which gives fino-style sherries their distinctive "salty" aroma. The presence of acetaldehyde causes the "sherry-like" nose of some unfortified wines which are made using flor or flor-like yeasts.

3. Flor feeds on glycerine, polyphenols, higher alcohols and volatile acidity.

4. It only develops in wine which is between 14.5 and 16.0% abv (and not, as per legend, due to a magical, ineffable quality in the Andalucian air). It forms on all sherry pre-fortification, so even some Oloroso Seco styles may have some flor characteristics.

5. It is used in the production of Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado and Palo Cortado. In the case of Amontillado, the yeast either die away naturally after consuming all the glycerol, gradually exposing the wine to oxygen, or the wine is moved to a different solera mid-process. Palo Cortado makes use of the second technique only and so can be fuller-bodied than Amontillado.

(Sources: WSET materials, The Oxford Companion to Wine)

Info Mine - Sherry

The Wine Mine Blagging Toolkit - 5 wine nuggets with which to impress your friends...

1. Sherry comes from the area around the Andalucian towns of Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda. Its name is an anglicanised version of Jerez (the original Arabic name of which was Sherish).

2. The British love of sherry dates back to Sir Francis Drake's sacking of Cadiz in 1587, following which he brought back nearly 3,000 barrels of sherry which had been waiting to be loaded onto Spanish ships. Many sherry producers were founded by British families and, despite declining popularity in recent years, the UK remains the largest export market for sherry.

3. Palomino is by far the most prevalent grape variety in sherry production and is used in the dry, clear sherries, Fino and Manzanilla. The other two important sherry grapes are Pedro Ximenez (also known as PX) and Moscatel. These latter two varietals can be used to make sweet sherries.

4. Following harvesting and pressing in early September, the Palomino grapes are left to ferment in stainless steel until late November. The resulting dry white wine (about 11% abv) is then fortified using destillado. The destillado is a 50:50 mixture of distilled white wine and older sherry. This fortified wine is then stored in American oak casks and aged in the solera system, which involves moving portions of the wine down through a series of barrels, for at least 3 years (see photo). The age of a sherry is given as the age of the youngest component part in the final blend.

5. In bottle, sherry will not develop further, although it can keep for ages without deteriorating. Once opened however, it will oxidise, especially at the lighter end of the spectrum (Fino and Manzanilla). So drink it quickly!

See the official sherry site here.

See a later - and more complete - post on sherry here.