Sherry is back!

Tapas and sherry make a wonderful pair

It's Christmas time. You've just opened your presents and mum's preparing the dinner. As traditional as the turkey with stuffing so too was cake with a glass of Bristol Cream Sherry. We all tried a taste and vowed we'd never touch such foul tasting brew again.

Jump back to the future to 2014 and there are sherry bars opening up across the country. Yes, sherry! The good news is this isn't the cream and pale sherry that our parents drank but the traditional dry Jerez Spanish sherry.

When sherry was first shipped to these shores, we deemed it too dry for the British palette and so sweeteners were added. This is a far cry from traditional sherry.

So why is it making such a comeback?

Simple, our recent love affair with tapas. One of the reasons for sherry's popularity in Spain is that tapas is almost impossible to match with wine. There are a multitude of tapas dishes from chorizo in red wine sauce; prawns in garlic butter; Serrano ham and olives to name but a few. Each dish has it's own very distinct flavour. The only way to pair a wine would be to do it by each individual dish. This would however have ended up with Spain being the most inebriated country in the world.

The solution was sherry.

The making of sherry is fascinating but complex and are matured in oak. There are a number of types but my recommendation are Fino and Olorosso. Both are dry but fino has spent most of its maturation under a layer of 'flor' yeast which gives a sweeter tangy and even salty taste (more so if it derives from Manzanilla area on the coast). Oloroso has a has slightly higher alcohol and is matured without yeast in oak barrels giving a lovely tawny colour with notes of caramel, oak, spice and nuts

Both are perfect with tapas as they are dry and compliment most tapas. Fino is particularly suited to seafood and fish dishes and Oloroso with darker meats.

If you've ever wanted to try a true Spanish experience then tapas and sherry make a wonderful pair.

Food & Wine by Paul Sheerin
Pshearse@gmail.com