Sherry (Sherry) – production, history, types, how to drink it

The production technology of both Madeira and Port wine cannot be called simple. But sherry is by far the most complex of the trinity. In its production, not only grapes, air, sun and human labor are used, but also special yeast cultures – flor, under which the wine ripens without oxygen.

Speaking of strong wines, sherry cannot be forgotten. This wine is touchy, it does not tolerate inattention. If port wine is noisy, cheerful Porthos; Madeira – sweet ladies’ man Aramis; then sherry is undoubtedly a refined Athos, with a contradictory character and an intricate, sometimes dramatic history.

It is not surprising that the legendary Count De La Fere loved this drink more than others. And not only him. Sherry was preferred by writers Cervantes, Dickens, Nabokov, Chekhov, Conan Doyle and his character Sherlock Holmes, American President Benjamin Franklin, jazzman Charlie Parker. And Pablo Picasso was so fond of knocking over glasses of wine from his native Andalusia at breakfast that a separate variety of sherry was even named after him.

“By old yeast.” How is the most famous morning wine made?

The production technology of both Madeira and Port wine cannot be called simple. But sherry is by far the most complex of the trinity. In its production, not only grapes, air, sun and human labor are used, but also special yeast cultures – flor, under which the wine ripens without oxygen.

Sherry is a regional brand. This name can officially be given to a wine created in a triangle between cities. Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa Maria и Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spanish Andalusia. Only here there is the right soil for growing grapes, only the local winemakers know the secrets of production that have been passed down from father to son for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Of course, attempts to repeat the recipe were made, and some were even quite successful. Not bad, for example, Sherry Massandra. This, of course, is not “sherry” in the full sense of the word, but in the absence of a maid, a butler will do. If you want to try refreshing cocktails with sherry, it is quite suitable for their preparation. By the way, it is at the Massandra factory that the oldest sherry bottles in the world, dating back to the beginning of the XNUMXth century, are stored.

– I’m from Siberia, I’m an orphan … But just so that I don’t feel so sick … I want sherry.

V. Erofeev “Moscow-Petushki”

But we digress. Very roughly, the production of sherry can be represented as follows:

1. At the beginning and end of September, the grape varieties Perdro Ximenes, Moscatel, Tintilla de Rota (for sweet wines), Mollar, Albillo and Perruno (for dry wines), Mantuo and Palomino Bianco (for elite varieties) are harvested.
2. The collected bunches are aged under the sun for 1-2 weeks.

Thus, the content of tannins and malic acid in grape juice is reduced, but the sugar content is increased. “Ripening” grapes are laid out on straw mats, and at night they are covered with mats of special esparto grass to protect them from dew.

3. Another secret stage of production is plastering.

The chalk soils of Albaris contain large amounts of calcium carbonate. If it is not enough, the grapes are sprinkled with dry gypsum before pressing, which contains the same substance.

4. Next, the grapes are pressed.

Now this is done by presses, and earlier specially trained workers, shod in special shoes with spikes, between which bits of vines and bones got stuck in a barrel of berries for 10-12 hours, were trampled for XNUMX-XNUMX hours.

5. Fermentation in barrels without flor lasts from 50 hours to 50 days – depending on the variety and type of wine.
6. Now flor is added to the drink – a yeast fungus of the Saccharomyces family.

Initially, the flor protected the wine and prevented it from turning into vinegar. The culture forms an airtight film on the surface, absorbs residual sugar, reduces the percentage of acids and glycerol, and increases the content of esters.

7. Mounting and classification.

After the initial aging, experienced winemakers determine what to do with the wine – send it and continue to age under the flora (this is how the elite Manzanilla and Fino varieties are obtained) or remove the bacteria and make a “simple” Oloroso or Amontillado, which is aged with air access. 96% grape alcohol comes into play. Manzanilla and Fino are fixed up to a maximum of 15.5% – so as not to kill the fungus. And in Oloroso or Amontillado, you can immediately splash brandy, bringing the drink to 17 or more degrees – here the flor is no longer needed.

8. Exposure and selection.

Fortified sherry is decanted and sent to the cellars. There, a complex blending process takes place, with the dilution of younger wines with older ones – this technology is called “solera-and-criadera”. It is impossible to accurately determine the year of birth of sherry – only the approximate average age is written on the bottles. But from year to year, the drink turns out to be approximately the same taste and quality.

The history of sherry: from the ancient Phoenicians to Commissar Mikoyan

Unlike Madeira and Port wine, sherry is an ancient drink. Since the end of the second millennium BC, wine production began near the city of Jerez de la Frontera. Grapes were brought here by the Phoenicians, as evidenced by the ancient Greek historian Strabo. The then sherry was famous for its long shelf life. True, its shelf life was extended not yet by flor, but by boiling – a barbaric, but effective way. Such “boiled” sherry was massively imported by the Romans, which clearly testifies to the refined tastes of that era.

In the XNUMXth century AD, Spain was invaded by the Moors. Terrible Othello, who professed Islam, did not drink wine, but they knew the secrets of land reclamation. The vineyards, surrounded by a skilful irrigation system, began to sprout with a vengeance. True, there was one thing in the Moorish history of Spain, pardon the pun “black spot” – Caliph Alhaken II.

It was a kind of Moorish Gorbachev, who also held a high post at the turn of the millennium. In 966, he ordered to uproot all the vineyards of Jerez: they say that grapes are an invention of Shaitan, and in general – “sobriety is the norm of life.” But local farmers quickly reminded the “reformer” that without grapes there would be no juice, no dolma, and most importantly, raisins, which the soldiers ate on campaigns.

The beginning of the reconquista finally saved the vineyards from the Moors. The Europeans, who conquered the Iberian Peninsula span by span, drank wine. Moreover, drunkenness was a symbol for them, a noble feature that distinguished the holy Christian knights from the dirty godless Arabs. “Reconquistadors” could tell modern sommeliers how to drink sherry – exclusively by barrels. Wine was given even to war horses so that they would boldly go on the attack. Alfonso X, who captured Jerez de la Frontera in 1264, first set about mass production of wine.

But it was not the Spaniards who brought world fame to sherry, but the British. Having tasted this peculiar drink, London sirs began to actively import it. True, they could not pronounce the word “Jerez”, so they called him “Sherry”. Under Henry III, the import of sherry reached such a scale that local winemakers were forced to standardize its production, establish rules for the collection and cultivation of grapes. Since 1483, cutting down vines in the region has been considered a criminal offense.

I have never had to be drunk on sherry, admitted Goranflo, it must be an unusually pleasant state.

A. Dumas “Countess de Monsoro”

A new stage in the development of sherry is the discovery of America. Magellan, going to the West Indies, took about 500 wineskins and 250 casks “on the road”. At the time of colonization, sherry, which perfectly endures road hardships and hardships, practically does not spoil, became the basis for export to the New World, taking up to a third of all cargo sent there. Sir Francis Drake became interested in such active trade. In 1587 his men attacked the city and demanded an indemnity of 3000 barrels of wine. The “farmed” kegs made a splash in London. Sherry ceased to be a royal drink, he poured into the British streets in a stormy stream, becoming the favorite wine of all the more or less wealthy Englishmen, and later of the European and American bourgeois who raised their heads.

In 1944, sherry reached our lands – its production began in the Crimea, at Massandra. True, since 1933 “Jerez” is a regional trademark that can only be produced in Andalusia. But Comrade Mikoyan, who contributed to the development of winemaking in the USSR, didn’t give a damn about it. He said – to make Massandra sherry, and they did it. Moreover, the very first harvest of 1944 is still considered the best. However, attempts to produce sherries have been made since the XNUMXth century – not only in the Crimea, but also in Moldova, Dagestan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Kuban, Odessa and Kherson regions. A lot of sherries were made in Soviet times as well.

Is it possible to compare Soviet sherries with Spanish ones? No, and here are the reasons why:

1. Grapes. In the union, any grapes were used for sherries – from rkatsiteli and kokur to chardonnay and aligote. Of the grapes grown in Andalusia, only Albillo was used.
2. Mount. According to Soviet technologies, wine was fortified not with grape distillate, but with ordinary rectified alcohol, which, of course, affected the taste.
3. Heresy. All “sherry” produced in the expanses of the former USSR was aged under flor for only a year, and then they underwent oxidized aging in barrels.
4. Finally, holding technology. Solera and criadera, traditional for true sherries and other elite wines, has not been used anywhere in the CIS and is not being used.

So, Soviet sherry, like its currently produced descendants, is a wine that is made from different grapes, brewed using a different technology, fortified in a different way and, most importantly, aged under flor in a different way.

And finally – how to drink sherry?

How to drink Massandra sherry? Of course, like this: you pull out a bottle from the parental bar, move it to the entrance, where your friends are waiting for you, and take turns from your throat, lighting a cheap cigar. Or so: in the Crimea, when the sun had almost set, and the heat subsided, from an aluminum mug, to the sounds of a guitar and the crackle of a fire.

But if you are generous with a bottle or two of real Spanish, you should at the same time think about what sips to drink it with, what kind of snack and how much to cool it.

The art of drinking sherry depends on its variety. Traditionally, the following are distinguished: Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Madium, Pale Creme, Palo Cortado, Oloroso and Pedro Jimenez.

• Fine – the most expensive sherry with a strength of about 18%. Fino is always dry, always aged exclusively under flora, without oxygen.
• Manzanilla – Fino, grown only in the city of Sanlúcar. It is even less sweet than regular fino.

Both of these sherries are wonderful aperitifs, with a nutty flavor and a fruity bouquet. This dry sherry is served very chilled, up to 5-10 degrees. Snack them with soft cheese, seafood and fish.

• Amontiljado – also dry sherry, with amber color and almond notes. They eat it with hard cheese, white meat, or, like the landlords who were not finished off by the Bolsheviks, with soup. Temperature – 10 °.
• Madium also served at 10°, it goes well with smoked meats and various pâtés and has an unusual, very bright taste for a dry wine.
• Pale Cream combined with poultry liver and fruit, it opens up perfectly at 7 degrees Celsius.
• Rђ RІRѕS, Palo Cortado differs sharply from other dry sherries. It is produced like fino, but sometimes, for mysterious reasons, the flora on the surface of the wine dies, and the wine begins to age with oxidized technology.

Palo Cortado is cooled to no more than 16 degrees. It is not recommended to eat it at all, but this drink, like a good brandy, goes well with cigar smoke. Some Russian connoisseurs recommend this drink with … dumplings!

• Oloroso – sherry, aged without the participation of flora, very fragrant, with nutty notes and golden color. It can be dessert, and dry, and semi-dry. Dry snacks are eaten with red meat, the rest are consumed as a digestif at a temperature of 16 ° C.
• Finally, Pedro Jimenez – the most famous dessert sherry, with a slightly captured raisin aroma. It is served with desserts and blue cheeses chilled to 13°. Pedro Ximenez goes well with black tea, biscuits, and goes well with our traditional “tea table”.

You are full and indifferent, and therefore have a penchant for philosophy, but I want to live, and therefore I drink sherry at dinner and smoke cigars and that’s it.

A.P. Chekhov “The Seagull”

But the appetizer and even the temperature is not the main thing. Sherry does not tolerate haste. It should be drunk in small sips – in order to better feel the growing effect, wonderful taste and aroma. Heres, like a beautiful woman, will bow down and reveal herself to an experienced, unhurried, spiritually rich lover. This is a drink of maturity, a time when you reap the benefits and draw conclusions. This is a drink of passed stages and set records. And yet – it is a drink of hope, allowing you to formulate new tasks and set new goals. Sherry is a wine that puts off death.