Sherry Picking
One of the wine world’s most exquisite drinks is also its greatest bargain. Go figure By David Lawrason
Image credit: Brian Rea
Help save an endangered species and bring a bottle of sherry to dinner. The wine of antiquity and literature, sherry has an image problem these days, as wine drinkers often think of it as too strong or too sweet (most are actually dry) or, worse, as a stuffy old potion best saved for octogenarian aunts. What they don’t know is how great it can be: elegant, deeply nuanced and absolutely dynamite with food. Or that sherry—suffering, somewhat perversely, from deeply depressed prices—is easily the wine world’s most undervalued treasure. Earlier this year while in Jerez, Spain’s sun-soaked sherry-producing region, I tasted the sherries of Lustau, a maker of a particularly smooth, elegant style, as they were paired with food at the Palmera Plaza Hotel. The menu matched a delicate, dry Jarana fino (coming soon to Vintages) with sashimi, then rich, creamy sweetbreads with a barely sweet Los Arcos amontillado (reviewed below). For dessert, an unctuous black, raisiny San Emilio played beautifully beside a chocolate and sour orange soufflé. It was one of the most exciting meals of my life. César Saldaña, Jerez’s ambassador of sherry, met recently with chefs and sommeliers here in town, and with any luck his missionary work will manifest on wine lists—and in diners’ glasses. Who knew that saving a species could taste so good?
TEST Originally published November 2006
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