It would be difficult to conjur up an image more completely English than that of the lord of the manor and his guests seated in an oak panelled library after dinner, there sipping glasses of old Sherry wine and looking forward to the fox hunt that has been scheduled for the next morning. So much have these wines been a part of the upper-class English way of life since the 17th century that most Englishmen would be shocked to learn that their own nation produces not a single drop of it. They would be equally dismayed to know that the Spanish, the great masters of producing these wines, consider the English fox-hunt a barbaric phenomenon.

There is nothing barbaric about good Sherry. With a pedigree that goes back further than even the most snobbish of Englishmen can trace their ancestry, sherry is one of the world's oldest wines and has been made in the Spanish region of Jerez since ancient Phoenician settlers introduced grape vines to the area.

In addition to being fortified, the best Sherry wines are blended by the Solera method that involves mixing young wines with those that have been aged for eighty or more years. In order to be called Sherry, wines must age in the barrel for at least three years. The very best wines can be aged up to 30 years before they are released. At its best, one of the great wines of the world, Sherry is indispensable to the Spanish character. It is a wine versatile enough that it makes an ideal accompaniment to tapas (the appetizers that Spaniards so love) or desserts and makes marvelous sipping after dinner. It is also a superb wine for cooking.

Even though Sherry takes many forms, from bone dry to syrupy sweet, there are basically only four kinds of this wine. Fino is the aristocrat of the family, pale in color and so dry that those who usually consider Sherry a sweet beverage are surprised when they first sample it. Manzanilla is a lighter variety of fino, also extremely dry but with a unique salty tang. The rich Amontillado can range in color from pale almond to almost amber (as sherries get sweeter, their color gets darker); and Oloroso which means "fragrant" is a deep amber color and sweet enough to be thought of exclusively as a dessert wine. Cream sherry, which is actually a sweetened form of oloroso, is slightly thick and syrupy, deeper in color and even sweeter than the oloroso. At their best, cream sherries can be delicious. At their worst they can be cloyingly sweet and far too much like syrup.

Event though many Englishmen drink Sherry at room temperature, I concur with most Spaniards that this wine is best when lightly chilled, almost as you would chill a white wine. As to food combinations, sherry is at its best with appetizers of nearly any kind and with many egg dishes. Perhaps a bit more outside the rules of the game, but much to my personal liking are combinations such as Amontillado sherry with cream soups and dry sherry with oily fish.

Brandy From Sherry

Produced by Pedro Domecq, Fundador is one of the best selling brandies in Europe. For many years the label categorized the brandy as "Cognac". Considering that the brandy is made from distilled Sherry wine and does not originate in the Cognac region of France, this was an unnecessary trick to try to improve the image of the beverage. The truth is that the gimmick was rather silly, for although this Spanish brandy lacks the greatness of the best Cognac, Armagnac or Calvados, it is rich in flavor, has a very attractive bouquet and is remarkably smooth. local markets and is worth trying. One should, however, keep in mind that the very best Spanish brandy is Domecq's lush and delicious Carlos Primero.

© Daniel Rogov