Hero for Sherry: Book Notes
· wine · 5 min read

Sherry: Book Notes

Some interesting excerpts from “Sherry”, by Julian Jeffs.

I found the book helpful in providing more context about the history and types of Sherry while preparing for the dipWSET fortified wine module.

I personally have liked the PX style of sherry more, but not the cream or fino styles. Amontillado and Oloroso seem to be hit or miss for me. I suspect this is partially a budgetary issue, given the lack of selection available at reasonable prices in ths US.

Chaucer (13402-1400) was the son of a vintner and was famously accurate in everything he mentioned, so it appears that wines from southern Spain were already fortified when he wrote his Tales, and this is borne out by the knowledge that the Moors distilled alcohol and used it for medicinal purposes.

One of the captains from Jerez, Fernando de Trejo, was moved to write in 1498, ‘Toast the wine of the most noble and loyal Jerez, for it is a joy to the spirits, light to the eyes - a gift of God.’

[As of the 1700s] most of the sherry trade was centred in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María, less in Jerez. This followed from the unpredictable movement of shipping in those days: the boats sailed at the first favourable wind, and the wine had to be waiting at the port. The shipping bodegas of the principal houses, where mature wine was stored ready for export, were built in the coastal towns and they remained there until the middle of the nineteenth century when the railway made transport quick and easy, and steam power made shipping independent of winds.

Worst of all, merchants were forbidden to accumulate large stocks; wine was therefore not matured long enough, and trade was lost because lack of stock caused delay in preparing the blends for shipment. The idea behind this extraordinary regulation was that such wine stores would divert profits from the hands of the growers into those of merchants, and that it would encourage speculation

The sherry slump at the turn of the [20th] century was brought about by five factors working together: the dreadful imitation sherries or ‘horrible mixings’ from Hamburg and other places; the very inferior wines made in Jerez itself during the boom years; the ignorant attacks of certain doctors who claimed that the wine was ‘plastered’, ‘gouty’, ‘full of added spirit’, and ‘acid to the stomach’; the caprice of fashion; and, lastly, the plague of the phylloxera which for several years made wine growing difficult, unprofitable and heartbreaking

Sherry has generally declined significantly in popularity in recent decades, much like other fortified wines, such as Port or Madeira.

The trade of an almacenista in those days was an important one. Many shippers, even some of the largest like Williams & Humbert, preferred to limit their stocks of wine and to own no vineyards, relying on the plentiful supplies available from the almacenistas

Perhaps the greatest change of all is the rise of the boutique bodegas.This was made possible by a change in the regulations. To get a shipping licence a bodega had to hold stocks of 12,500 hectolitres, and this was reduced to 500. The almacenistas had been having a bad time, as falling demand meant that their customers, the big shippers, had enough wine of their own and decided to be self-reliant, so their market was lost. Many had wines of great age and quality. The new regulations enabled them to become shippers and small bodegas could be started up.

very occasionally there is a calamity, but the trials and tribulations of the Jerez wine growers are nothing compared to those of almost any other growing area.

A new vineyard is by no means ready to produce good wine. Any wine made in the first year is used for distillation, that of the second and third years for making mistela sweetening wines, that of the fourth year (a small crop) for cheap sherries, and then serious production begins in the fifth year.

This applies not just to sherry, but generally for most grape vines.

For this purpose it is essential to use good oak. Other woods, such as chestnut and cherry, have been tried, but without success

In the scales of a solera, where the old wine is drawn off at regular intervals and replaced with younger, the flor breeds indefinitely, and when a butt has been in position in a solera for fifty or sixty years there is a considerable accumulation of dead cells in the lees.

There is an infinite number of possible variants that may affect the wine’s growth and development. If two butts of must, pressed at the same time from grapes in the same vineyard, are stored side by side, it is quite possible that one will develop into a delicate, light fino while another becomes a dark oloroso of the coarsest type

Manzanilla can only be made in Sanlúcar: attempts to make it in the other towns have produced only some strange finos, and when casks of manzanilla are taken to Jerez, or even to El Puerto, they rapidly turn into finos. After only six or seven months they are completely spoiled

This is believed to be due to the type of yeast present

A first-class, unsweetened, straight solera wine is almost inimitable: it can rarely be matched perfectly by any other shipper, and when the full output of the solera has been sold there is no other source of supply. On the other hand, if the wine is even slightly sweetened, it can be matched very closely, and there is practically no limit to the quantity that can be supplied

Goes to show the overwhelming influence of sweetness in taste

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