Forget politics: if you want real fake news, see every article that has appeared in the past two decades trumpeting the great British sherry revival – I should know, I’ve written a fair few of them myself. Wine geeks can wax as lyrical as they like about the complexity and variety of this Spanish fortified wine but, to Joe Public, sherry remains the dusty bottle that come out once a year for the Christmas trifle; God forbid anyone actually drinks any.
For all our efforts, overall sales have been in freefall in recent years, down half between 2005 and 2015 – but, finally, there is light on the horizon. Majestic Wines has released figures showing the sales of fortified wine in the year-to-date are up a remarkable 41%, mostly thanks to a trend for “dry, more elegant styles” among what it describes as “the hipster generation”.
If you too would like to pass as a hipster – and, let’s face it, who wouldn’t – cultivating a taste for sherry is much quicker, and more enjoyable, than growing a big bushy beard. Sherry comes in three main styles: dry (fino and its slightly saltier cousin manzanilla), medium (nutty amontillado and richer oloroso) and sweet (cream and pedro ximénez, as sticky and luscious as liquid raisins). To make things more confusing, medium sherries come in both dry and “medium”, or “dulce” styles.
Fortunately, the Guardian’s wine critic Fiona Beckett reckons “there honestly isn’t that much bad sherry out there”, and it is reasonably priced, too: as bartender and Twitter user @scofflawconor observes, the “great thing about sherry is you can take a punt on most things and it will rarely break the bank”.
Indeed, supermarket premium own brands tend to be very decent: Beckett recommends investing in half bottles (M&S, Morrisons and Waitrose are all tipped by the experts) to find out what you like. If crisp and dry floats your boat, try a well chilled Tio Pepe fino or La Gitana manzanilla (both widely available) with olives, nuts, or tapas. You can also dilute with lemonade to make a rebujito (which virtually counts as a soft drink in Andalusia). Medium sherries can take bigger food – cheese, mushrooms, meat – while PX and cream sherries are perfect with puddings.
The occasionally baffling variety of styles also makes sherry a very versatile ingredient in cocktails: Bartender and author Jim Meehan created a rich negroni made with Lustau East India sweet sherry instead of vermouth during his time at celebrated New York cocktail bar PDT, while punchy fino sours are relatively common in high-end tapas bars.
Whether cool sherry is here to stay, or is destined to go the way of public knitting and trucker caps, remains to be seen, but if hipsters do save sherry in this country, then I for one will raise an ironic jam jar to them.
