Jerez Your Sherry Wine

To know what Sherry wine is you have to understand what a fortified wine is. To transform a regular wine into a fortified wine grape spirits or Brandy is added to the fermenting juice to stop sugars at a certain point from converting to alcohol. Sherry is one of those wines where grape spirits is added to stop this process. After the Sherry achieves its proper alcohol levels it is tested for quality and separated into two types of Sherry: Fino and Oloroso. Each of these types of Sherry have further classifications.

The wine grapes used in the production of Sherry are: the Palomino grape which is the base wine for all Sherry, the Pedro Ximenez, which is used as a sweetening agent and the Moscatel grape which provides color. Sherries are classified into two groups depending on the quality of the juice after fermentation. The higher quality juice is put into the Fino category. Everything else is put into the Oloroso category.

The best of the best juice is made into Fino Sherry and is made exclusively from Palomino grapes. The process involved in fermentation, the affect of yeasts on the juice delivers the nutty qualities to the Sherry. Controlled oxidation is another factor determining a Fino’s characteristics: a taste similar to roasted almonds.

Not quite a Fino as it is aged differently, Manzanilla Sherry still falls into the Fino category. It sees direct but limited exposure to oxygen and because the area where it is produced lies near the ocean, Manzanilla has a bit of a salty character along with its traditional almond flavor.

The final Fino types of Sherry are the Amontillado Sherries. Almost in a category by itself Amontillado Sherry sees direct exposure to the air and sun for extended periods of time. This darkens the juice and concentrates flavors to the maderized character of roasted hazelnuts. Sun-dried Palomino grapes are sometimes used as a sweetening agent while pure sugar can be used in other instances.

Oloroso Sherry are like we said, made from lesser quality juice than Fino Sherries. There is nothing wrong with these types of Sherry of course. The simple reason for the distinction is that Finos are made from free-run juice and Olorosos are made from pressed juice.

Oloroso Sherry is aged purely through oxidation which means that the direct exposure to the air ages it faster. Oloroso Sherry is always sweet. It has a dark brown color increasing its alcohol level, body weight and aroma. The taste of Oloroso Sherry is toasted pecans.

A rare style of Sherry is the Palo-Cortado. It has all the aromas of an Amontillado but doesn’t go through the same process of yeast contact. On the other hand its colors and flavors are similar to Oloroso Sherry. It can be categorized in the middle of Fino and Oloroso but because of its unstable nature it eventually falls into the Oloroso style.