Spirits > Sherry

Advantages: Subtle delicious bitter-sweet flavour
Disadvantages: Hard to find - and has it been changed recently?

...if you'd never heard of Punt e Mes. Even most wine merchants didn't seem to have heard of it, when I looked on the net and even made a few calls to investigate prices and availability. Certainly very few stock it. It was a bit of an oddity when I first tried it thirty or forty years ago, but it has become only less well known and harder to find ever since. Punt e Mes can still be found, but probably not by simply looking on the shelves of your local ...
...What is it? * Punt e Mes is an aperitif or rather, since it is Italian rather than French, I suppose I should say aperitivo. It's intended to be drunk as a refresher before a meal, or just as a refresher; the meal is optional. It comes within the generic group known as vermouths, and probably has most in common with the red vermouths produced by the likes of Martini and Cinzano, though its colour is darker and browner than either. Like them, it ... Read review

Advantages: Delicious
Disadvantages: Not widely available

Spain put on a top class performance, this week so I thought I'd crack open a bottle of one of their top class wines. OK, with that opening sentence you're probably not expecting a sherry, but bear with me. Lustau's Almacenista Olorosa de Jerez is worth trying. It's clear and a medium amber with just a tinge of olive green on the edge. It has great legs, thick and long. The aroma is clean in a sherry-esque way. The nose is all raisins, toffee and ...
...sweet fruit cake feel. It's off dry, with a surprisingly crisp acidity. There's just a hint of tannin, drawn from the extensive wood aging, although they're very soft. It's made from Palomino grapes, probably the finer Fino variant, and from only the free run juice. It has a full body and pronounced flavour intensity. The baked fruit, figs and toffee carry through to the palate, and there's just a touch of saltiness, in a really good way. It's ... Read review

Advantages: It's divine
Disadvantages: It's not available at enough pubs!

If you're reading this thinking 'eeuwwghh - sherry', odds are you haven't tried Tio Pepe. Unfortunately sherry has a horrible reputation as a drink for funerals and visits to elderly relatives. If your view of sherry is sweet brown cough mixture served in comedy schooners then you've probably been drinking 'British fortified wine', a product made from grape concentrate and only barely fit for human consumption (a bar owner I used to work with fed ...
...up after a walk. Tio Pepe is the market leader for Fino sherry, and has been for some time. Their distributor has worked hard to reposition it as a dry white wine and its working. Sherry is produced in the Jerez region of southern Spain. Fino tends to come from the areas closest to the coast where the cool fresh sea breeze encourages 'flor', a yeast that grows on the top of the wines in barrel. It looks gross, rather like an asbestos lagging, but ... Read review

Advantages: Taste; quality is consistent and reliable
Disadvantages: Ideally served chilled

The word “sherry” is actually an English corruption of “Jerez”, the region in Spain where all Sherries come from. Originally all wines from Jerez were called Sherry, now Sherries refer to fortified wines from the Jerez region. Tio Pepe is a range of Sherries by Gonzales Byass – the largest producer of sherry in the world and still family owned: http://www.gonzalezbyass.es/ If you think you don’t like sherry, try a small glass of Tio Pepe Fino, ...
...prefer to drink my Sherry on ice, but if you keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours beforehand that’s more elegant if you are having guests over. The flavours of Tio Pepe Fino are sweet, but not sugary, and quite fresh and grassy I find, with a slight zest of apple. The mouthful is very fine and clean. Tio Pepe Fino is available at Oddbins and Majestic (around £9, 75cl bottle) Slightly cheaper (around £6.50, 75cl bottle) is Tio Pepe Elegante, ... Read review

Advantages: Mellow, rich and unique in a stylish distinct bottle
Disadvantages: Perhaps more pricey than some sherries

Harveys Bristol Cream is the world’s best selling sherry. Harveys has produced fine Spanish sherry from the Jerez region of Spain since 1796. Harveys Bristol Cream stands out from other sherries in taste and quality. Harveys Bristol Cream is a blend of three sherry types — Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso, all created from the Palomino grape – that are then sweetened with Pedro Ximénez wine. Each adds a unique flavor and textural element to the final ...
...Harveys Bristol Cream sweetness is ultimately adjusted to 13.8 - 14.2% by the addition of wine created from the sun-dried Pedro Ximénez, which adds a creamy, raisiny richness. The Bristol Blue bottle was introduced in 1996 to mark Harveys 200th anniversary. Bristol, besides being an important seaport, had become one of Britain’s centers for the manufacture of fine colored glass by the 1720s. The term "Bristol Blue" arose from the fact that Bristol ... Read review