Where does Lustau Sherry come from?

Lustau Sherry is produced in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, by leading producer Emilio Lustau. The origins of Emilio Lustau date back to 1896 when the winery was established by one Don José Ruiz-Berdejo. The Don’s wine estate, Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, was located on the outskirts of Jerez de la Frontera and was the basis for the wines now known as Lustau Sherry.

3 Lustau Sherry products you’re going to want to try

When we say “products”, these are Sherry wines and Jerez brandies. Both categories share grapes as their raw material. The Lustau Sherry wines are fortified during fermentation, while the brandies are distilled to a considerably higher alcohol content. Whether you’re in the mood for a fortified wine or something even stronger, we’re sure that there’s a Lustau Sherry or brandy for you.

1. A Lustau Sherry not from Jerez: Manzanilla Papirusa

Sherry wines that are labelled as “Manzanilla” have undergone their ageing not in Jerez de la Frontera, but in the coastal town of Sanlucar de Barrameda. Production is identical to that of standard Sherry, though the specificities of the climate here – cooler and more humid weather – give the wines their own distinct character. This Lustau Sherry has a distinctively tangy aroma and some saltiness.

Alcohol content: 15%

Serve between 6ºC and 12ºC

Optimal consumption period: 2017-2022

Best served in Sherry Glass

Pairing: Blue Cheese, Chocolate, Desserts, Ice Cream, Pastry.

2. A Fino-style Lustau Sherry: Fino Jarana

Fino Sherry, you may remember, is a style of dry Sherry aged under a layer of yeast known as flor. This Lustau Sherry is a rather typical Fino, showing a signature pale lemon colour and boasting aromas of almonds, herbs and yeast. There is some saltiness and tanginess here, though it’s less pronounced than with the Lustau Manzanilla above.

Alcohol content: 15%

Serve between 6ºC and 12ºC

Optimal consumption period: 2017-2022

Best served in Sherry Glass

Pairing: Blue Cheese, Chocolate, Desserts, Ice Cream, Pastry.

3. A classic Spanish brandy: Lustau Solera Reserva

If a Lustau Sherry isn’t quite what you’re after, how about a Lustau brandy? Spanish brandy is all about two regions, Jerez and Penedès. Lustau’s brandy is, naturally, from Jerez. Here, they age their brandies just like their Sherries, in the complex and unique solera system. This one is a Reserva brandy, so regulations state it must be aged for at least a year in the solera. The producers have gone above and beyond, however, and Lustau Solera Reserva has actually been aged for three years. The American oak barrels in which it was aged for previously used for Oloroso Sherry, so this brandy shares a lot of the flavours traditionally associated with that style of Sherry, including toffee, leather, spice and nuts.

Alcohol content: 40%

Best served in Brandy Glass

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What Drives Up the Price of Dark Sherry?

There isn’t a secret tax on tastiness. Dark sherry is just given more time to mature. Amontillados and Olorosos can spend 10 years maturing in the barrel, but the really good stuff is sometimes matured for 25 years. The bodegas have to factor in the cost of all that warehousing. What’s more, grape production is at a premium in Jerez, the sherry producing region, and these days many of the grapes that make PX, the wine that sweetens sherry, are shipped in. They can come from Montilla or Málaga, but the haulage costs all add up. Of course, each country has its own taxes to apply. In Britain, wine that might cost pence abroad has so much tax added to it that it you wouldn’t get many pounds change from a twenty. Added to that, sherries are branded wines. Because each bodega blends to create its own particular taste, you’re paying for the perceived value of that particular sherry house too, and then there are all the other costs of making a sherry on top.

How to Tell Good Cheap Sherry from Bad Cheap Sherry

If you really wanted to, you could buy cheap dark sherry easily. The trick is to find cheap dark sherry that’s also delicious. To do that, you can look out for a few things on the side of the bottle:

• How long has it been aged for? If a wine doesn’t have the potential to age well, it’s unlikely to be kept in the barrel beyond the minimum time to create the sherry;
• Is the mark ‘Sherry DO’ on the side? That being so, it will have been made to the quality regulations that all wines need to abide by in order to officially become a sherry;
• Has it won any awards? Sherry makes enter their wines to compete in award shows, and panels of blind tasters select the best. It’s a good marker of quality.

Where Else to Look

INVINIC! We have a really good selection of dark sherry, and we often have reductions on our stock. It’s probably because we’re based in Spain, and can find the good stuff for less. The price works out even better if you buy in bulk as it makes the best of the postage and packaging charge.

What’s more, we include the ratings given to sherries by wine critics.  Some critics develop a bit of cult following, and one of those is Robert Parker. Well, we’ve devoted a whole section of the site to wines that Robert Parker has rated highly, and that are still below €20.

Three of the Best

• Gran Barquero Oloroso. This sherry has been rated highly by both Robert Parker, at 92 points, and Guía Peñín gave it 90. Yet it’s only €13.95 – and for a full 75 cl bottle. Using Pedro Ximénez grapes, this is a sweeter style of Oloroso, and well worth the money.
• Juan Piñero Oloroso. Robert Parker gave this bottle 90 points, and at €13.50 for a full bottle, it’s a decent dark sherry on the cheap. As it uses Palomino grapes only, expect it to be more of a dry sherry with nutty, savoury flavours.
• Alvear Pedro Ximénez. This lovely sweet sherry picked up 93 Guía Peñín points, and 90 from the Wine Spectator. It has a lovely nose of coffee and toffee with a yummy chocolatey and coffeeish taste.

However if your tastes are more for the lighter kind of sherry, make sure to read ‘Palo Cortado Sherry: What You Need to Know’.

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What is vin doux naturel?

The French phrase “vin doux naturel” literally translates to “naturally sweet wine”. VDNs, as they are often known, are produced mostly from Muscat, though sometimes from Grenache. The typical VDN is a strong Muscat drink with a lot of sugar, a lot of alcohol, and some pleasant, if a little simple, grape flavours.

The name is not entirely accurate, however, as the level of sweetness (and alcohol) does not occur naturally. Like Port, VDNs get their sweetness and high alcohol by the addition of a high-alcohol spirit during fermentation. The alcohol kills the yeast before it has had the chance to convert all the grape sugar into alcohol. The result is a wine with high residual sugar and high alcohol. In the best cases, this makes for a very tasty Muscat drink indeed.

VDN: Is it a “wine” or a “Muscat drink” (or what)?

VDN is officially considered to be a wine, and not just merely a “Muscat drink” or similar term. The best French VDNs tend to come from two distinct winegrowing regions: Languedoc-Roussillon and the Rhône Valley. Within each, there are numerous individual appellations dedicated to VDN production, and most bare the word “Muscat” in their name, leading many casual drinkers to think of VDN as its own category, a type of Muscat drink, rather than as a wine.

Where does VDN come from?

You’ll find Muscat-based VDN produced in various parts of France, generally in and around Languedoc-Roussillon and the southern Rhône Valley.

Roussillon

The largest appellation and production area is Muscat de Rivesaltes, in Roussillon. Muscat de Rivesaltes accounts for some 70% of France’s total Muscat production. Most Muscat de Rivesaltes is released very early, often in the spring following the harvest, and is intended to be enjoyed right away.

Another local VDN, simply known as Rivesaltes, is permitted to use Muscat grapes, though many other grapes are also permitted and, often, favoured.

Two other appellations, Banyuls and Maury, produce excellent red VDNs, with Grenache being the major grape variety.

Languedoc

In Languedoc, VDN is associated with four appellations in particular:

• Muscat de Frontignan
• Muscat de Lunel
• Muscat de Mireval
• Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois

Of these, Muscat de Frontignan is the most historically significant, known to produce the finest fortified sweet Muscat drink of all. Classic Muscat de Frontignan is gold, luscious and sweet. Its flavour profile is not all that complicated, but very generous and pleasant: Think a lot of grape flavours and aromas, sugar and alcohol. It’s not exactly an everyday drink, but it can certainly give a lot of pleasure.

Rhône Valley

In the Rhône Valley, the best fortified Muscat drink comes from Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise. The other well-known VDN appellation in the area is Rasteau, where Grenache is the primary grape. Rasteau is a rich, heady red fortified wine.

Have you ever tried any vin doux naturel?

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Ageing whisky in wine barrels or other wooden vessels is just one of the techniques used by the world’s top distilleries. Wineries in Bordeaux, California and elsewhere routinely sell their used barrels to be used in whisky production, and whisky producers love the new flavours and complexity that the vessels can bring.

How is Sherry cask whisky made?

It’ll vary from producer to producer, of course, but it’s pretty simple. The distiller makes the whisky as normal, and the difference comes at the end of the process, during maturation. The cask, barrel or other vessels in which a whisky is aged imparts a huge amount of flavour and colour upon the whisky itself. Age your whisky in an old

Age your whisky in an old California Cabernet barrel from the Napa Valley, and you can expect certain characteristics to shine through – blackberry fruit, cedar, tobacco and coffee, for example. Age your whisky in

Age your whisky in an old Sherry cask, and you can expect it to pick up flavours, aromas and characteristics reminiscent of the fortified wines from the Jerez region in Spain. Of course, there is not just one style of Sherry, so there’s not just one type of Sherry cask whisky. Let’s try to understand better with an example, shall we?

A Sherry cask whisky to try: Laphroaig PX Cask

Laphroaig is one of the finest names in Scotch whisky. It’s also one of the easiest to mispronounce. “La-froyg” is the correct pronunciation, if you weren’t sure. The distillery, located on the remote island of Islay, has been in operation since 1815.

Even long established players like Laphroaig experiment sometimes, and this Sherry cask whisky, Laphroaig PX Cask, is the result. This whisky is aged in three different vessels, starting with American oak, then quarter cask and, finally, Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks.

It is the Pedro Ximénez (PX) that makes the most impact here. The naturally sweet PX Sherry style has clearly left its mark on the wood, imparting a world of complex and inviting Sherry aromas and flavours upon the whisky.

Single Malt Whisky

Producer: Laphroaig

Zone: Scotland

Capacity: 100 Cl.
Alcohol content: 48%
Best served in Whisky Glass

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To answer the question: Yes, Sherry does go off. However, it’s not quite as simple as that. Not all Sherry is created equal, some are intended to be consumed right after release and others are destined for a longer life.

How does Sherry go off?

Sherry doesn’t spoil or go bad in the same way that a carton of milk does, though it doesn’t last forever either. Its high alcohol content protects it, but it has a shelf-life. When Sherry goes off, you typically won’t expect rancid flavours or mould. Rather, the wine will simply be lifeless and dull. All those beautiful flavours of which Sherry is almost uniquely capable – almonds, wax, yeast and so much more – fade away leaving a rather dim drink. It’s not going to kill you, but don’t expect to enjoy it!

Does Sherry go off in the bottle?

Over a long enough time scale, all wine will lose its flavour, vibrancy and freshness. This might be a matter of months for a young Beaujolais Nouveau, decades for a fine red Bordeaux or even longer for a top quality Sauternes. Sherry is a fortified wine with high alcohol, which protects it somewhat, but in general it is intended to be consumed at a young age. The exact shelf-life will vary between styles – and perhaps even between individual bottles – but largely speaking, you should aim to drink your Sherry soon after buying it.

When does Sherry go off, exactly?

This isn’t an exact science, but we can offer you a few guidelines for how long you might expect an unopened bottle of Sherry to last.

• Lighter dry Sherries, like Fino and Manzanilla styles, have the shortest shelf life. Once they hit the market, you’ll want to drink up within about 18 months in order to preserve their freshness.
• Pale Cream Sherry, an artificially sweetened style, will last slightly longer. You’ve got about two years here before the flavours become dull.
• Most other Sherries, like Pedro Ximénez Sherry, Oloroso and Palo Cortado, will tend to last around three years in the bottle.

How quickly does Sherry go off after opening?

This will vary from style to style, brand to brand and even bottle to bottle. However, know this: Opening the bottle signals the beginning of the end for your precious Sherry. Assuming that you are not using a Coravin, opening the wine will expose it to oxygen and begin the process of oxidation. From here it’s only a matter of time before your fortified wine loses all of its flavour and eventually comes to resemble vinegar.

The good news about that, of course, is that you can still use your Sherry for cooking for quite a while after it has lost its flavours and is no longer appealing for drinking! Cooking with Sherry is a lot of fun, and Sherry is a great addition for many stir-fries, sauces and even sweet desserts.

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What’s wrong with buying Waitrose Sherry?

Look, there’s nothing exactly wrong with buying Waitrose Sherry, or Tesco Port, or whatever the case may be. Own-brand supermarket wine tends to be quite affordable, and you can pick it up conveniently as you shop for toilet paper or eggs.

And there’s the issue: Waitrose Sherry and similar own-label wines are often treated as commodities by the retailers. Yes, it’s really wine from Jerez, but there are a few good reasons why it’s not going to be the best expression of the region:

• Cost:

  Waitrose Sherry and other wines like this usually have quite affordable retail prices. This is nice for the consumer, but it means that costs have been cut somewhere along the supply chain. Generally, this means that the retailer sources the wine at the lowest available cost. It’s not necessarily bad wine, but it’s entry-level, commodity wine.

• Scale:

  Big supermarket chains are huge, successful companies with hundreds of individual stores and millions of demanding customers. The quantities they require to meet customer demand, whether that be Waitrose Sherry or Sainsbury’s kitchen roll, mean that they must source products from large scale producers. The world’s best wines tend to come from small producers and are made in very small quantities, as quality is the focus above all else!

If you’re cool with those considerations, then, by all means, head to the supermarket and stock up on Waitrose Sherry and Asda Champagne. If you’re intrigued by what else is out there, though, read on!

Three alternatives to Waitrose Sherry

Your bottle of Waitrose Sherry is all well and good, but you can do better if you know where to look. Whether it’s smaller producers, special wine styles or critics’ favourites, there’s a whole lot of great Sherry out there to try. Here are three of our favourites!

1. Juan Piñero Fino Camborio

Very affordable and highly rated, Juan Piñero’s Fino Camborio is a great substitute for Waitrose Sherry. With 94 points from Guía Peñín and 91 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, this Fino dry Sherry is a winner.

Pair this with a bowl of pretzels or mixed nuts and enjoy!

Buy Juan Piñero Fino Camborio

2. Manzanilla Papirusa

Neighbouring Jerez de la Frontera is the Sanlúcar de Barrameda region, home of Manzanilla style Sherry. These wines tend to be tangier and saltier than those from Jerez, and really show a sense of place, or what the French call terroir. Emilio Lustau is the quality producer behind Manzanilla Papirusa, a highly-rated fortified wine. Top scores include 92 points from Guía Peñín and 90 points each from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator.

This is a great match with fish and chips, believe it or not!

Buy Manzanilla Papirusa

3. Hidalgo Fino

Emilio Hidalgo is one of the top names in Jerez. The bodega produces a wide range of Sherry wines, from entry-level to seriously high end. It’s a sign of the producer’s dedication to quality that Hidalgo Fino, its basic Fino Sherry, is such a fantastic wine. Considering its very modest price, this one wipes the floor with Waitrose Sherry and even some more expensive dry Sherries. At 90 points from Wine Spectator, this is always a good choice.

Enjoy a taste of the Mediterranean by pairing this one with barbequed or grilled sardines!

Buy Hidalgo Fino

Strengthen your fortified wine knowledge with our free ebook, The 4 Fortified Wines You Need to Know.

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A Different Grape With A Very Different Character

Savoury sherry is dominated by the Palomino grape. It has a completely different character to the Pedro Ximenez grape that produces sweet sherry, and its so thin skinned that it has to be harvested by hand, while being collected in small boxes. It grows on blinding white soil with a high limestone content. This creates the finest grapes in the Jerez region, and it allows the Palomino to come into its element as a sherry, which is the only wine style that the grape suits.

The Savoury Kinds of Sherry:

These are the savoury sherry styles which Tio Pepe has become so well known for, from bone dry to verging on the sweet side:

• Fino. This is a very pale, gold coloured wine, which can have flavours of fermenting banana and melon. This is a light bodied style of wine. When I enjoyed a glass of the Tio Pepe version, there was also a delightful biscuity retronasal smell. They are meant to be drunk young and fresh, as their flavours rapidly fade out of the barrel. We sell several Fino, but the best is arguably Fino La Ina, which scored 95 points with Guía Peñín.
• Manzanilla. This is a fino which has been created in the seaside town of Manzanilla. The cooling effect of the seabreeze allows the yeast to keep working on the sherry throughout the year, giving it a salty edge. Here’s a great example in the form of Manzanilla La Guita, which has rave reviews from Robert Parker, the Wine Spectator and Guía Peñín.
• Palo Cortado. This sherry is available in much smaller quantities. It develops when a Fino suddenly and inexplicably loses the layer of yeast or ‘flor’ that was growing on its surface while it ages in the barrel. Without the protective layer of flor, it goes through oxidative aging. This gives the wine nutty flavours and aromas, while gaining a thicker body like an Oloroso. Because of its rarity, it isn’t cheap, but Juan Piñero Palo Cortado is exceptionally good value.
• Amontillado. With this style, a fino is purposefully allowed to lose its layer of yeast after seven years of aging, when the flor will have consumed all the food available to it. Similarly, it gains nutty flavours. The process means that Amontillados tend to be older than Finos. They’re also more expensive, and they’re fortified to a higher strength. While their brown colour comes from the oxidative aging, they are also sometimes slightly sweetened. Though we have far pricier versions on our books, Gran Barquero Amontillado manages a good balance of quality to cost.
• Oloroso. Here, oxidisation has taken place throughout the aging process. The sherry has nutty and meaty, savoury flavours, while being very full bodied. Its colour is a reddish brown. It is often sweetened with Pedro Ximenez, or grape juice as well. Again, Gran Barquero Oloroso is another good bottle, with 92 points from Robert Parker, and 90 from Guía Peñín.

Some Great Food Combinations:

The classic combination with Fino is salted almonds. If the sherry is a Manzanilla, its own salty tang will pair well with the nuts, and its fruit flavours will go with the almonds like muesli.
Try Amontillado with asparagus. Both have a wonderful nutty quality, and mushrooms are a good match as well.
Oloroso pairs well with hung meat. Roast lamb is also a great combination, and smoked meats would add to the nutty character of the wine.

For further culinary inspiration with savoury sherry, read ‘3 Foods to Eat with Dry Sherry’.

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It’s Starts with the Soil

Pedro Jimenez, or PX, grapes are grown on ‘arena’ and ‘barro’ soils. Arena is 70% compacted sand, and 10% limestone with a dash of iron oxide, which is very fertile. Barro is even more productive. It’s heavy clay produces wines full of body, and so already you can see how PX gets to be as thick as sauce.

There’s Nothing Rushed About Pedro Jimenez

PX takes its time to ripen. That’s because there’s only 65cm of rain in Jerez every year – which is positively miniscule. You’d be hard pressed to make a pot of tea with it. As a result, PX spends all the livelong Spanish summer photosynthesizing sunshine into sugars and flavour molecules. It’s a high powered grape. There’s even a region, Montilla-Moriles, that’s even hotter and drier, where the thin-skinned Pedro Jimenez is unable to hold onto much of its liquid at all. Consequently, the grapes are like raisiny cherry bombs of flavour.

Then Pedro Jimenez Spends Some Extra Time Sunbathing

I wouldn’t mind being a Pedro Jimenez grape. After harvesting, they get to lie out on straw mats under the Spanish sun, and just raisinify. You see as they’ve been separated from the vine, water evaporates from their skins. This concentrates and intensifies their delicious flavours of prunes and molasses.

After That, Pedro Jimenez Just Hangs Out For a Few Years

The grapes go through the normal pressing process to make wine. But they’re added to a big pyramid system of barrels called a ‘solera’, where young wine at the top is gradually moved down through to barrels at the bottom, where the more mature wine is. The system ensures that you get the same reliable flavour every time you buy a sherry house’s produce. All of this takes place over a few years with the sherry mingling together and developing its flavours.

The Result:

Scrumptious. Pedro Jimenez is so nice I introduced it to my mother. That’s how serious I am about my relationship with it. It’s like the best rum and raisin ice cream you’ve ever tasted but with more dark caramel flavours, and yet it’s not saccharine. It’s a heavy, very full bodied wine which pairs beautifully with pudding.

Some Excellent Matches:

There’s some great recommendations in our article ‘Food pairing ideas for Pedro Ximenez’. But remember – what grows together goes together. As a result, you might want to try some Spanish desserts that the local palette created over many years to match the country’s wines.

• Turron de Alicante y Jijona. This is a Spanish nougat made with honey, eggs, almonds and nuts. Pedro Jimenez is sweet enough to take on that level of sugaryness, and like a champ, still come out on top.

• Arrope. It feels like PX was made for Arrope. This is a dish of grape must, which as you can imagine has wonderful fruity qualities. If you’re visiting the country, make sure you get your hands on some.

A Really Good, Affordable Example:

• Alvear Pedro Ximénez De Añada. This grapes that went into this particular bottle were so fine that they were made like a conventional wine so that the solera system wouldn’t even out its brilliance. Unfortunately like all good things, there isn’t very much of it. You only get 375ml per bottle, so order yours before it disappears and enjoy something special. Robert Parker gave it 93 points.

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Broadly speaking, sack wine referring to fortified wine of varying origins, most notably Spain and the Canary Islands. The etymology of the phrase “sack wine” is a little contentious, with a number of conflicting theories out there as to how the name came about. The best known types of sack wine included:

• Sherris sack wine, from Jerez de la Frontera

• Canary sack wine, from the Canary Islands

• Malaga sack wine, from Malaga

• Palm sack wine, from Palma de Mallorca

If some of the above look familiar, don’t be surprised. In particular, Sherris sack wine from Spain’s Jerez region has developed into today’s Sherry. If somebody talks about sack wine today, it is quite likely (though not exactly accurate) that they are referring to modern Sherry or Jerez wine. Malaga wine is still produced today, in a delicious sweet style.

What’s so important about sack wine?

Sack wine, interestingly enough, has featured widely in the world of literature. Shakespearean character Sir John Falstaff was a sack wine proponent, and is well-known for the quote, “If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations and addict themselves to sack.” We don’t advocate addiction by any means, but we can appreciation his fondness for the stuff! English poet Robert Herrick wrote a number of poems dedicated to sack wine, and the playwright Ben Jonson made reference to Canary sack wine too.

In the land of the living, sack was a popular drink, possibly for its high alcoholic content. Former British MP Samuel Pepys likened sack wine more to a spirit than a wine.

Can you buy sack wine today?

Strictly speaking, no. Sack wine is an antiquated term that doesn’t have any official meaning today. Most commonly, the phrase is used mistakenly to refer to Sherry, or else as a broad term to cover fortified wine in a general sense. The sack style of wine was thought to be very sweet, and matured extensively in oak. Broadly speaking, medium dry Sherry is probably a close modern equivalent of the sack wine of yesteryear.

What to drink instead of sack wine

If you’re determined to recreate the sack wine drinking experience, your best bet is to look for a Spanish fortified wine from Sherry. While traditional sack wine was likely high in alcohol, high in sweetness and relatively low in quality, you’ve got a lot of choice today. Thankfully, quality is quite high across the board these days. Instead, take your pick of sweetness.

• For a dry sack wine style, go for Hidalgo Gobernador Oloroso. Sherry labelled as Oloroso undergoes oxidative ageing in wood, and are dark in colour. It’s quite likely that old Sherris sack wine looked quite a lot like today’s Oloroso Sherries.

• If sweet wine is your thing, go with Hidalgo Pedro Ximénez. This wine has luscious sweetness and (relatively) low alcohol, at 15%. This will give you an idea of what sweet sack wine may have tasted like, but you should be able to still stand after a glass!

Can you recommend any other fortified wines for adventurous wine drinkers?

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So How Long Does Sherry Last?

The thing that you’re drinking is alcohol – a preservative. Fortified wines like sherry have more of it than still wine, which means that the bacteria which makes wine foul dies a swift death in contact with the liquid. In fact, you could employ certain dry fortified wines as mouthwash. Vintners use this knowledge as part of the sherry making process, as some styles of Sherry such as Oloroso are given extra alcohol to kill off yeast growing on its surface while it ferments in barrels. The more alcohol your sherry has, the longer it will last once opened. Those with 14.5% are best consumed in two weeks. Anything with 18% could last for several years if kept in a cool, dark, still place.

Sure, You Could Leave Sherry That Long…

But you may not want to. The fresher sherry is, the more of its original taste will be intact, as exposure to the air will begin to break down the flavours in the liquid. As regards unopened bottles of sherry, the drink will continue aging in the bottle. Sweetness or dryness, acidity and tannin develop at different rates in wine. Leaving a bottle alone may help those factors come into balance, but beyond a specific date, they will be off kilter again. Often the label or website description will tell you the optimum window for drinking a bottle at its best.

In a Way, Sherry is Already Old

Most sherries are made via the ‘solera’ system. In it, drafts of the liquid are fed down through a bank of barrels over several years, with the barrels at the top storing young sherry while the row at the bottom has the most mature sherry. As all the sherries mingle together, some of the liquid in each barrel will be from the previous year, or the year before. There will even be some traces remaining in the sherry from the year that the solera was set up – perhaps centuries ago.

Aside from that, some premium sherries are made which are aged for specific amounts of time. These bottles have greater complexity and are worth their extra prices. Look out for VOS (very old sherry, aged for 20 years), and VORS (very old rare sherry, aged for 30 years). Also there are examples of PX, Oloroso, Palo Cortardo and Amontillado which are aged for 12 or 15 years.

Drinking in the History

At eBuy Wines, we’ve got our hands on some of the real gems of historical sherries. Here’s a selection, with the background that goes them:

• Alvear Pedro Ximénez 1927  [Buy it]

  Alvear Pedro’s original solera was created back when the first transatlantic telephone call was made between London and NewYork.

• El Tresillo 1874 Amontillado Viejo  [Buy it]

  When this solera was founded, the term ‘Impressionism’ was first used to describe art, and the Third Carlist War was raging in Spain.

• Santa Ana 1861  [Buy it]

  With this bottle, you’re tasting sherry from a solera that was established at the outbreak of the American Civil War.

• Oloroso Viejo Fundación 1819  [Buy it]

  At the foundation of this solera, Queen Victoria was born, Thomas Jefferson established the University of Virginia, and The Peterloo Massacre occurred.

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