Ingredients

sherry

Also known as “vino de Jerez”,“sack”. Sherry is an abstract category for specific fortified wines of Spain. “Sherry” is an anglicization of “Jerez,” which is the Spanish town that produced the fortified wine known first as sack and now as sherry. Sherry begins as a dry white wine from regional grapes that is fortified with brandy, sweetened, and aged in casks according to the solera method. Sherry is sold in three broad styles: dry, sweet, and sweetened. The dry sherries vary based on degrees of oxidation, from fino and manzanilla (unoxidized), through amontillado and palo cortado, to oloroso (fully oxidized). All the dry sherries are bone dry—devoid of sweetness. Sweet sherries are markedly different, quite sweet, and made from dried grapes: pedro ximénez (a.k.a., PX) and moscatel. Sweetened sherries are proprietary blends of dry and sweet, and called various things: cocktail sherry, cream sherry, amoroso, medium, brown, and East India. These blends vary in sweetness and character. In mixology, it is unfortunately common for a recipe to just say “sherry”, unhelpfully leaving it up to the reader to intuit the right sort of sherry to select. In these situations, the default is a dry sherry, but you still have to decide how oxidative to go. Sherry blends were popular in the mid-to-late 20th Century, so some recipes from that period actually have one of those in mind: benchmarks are Dry Sack Medium Sherry, Saneman Medium Dry, and Taylor Dry Sherry (which is not dry). If a recipe wants a cream sherry, it will specify that.