Blog

Sherry Making: Sandeman Sherry Museum

I never had Sherry before.

My knowledge of sherry was based on an account that my wife often narrated rather reverentially -  the one in which during her hen party, she & a few friends got to drink this magical wine called Sherry - a gift from another friend visiting from UK for the marriage - straight from the bottle & perhaps a bit too much … as they just dropped off where they were sitting & then slept for a straight 12 hours … When asked the name of the brand, she could only vaguely (quite naturally) recall that it was a very sweet drink from a blue bottle with a very long neck …

Since then, I’ve secretly nurtured a wish to have the same experience myself  - preferably with her this time. So after about 15 years of our marriage (during which time we had visited half the Europe & tasted all kinds of local food & wine available there but never came across that blue bottle with very long neck) … once as we were planning our annual trip & decided  to make it Spain that time -I knew that it was one thing straight up from my bucket list. Spain is the sherry country & we must have sherry from that blue bottle with the very long neck …

So, as is our custom to read up a place thoroughly, before we visit it - I did some research & found out that there are in fact 10 basic Sherry styles and most of them are dry, ranging from the light, salty freshness of a fino or manzanilla to the nutty, mahogany richness of an oloroso .These dry styles open up a world of gastronomic possibilities and drinking pleasure. Like we previously did before visiting Champagne in France, we also prepared a list of the top 5 sherries sold worldwide.

Fortified with the knowledge, as we ordered our 1^st glass of sherry in Spain from a corner shop called Caféteria Cortina in Plaza Mayor, Madrid - we were fortunate to be served by an Indian waiter, who immediately understood our palette & brought us that prized drink. It tasted nice - sweet & full-bodied. After downing a few ones, we finally asked to see the bottle to check whether it’s that same one … but it was a squat one with a hideous green tint. Also, as per my wife, it was not that sweet.

Next we went ahead & visited a few wine shops to buy a bottle - to our surprise, none of the Spaniards understood “sherry” ! They offered an endless  variety of wines - but not the Sherry we knew & wanted. We gradually realized something is going wrong - we are in the capital of the largest sherry-producing nation in the world & none of the wine shops here have heard about it, let alone stock it!!

So we approached Sophie, the receptionist of our hotel (she also needed a lot of explaining) with our predicament … & finally she understood & pronounced it in a very different way (Jerez!) & we realized why we couldn’t get what we wanted. She also suggested that we visit El Corte Ingles in Calle Preciados & written the word sherry in Spanish on a piece of paper. 

El Corte Ingles being the best departmental store in Spain, had a mindboggling variety of wines in a completely segregated section - after rummaging through their stock for what seemed like an eternity, we finally had to take the help of their Wine Manager! After listening to our description & looking at that piece of paper Sophie gave us - he took us through the  huge range of Sherry styles – the appetite-stirring, salty lightness of a fino & the earthy complexity of an oloroso to the richness and finesse of a palo cortado but he felt what we’re looking for, would be the silky molasses sweetness of a Pedro Ximénez (PX). However, that deceptive bottle was not seen … We finally took the very sweet Malaga Virgen & actually quite liked it.

From Madrid as we went further south to Granada & then Ronda - our search went on. In Ronda , after not having found that particular variety, I picked up the Malaga Virgen as the only known devil. In Ronda, we stayed in Hotel San Miguel - located right on the cliff it offered a magnificent view of the gorge. There, in the balcony, over the song My Summerwine by Nancy Sinatra & Ray Hazelwood - I remember having polished off that entire Malaga Virgen - but that is almost all I remember about Ronda.

Our next stop was Seville in Andalusia - further south, where we got so caught up with Murillo, Paella & Flamenco, that we could not really look for sherry … But we had planned a separate day trip to Jerez in the province of Cadiz - from where the drink originated & got it’s name. It’s one of the largest exporters of Sherry in the world.

In Jerez, after a brief visit to the Equestrian School, we went to Sandeman - one of the largest & oldest Sherry bodegas - where sherry is produced. We learnt how sherry is made, did some sherry tasting & also bought a few of their best sherries … but the illusive blue bottle was nowhere to be seen … or heard.

Dejected, as we came out of the bodega, we noticed a lonely wine shop in the corner - completely empty.. we needed a taxi & seeing the streets all deserted, went inside that shop to request the owner to call a radio taxi for us. As it turned out, the shop had a fairly good collection of Sherry - & amongst the many bottles arranged on his racks - there was a blue bottle with very long neck …

It was called Harvey’s Bristol Cream … an imported cream sherry from UK, bottled in Bristol blue glass.

The shop owner was very knowledgeable & hearing our experience, he explained to us that probably the biggest misconception of all about Sherry is that it’s sweet - particularly in the UK (from where my wife got her gift), with the ‘Harvey’s Bristol Cream factor’ there. In other words, given that the only exposure many people there have had to Sherry is the sweet style - one that has brought John Harvey & Sons such spectacular success since it was first produced in Bristol in 1796. But naturally this would be alien to Spain … being an imported Sherry in a Sherry-producing nation. And Spaniards hate its sweet, creamy taste.

There was only one bottle in his shop which we literally grabbed (& the shopkeeper was visibly relieved to dispose off this which he couldn’t sell for past several months). It was carefully preserved during our next halt in Barcelona till the time we in fact, reached Mumbai.

After we landed in Mumbai, as an afterthought, we visited the Duty Free Shop there … & Lo & behold - we were greeted with a shelf full of almost 20 Harvey’s Bristol Creams…

We quickly picked up 3 more & went home.