How to drink sherry

Many wine drinkers who are used to the fruity flavours of sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio initially find sherry quite challenging. Sherry can be fruity, especially fino and manzanilla, but the flavours are influenced by long ageing, not unlike whisky or Cognac. In fact, spirits drinkers tend to be much more receptive to fortified wines in general than people who just consume wine. This is partly because whisky is often aged in old sherry casks so learning about whisky involves learning about sherry, but also because the two drinks share certain similarities. Darker sherries like amontillados and olorosos often have flavours of nuts, dried fruit, orange peel, brown sugar and toffee, just like a good whisky. The spirits comparison is useful for thinking about the time to drink sherry too. Yes, sherry is a great food wine, but it’s also an excellent aperitif, after dinner sipper (try an old oloroso with a cigar) and indeed cocktail ingredient.