Highlight of this week’s Swedish Press roundup is this cracking article by Bengt-Goran Kronstam, one of Sweden’s foremost wine men, in the Svenska Dagbladet, one of the leading newspapers.

Great stuff – was sent to me by a friend in Sweden and even in swedish you can see they are on the right track: Inocente, Dos Cortados and Noe are pictured and Tio Pepe and La Ina are mentioned too.

For those interested I have now received a summary (in Spanish):

The article emphasizes above all the choice of sherry wines as the perfect accompaniment to sushi; the japanese cuisine that is very fashionable in scandinavian countries; picking out a glass of fino or manzanilla as the perfect ally for sushi, if you want to be in touch with the latest trend, as they are in  London and New York. Then it explains that the traditional accompaniments for these wines are without doubt tapas of all shapes and sizes. From salted almonds, to the magic spanish ham, a slice of hard cheese or the more sophisticated cuisine that can be served cold or hot – in that order. 

It briefly explains the production methods and characteristics of fino, oloroso, amontillado and palo cortado, highlighting manzanilla as a very special fino from the area of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It mentions the palomino fino, pedro ximénez and moscatel grapes used in the area,and the delicate production process of the wines. Fino it describes as one of the most sensitive wines in terms of storage and as a result it recommends that the reader buy small bottles, serve the wine quite cold and moreover to finish it at one sitting, since the next day the fino will have already lost its spark.

Mr Bengt-Göran Kronstam then describes the three wines that have been tasted (Fino Inocente, Dos Cortados Palo Cortado 20 años and Noe Pedro Ximénez) underlining their properties and flavours and recommending pairings. 

In general a concise article dedicated exclusively to the wines of Jerez, depicting it as a trendy, very fashionable wine and the perfect pair for a variety of different cuisines.

Overall must be good news, despite the old chestnut in there – not at all true – that fino is difficult to store and needs to be drunk in one sitting (not that you need to space it out either). More importantly, the main thrust of the article is about pairing these wines with food, which is exactly the right idea.

I wish I could think of a signoff that didn’t involve the Swedish chef from Sesame Street.

A year ago during a long weekend here on the coast I decided to start sharing my blather on this blog. Fittingly, a year later I have returned to the same spot and again have time on my hands to reflect on this year gone.

The Internet is an amazing thing: the blog has had over 16,600 hits and 5,500 daily visitors, from exactly 80 countries (and nearly half of those hits and visitors in 2016). Now judging by my spam filters a number of these are bots that want to sell me pills that will transform my lovelife or generous chaps in Africa offering me an inheritance in return for some modest lawyers fees, but even so I am pleased with those 80 countries (it would be fascinating to know what you guys make of my ramblings in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovinia, the Ivory Coast, Greenland, and Sri Lanka – drop us a comment!).

Not that I haven’t worked at it. This is my 350th entry, just shy of a post a day (and add in the pages etc), and I have made a proper nuisance of myself on twitter, 3,386 tweets, or nearly 10 a day. To be fair the posts are generally pretty short and sweet – generally just my thoughts on a wine, a link I have seen or a bit of general blather.

Looking at the stats though I see that the top posts in terms of hits are the ones that get worked on a little bit:

1. Jerez and Terroir by Jefford and Others. A collection of writings on a subject that deserves some study.
2. Taberna der Guerrita – my tribute to a legendary spot with a big fan club (apparently)
3. You win somm, you lose somm – my tribute to the geniuses that make wine and food taste better
4. The magic numbers: the big one – a follow up tribute to the marketing genius of Equipo Navazos
5. Vintage Chic – a heartfelt plea for more vintage sherries 

Anyway, it really hasn’t felt like an effort to write. As I noted early on, it becomes a bit of a virtuous circle: the blog encourages me to try more different wines, and when I try them to focus on them more, which increases the enjoyment and makes me want to try more wines, etc etc. While it is a lot of wine from one region, the variety of styles and characteristics keeps it interesting and the sheer number of tastings has clear benefits: these wines can have such an impact on first tasting that a second dip a little while later can produce a much clearer analysis of the wine; and comparing a lot of different wines of the same style in quick succession can be instructive.

In addition to the general improvement in appreciation there have been some highlights:

1. Pagos, Albariza, Palomino and the wines they can produce – took the absolute cake. A mind enlarging day that changed the way I look at these wines.
2. The night of the Pitijopos (and six days later) – was a real privilege to try this fantastic experiment in terroir with the boys.
3. The sherryTT: a twitter tasting of palo cortados with Sherrynotes – was a really fun way of tasting and swapping notes on some wonderful wines (my tweets here)
4. Lustau Almacenistas in Taberna Palo Cortado – another brilliant night and a great tasting
5. A fantastic dinner  with my Madrid crew with some special wines (admittedly not sherries)

In fact it has been a great year. The blog has helped me get in touch with and even get to know other bloggers, bulletin boarders, tweeters, sommeliers, distributors and, best of all, winemakers. Really top quality people from whom I have learned (and with whom I have drunk) a lot. In particular, I have received a lot of restaurant recommendations: I started writing down a few of my favourite haunts for sherry drinking but thanks to comments and messages received since it first went up the list has now morphed into a list of 57 restaurants around Madrid, Spain, Europe, the US, and the Pacific. The recommendations that have come in have been cracking, and the page with list is the most visited and most commented on part of the blog.

More importantly, the blog has lead me to try different styles of wines and broaden my horizons in general. This time last year I had never heard of los Sobrinos de Haurie (or even Haurie), I hadn’t begun to discover the new horizons those two blokes are striking out towards (from Carrascal to Carrascal and beyond) and I had never set foot on an albariza pago, let alone all the great pagos. Neither had I even started to look at any of the great writing that is out there (to be honest I have still only scratched the surface – this is only a hobby blog after all).

On balance I just wish I had started this blog years ago. Anyway, a massive thankyou to all of the folk out there who have contributed to a fun first year and let’s see how we get on in year 2 …

 

 A great pleasure to participate in Desert Island Drams on Amateurdrammer.com – really fun idea and some great posts each week. 

I like a dram every once in a while – my big mistake at the end of many a long night out used to be “winding down” with a bottle of the water of life. I can’t claim to be any kind of expert – Andy the amateurdrammer and other true experts have me in awe (in proof terms their job is at least twice as hard as mine). In my experience, however, there is a lot of common experience in drinking sherries and whiskies. 

Not just the use of sherry barrels in some whisky production either: the parallel between the solera and the blending process, and the effects of barrel ageing. Even the drinks themselves: the minerality, barrel influence, finesse. I also think the sherry sector can learn from the success of whisky in recent years. It may be just my relative ignorance speaking but it seems to me there is an ever larger range of quality whiskies around – specific malts, casks and batches – with a focus on quality, individuality and expression. 

And if you don’t believe me – just check out amateurdrammer.com! 

Specifically, I have kept my new blog reasonably up to date, I have tried a goodly number of wines of every kind of feather and fur, I have shared my thoughts whenever I could remember them, I have shared pictures, some of them in focus, and I have included links to more knowledgeable/thoroughly researched blogs whenever possible.

On the other hand, I don’t want to be greedy. I wouldn’t dream of asking for more of the wines I have already had (the Privilegios, Toneles, 1874s, 34s, Panesas, Santa Anas, El Cerros, etc, etc, etc – see previous posts ad infinitum).

So please can I have:

1. Saca 2/11 of the 2012 Callejuela Manzanilla de Añada
2. Volume II of the Pitijopos
3. Willy Perez’s Barajuela fino (and the oloroso, the Samaruco and the Garum while you are there)
4. Primitivo Collantes’ new wine from Finca Matalian
5. The 2015 Palmas (and a fino en rama etc)
6. Ramiro Ibañez’s Pandorga (and the new Encrucijado when she comes)
7. The 2004 Savagnin Vignes de Mon Pere de Jean-Francois Ganevat
8. A 70 year old Toro Albala Convent selection (ahem, “the” 70 year old)
9. The Barbadillo Reliquia Palo Cortado
10. One of these biologically aged, oxidized Ruedas that are said to be hidden in family vaults up there

Yours &C,

Sharquillo

Hawk eyed readers using a screen larger than a mobile will have seen the above logo appear over there on the right hand side (more or less where I intended). The reason is that I have been, as the logo suggested, invited to contribute some content to the snazzy new web of the Consejo Regulador.

So far I have only contributed one guest blog – very much a first effort (without giving too much away, I actually wrote it a while ago) – but hopefully also the first of many.

Just realized it was six months ago yesterday that I first started playing around with WordPress in an idle moment. The time certainly seems to have flown by. In those first 182 days I have apparently posted 167 times (think that includes this one), and been visited nearly 4,000 times by around 1,500 visitors from IP addresses in over 40 countries.

I have learned a few things along the way. The first was that I really did, as the cliché goes, know virtually nothing. Not only was I not aware of the existence of other sherry blogs, neither was I aware of many of the sources of excellent reading that I have stumbled across since. The best I have read in the last six months was a superb piece by Alvaro Giron Sierra on the Vila Viniteca blog which really got me thinking and which I highly recommend (one day I will translate it).

Highlights so far? The most amazing wine was Toneles, although the best, from a very good group, may have been Privilegio and the most exciting was this weekend’s Callejuela Manzanilla de Añada. Most amazing pairing was a spectacular combination of roast garlic and palo cortado in Mugaritz which also lead me to one of my favourite posts, you win somm, you lose somm, while other favourites would be How to be a bad sherry blogger (although you should really read the original book) and the Magic Numbers (the truth of which I think is borne out by the sheer number of Equipo Navazos wines that have featured on here).

All in all, I have certainly enjoyed it so far – hope some of those 1,500 visitors have too.

This wordpress app/platform (or whatever) is brilliant – I can blog with my iphone, it is quick and easy – and it has this cool statistics section that shows you, amongst all the numbers, where people are visiting from. I am not much taken by the statistics in general but I really love the map – it appeals to my inner Napoleon.

So today I am celebrating the fact that undertheflor reached its 40th country worldwide. A big one too: India, no less. I just love the idea that people in places as far apart as the Bahamas, Greenland, Russia, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia are having a gander and, who knows, maybe enjoying a drop or two of sherry.

Until kicking this little project off it never occurred to me that there were already sherry blogs but there were, there are, and some of them are absolutely excellent.

First, it is often said that the English “know” jerez in a way that the Spanish do not. I am here to tell you this is not true: the highest quality wine writing I have read is on Spanish blogs of every kind, much of it demonstrating a technical knowledge far beyond anything I have read in English. One of these days I will get myself organized and post my recommendations.

There are, however, some fantastic enthusiasts around the world with an outstanding level of expertise and passion for sherry:

• Sherry Notes an excellent, far more thoroughly researched blog than mine by a real expert based in Belgium;
• criadera.com, an absolute gem of a blog from Scotland that just radiates enjoyment and enthusiasm;
• The Vine Inspiration – an Irish blogger on fine wines, the man loves sherry alright (more power to him!);
• although not a blog as such, The Whisky Kiwi is an enthusiast located in Scotland and also well worth following on twitter;
• Sherry Sips – another cracking blog by a real enthusiast based on the West Coast of the US -really excellent range of articles and posts; and
• Paula’s Sherry Blog, one of the most impressive tasting lists I have seen – and a collection of superbly chosen articles and posts, again from a blogger based in Scotland.

I really recommend you visit these blogs.  More than anything they are a great group who have been extraordinarily welcoming to me and my little contribution – they have made me feel like a member of a worldwide brotherhood and whatever Grouch Marx may have said, I am very proud t be a member of this particular club.

To make some space in the bass section of my wine cabinet, and in the market for new occupants.

There are dry sherries and sweet or sweetened sherries and a lot of types of each. This photo is from an introductory tasting at Gonzalez Byass and is not comprehensive but gives an idea of the styles.

Fino – front left (Tio Pepe) the young (or not) and pure, 3 years or more under flor and totally dry. Can be made from palomino or pedro ximenez – when the solera is in Sanlucar it is known as manzanilla (and will have a more floral, saline character).

Amontillado – behind the fino (Viña AB) is saucy, a few years with flor and a few (or a lot) without.

Oloroso – to the right of the fino (Alfonso) is mellow and oaky, made purely by oxidative/traditional ageing (no flor at all). Again, can be palomino or px. 

Pedro Ximenez – behind the oloroso (Nectar) is a sweet wine made from raisined grapes of the same name. Unbelievable fruit and sugar bomb.

Cream – behind the amontillado (Solera 1847) is generally an oloroso blended with some px (this one is about 75/25). This is the wine beloved of Miss Marple. There is also a “pale cream” (Croft) which I believe involves moscatel.

Then (at the back) we have the big boys from GB’s range: the Del Duque (very old amontillado); the Apostoles (a very old palo cortado with just a touch of px); Matusalem (very old sweetened oloroso); and Noe (very old PX).

But as I said, this is not the full range – there is also a palo cortado (Leonor), Tio Pepe en rama, four exquisite selected wines known as  Palmas (“Una Palma”, “Dos Palmas”, etc) and, when the mood takes them, some single vintage palo cortados that are frankly amazing.