Sherry - that chi-chi Frasier beverage...

[NuocMam]

You really should look for some good Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximenez. This is where sherry gets interesting.

I disagree. Truly fresh fino and manzanilla are no less interesting than palo cortado, and besides some outstanding PX, many of them are cloying, deliberately over-the-top confections that do more to impress than interest. However, it is easier to find a good palo cortado than a fino or manzanilla at the same level, especially in the export market. Unfortunate, I suppose, but a reason to visit the region.

[Jason Perlow]

You really should look for some good Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximenez. This is where sherry gets interesting. Look up the word "flor" in a good wine dictionary. Another thought:  What about Madeira?

I gotta agree with you there, I'm a Oloroso, Palo Cortado and PX man myself.

[Jeffy Boy]

I plan to chill the Manzanilla and have it with some tapas dishes. The Oloroso I plan to have cool, on it's own.

Just finished Phase 1 of my Sherry familiarization. Tonight my wife and I prepared a tapas "grazing", to go along with the Gonzalez Byass Manzanilla I had chilling in the fridge. I realized it's been a long time since I've had sherry...

Cracked the bottle while I was preparing a dish of shrimp, sauteed with garlic and sherry (some cheaper, Canadian-made sherry). On it's own, the Manzanilla had a nutty, salty taste, compared to any white wine, which is my reference point. Not unpleasant, but not something that made me think "wow, this is good". But maybe something you have to develop a taste for? While the shrimp were cooking, I had a few toasted almonds that we had done earlier - raw almonds, dipped in egg white, sprinkled with salt and paprika, then toasted in the oven. On their own - tasty. When I sipped the sherry after the almonds, the sherry took on a creamier texture. Great combination!

Also had the sherry with some olives - black olives in lemon/thyme, and some spicy green olives. Last dish was grilled chorizo sausage on crostini.

Conclusion - Gotta have food with sherry, and I think it's a taste you grow into.

[Craig Camp]

I love the title of this thread - "that chi-chi beverage" because Sherry is in fact probably the greatest fine wine bargain in the world today. It is easy to find profound wines for under $20 and for just over $30 you enter the realm of the sublime.

Great Fino/Manzanilla sherry can be found for around $10 making it the best value apertif on the planet.

Chi-chi for ten bucks - what a deal!

[Jeffy Boy]

Craig,

I reread your overview of Sherry, and noticed your comment about Manzanillas having a "nuttier" flavour than Finos from cooler areas. I'm thinking this is the taste element to which I've got to become accustomed.

As a Sherry novice, should I perhaps have started off with a fruitier Fino, and if so, do you have a recommendation?