A Good Time for Sherry

Have you ever wondered when and how to serve Sherry? And what different types of Sherries there are? Well, if you want to find out please read on…

Old perceptions and new trends
There is an old perception that Sherry is a sweet, honey coloured liqueur type drink that “old dears” drink at Christmas. Fortunately this is just a false perception! The truth is that most Sherries actually are dry, white and not much higher in alcohol than some Australian or American white wines at just above 15 percent per volume. In Spain, the home land of Sherry, the local tapas are more often than not washed down with refreshing, cool, dry Sherry. With the many tapas bars “popping up” around Europe, Sherry is definitely becoming a drink for the young and trendy.

Sherry-styles
Originally Sherry is made in and around the town of Jerez in the Andalucia region of southern Spain. After fermentation a highly alcoholic spirit is added to the wine. Historically, the purpose of the fortification was for the alcohol to serve as a preservative to prevent the wine from going off in the hot climate.

Spanish Sherry

I met Margereta Zaveri, whom we call Meta fondly, shortly after we moved to Malta through another common friend. We clicked immediately not only because Meta is from Sweden which reminds me of my dear partner, Anna Axen, but she is a big fan of Spanish wine. Meta worked for a major wine retailer in the UK for many years before moving to Malta about a year ago. Whilst doing research on the move, she realized that there was no website that provided objective reviews of food and wine in Malta. Not one that jumps out at our faces anyway…

She immediately put her thoughts into action and started the Malta Food and Wine website (http://www.MaltaFoodandWine.com). She aims to provide a guide to food and wine for the short term or long term visitor to Malta. I particularly like her philosophy of doing completely independent reviews only and only publishing reviews of restaurants and wine bars that she recommends. None of the wine bars or restaurants has paid to be included on her website. She has to have visited the restaurant at least twice (to check consistency?) in order to inlcude it in her review.