This verdict on Sherry Week has very little to do with tasting notes, and much more to do with the ramblings of my cricket team. We were together for a barbeque at the weekend, so I thought “all those people in one place? Be rude not to have a mass tasting!”
Off I went armed with the Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference range of 12 year old Amontillado, Oloroso, and Pedro Ximenez, as well as their entry level Manzanilla. Oh yeah, and a couple of packs of olives and almonds….
I was a bit late, so by the time I got there, the magnum ice creams were on their way round. Time to go arse bout tit and get the PX out! Plenty of comments about “that’s not sherry!” and “that’s not what we used to drink at Christmas!” had me chuckling. When they tucked in they loved it. Well, 9 out of 10 of them did. Was a bit too luscious in the mouth for one poor sole, but the mixture of English, kiwis, and boks lapped it up overall.
We waited a few moments for everyone’s tastebuds to recover before cracking open the other three. As expected there were mostly quizzical looks. The Manzanilla (although not a bad one for £5.50!!) was just too different from their normal idea of what a white wine should be. That’s fair. It can be a slow burner that one.
The Amontillado was better received, but by the time we got to the Oloroso we were back to being sherry lovers. Maybe it was because of the 3 glasses of sherry they’d had before, but more so they loved the fuller body. It was more like the sherry they remembered, although much drier.
An hour spent with the boys and girls on the weekend and hopefully one or two more will have a second look at the sherry aisle. That’s all it takes!
Cheers
Mike
