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Sherry is, without a doubt, one of the greatest wines in the world. Even in years when it is not for the moment considered "fashionable," it retains a mystique all its own. When asked about Spanish wines, this is the one most people think of first (at least, until they've encountered the magnificent other vintages of Spain), for it has a remarkable history and was the first Spanish wine to become established on the export markets.

History.  While some of the oldest written mentions of sherry date from Roman times, its origins date to the Phoenician colonies in the Iberian Peninsula. During the Moorish occupation, wine was still produced (despite being prohibited for consumption by Koranic Law), and Jerez became known for its "Seris" wine. By Chaucer's time, this Andalucian wine was well-known all over Spain (where it was known as Jerez) and Europe. Old records show that Sherry (the name corrupted by the English) was being exported to England from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and one of the more specific ones records that in 1485 it was shipped from Puerto de Santa María to "Plemma" - probably Plymouth. Sherry undoubtedly came to the New World from the beginning of the Spanish Conquest...and it's been with us ever since.

The Sherry Process.  All Sherry starts "life" dry. After fermentation, the wines will have 12 to 13% alcohol by volume, and may be stored in tanks until the winter after the vintage, when they will be assessed for quality. The best wines are fortified to 14.5% and stored for eventual blending.

In the cask is where flor grows. This strain of yeast feeds off residual elements in the wine and forms a film (which can actually be as thick as a foaming crust) on the surface. In the spring, those wines that have grown the best flor are re-fortified to 15.5% (an ideal strength). These will become fino wines. The rest will be fortified to 17.5% - too strong for flor. These will become olorosos.

At this stage, these are wines of a singel vintage, known as añadas. Very little of this comes to market. The vast majority of wine, however, goes into the solera.

"imagine," as writes John Radford in The New Spain, "a three-row pyramid of barrels with, say, seven along the bottom, six on the row above and five along the top, and you have a mental image of how the solera system works." In any one year, only a third of the wine in these barrels may be sold, and they are topped up by adding wine from the row above. These, in turn, are topped with wine from the row above them, which are topped up by the new wine from the latest year's añadas. These wines are carefuly selected to bring something unique to the solera. By the time a new wine has gone all the way through the system, anything from 5 to 100 years may have passed. More importantly, the new wine will have had the chance to take on the characteristics of its forebears in the system.

Types of Sherries.  Although some Jerez wine cellars are going back to the system of añadas (vintages), Sherry wines are differentiated not by year, but by type, which are the following:

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