Food and Beverages: Wines of Spain

Wines of Spain

Spain is the 3^rd largest producer of wines in the world. [Red and White wines] The war climate is not very favourable, still the grapes flourish vigorously and are richer therefore the resulting wine produced has high alcoholic strength.

The reputation of Spanish wines is, unique in quality. Rioja and Uat de Penas are similar to Claret, but harsher and more astringent in quality.
The Spanish climate is not conducive for white wine.

Sherry is the most popular wine of Spain, has strong colour, high alcohol and abundant flavor.

SHERRY: it is a famous white wine of Spain, from the south western corner of Spain, called Andalucía, in the centre of is the main town

             Sherry is a triangle from 3 Spanish towns in Andalucía:

                                   Jerez de Frontera,

Sanlúcar de Barrameda,                        Puerto de Santa Maria

Wines made outside these limits are not called sherry.
E.g.Montilla [13-16% alcohol], these are pale dry white wines, never fortified, cannot be called sherry, extremely popular in southern Spain, fermented in earthen ware called ‘Tinajas’
A Montillado sherry takes its name from mantilla wines, it means in style of Montilla

There are 2 types of Sherry

FINO group OLOROSO group

Finos: The finos are pale, dry and delicate, but not thin, with a medium body. It is an elegant and sharp and excessively clear finish, not bitter a wine of Jerez. The finos develop after the appearance of an unusual phenomenon. It is FLOR, the yeast crust, which forms on the surface of the wine in some casks. The flor has the effect of excluding oxygen from the wine keeping it pale in colour. They are taken with soups or as aperitifs.

This group includes Manzanilla, the driest of all wines from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, it has characteristic flavor, attributed to sea air, which contributes to the fragrance, lightness and slightly bitter tonic pale in colour, very dry and very light, because flor being able to form throughout the year due to mild temperature.

Amontillado, most popular of all dry sherries, not so pale and dry, full bodied, has an attractive nutty bouquet and flavour of its own, they have a dark colour with age, Amontillado is used in England to cover blends of sherry.

Vido de pasto: Least typical of dry sherries, least expensive, all-purpose table wine, pale golden colour, not so sweet, rather dry.

These wines have 15% alcohol content

OLOROSO group: These are Sherries where flor has not occurred.

a. Amoroso: It is a medium dry golden wine of full body and nuttiness. It is considered as intermediate all purpose Sherry.

b. Oloroso: A deeper golden wine, which can be quite dry, but fairly sweet. It has full body and is nutty it has more body and less aroma than Finos.

c. Cream: A rich golden sweet, soft wine of full body.

d. Brown: This is a dark walnut brown, very sweet of full bodied
nuttiness.

      e. Palo Cortado: these are quite rare and much sought after. They
           are made from wine which attracted flor originally, but, which die

         off early. Instead of becoming fino it becomes an oloroso. These
         wines are very expensive.

d. Raya: It is a lower quality wine and is used to make cheaper brands. They are made by adding sweetening or colouring to the wine.These is often sold as Cream Sherries.
The Olorosos have 18% alcohol content, the extra alcohol lkills he flor in Olorosos which continue for18 months in Finos.

USES:

1.Pale dry Sherries like Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado are ideal appetizers before meals or with hors ď œuvre or soup.

2. The richer Oloroso can be served after dinner.

3. It can be used in mixed drinks, like cooler, cobbler or flip.

4. It is an economical wine, as bottle once opened does not deteriorate,
can be kept and b some other time.

5. It is used as an accompaniment with shellfish based soups like green
turtle soup.

Sherry often deposits fairly substantial sediment. This is cream of tartar, which is natural to wine. Allow the bottle to stand up for an hour; the sediment will fall to the bottom of the bottle

Sherry GRAPES [Palomina]

Palomina Grapes

Grapes: Grapes are very sweet and small, they are thick clusters trailed low to get sun rays and heat from the baked earth at nights. Grapes are not hurried for pressing; they are spread on straw mats and covered with dry grass and uncovered soon as the sun shines. In this process some moisture evaporates.

Pressing: It is a closet in a shape of a long building with thick walls, made from stone; mere slits are kept for light to come in not the sun. This kind of press is called ‘Lager’ [10sqft], which holds 150lbs of grapes.
The palomino grapes contain cream of tartar which is broken down to ‘Gypsum o Calcium Sulphate’ [yeso] to form tartaric acid and increasing acidity and natural sweetness this process is called plastering. After plastering, the must is left to ferment in casks [butts] and left to open air, as a result fermentation lasts a long time [3months], wine is allowed to remain in the casks3-4yrs and classified.
The wine is racked into new casks to leave sediment behind. A white film or a soft crust appears on the surface of the wine, known as ‘Flor’. The flor is essential to make fine dry sherry. This is the phenomena that give Finos its unique character.

Wines that develop thick flor will become Finos.
Wine that have none or extremely little flor will be Olorosos.
Now the wine is transported to ‘Bodega’ [stores above ground level]

Wine is classified by experts for its quality, he marks the barrels with:
One stroke for the best
Two strokes for medium
Three strokes for the least good which will be distilled to brandy.

Graded wines are drawn to fresh casks and fortified with Spanish brandy.
Wines are tasted, graded and left to develop. The wine is subjected to ‘Solera’ process of maturing and blending.

Solera

There are many soleras in a bodega; the casks are stacked one on top of another n a pyramid, 3-4 casks high, with the oldest at the bottom casks
In this a series of casks are replenished from one cask to another cask starting from top to bottom.

When Sherry is used for bottling or shipping it is drawn from the oldest barrels from the bottom, they are replenished from the next oldest one until ‘Criada’ or nursery barrels are filled up with young wine. The casks are always filled not less 2/3^rd,

The evaporation is great and the casks to be replenished constantly, when sherry is drawn completely it is free of sugar and then clarified with egg whites.

Oloroso Sherry is sweetened with a heavy sweet wine. Sherry is a blended wine, the consistency is maintained. Sherry wines are matured for as long as 15yrs.

Soloeras go into a composition of a single shipment.

Malaga: Shipped from the port of Malaga. The best known fortified wine, it is a desert wine, White wine from coast of Andalusian coast, it is light or dark brown in colour, very sweet and delicate, moderately priced, blended on solera system, The fermented grape juice, 5% alcohol is added and then it is enriched with Vino Tierno, [wine made from grapes, dried in the sun], or Vino Maestro [wine to which alcohol is added to stop fermentation], Vino De Color is added to increase the body. The wine is racked, finned and blended and is different from sherry, generally sweeter

Tarragona: Red wine from Calatonia, largely exported to other countries. They resembles Port wine, are inferior in quality and cheaper in price.