# Sherry anyone?



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I've just read this article in the Observer about a group of people trying to increase the market for sherry in the UK, which has fallen by 40% in twenty years. Sherry these days is usually regarded as a tipple reserved for one's maiden aunt at Christmas.

David Williams on wine: sherry makes a comeback | Life and style | The Observer

Living very close to Spain's "sherry triangle" (Jerez de la Frontera - El Puerto de Santa Maria - Sanlúcar de la Barrameda) and next to a forest which has traditionally provided the cork for the bottles, this is an issue close to my heart.

I drink a fair amount, though not more than a couple of glasses at a time, as it is 15%-18% proof; ice-cold_ fino_ or _manzanilla_ with a bowl of olives on a summer evening; honey-sweet Pedro Ximenez on ice after dinner; nutty _amontillado seco_ just about any time. They are served in all the bars here and are drunk by people of all ages and social classes. The communal jug of _rebujito_ (Tio Pepe fino and lemonade with ice) is seen at every fair and festival.

So what do you guys think of sherry? Did you realise there were seven or eight different kinds, not just Harveys Bristol Cream? Which kinds do you buy, if any?

Incidentally the prices quoted in the Observer article are scary! PX here is about €5 a bottle, manzanilla less than €3. But I guess that's marketing for you - if you make something too cheap, people will think it's no good.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> I've just read this article in the Observer about a group of people trying to increase the market for sherry in the UK, which has fallen by 40% in twenty years. Sherry these days is usually regarded as a tipple reserved for one's maiden aunt at Christmas.
> 
> David Williams on wine: sherry makes a comeback | Life and style | The Observer
> 
> ...


I loooove a glass of chilled fino - never tried it with lemonade, though - maybe I will this summer 

and a chilled amontillado too

i've never tried Harveys tbh - but my mum used to drink _schooners_ of it when I was a kid - or _shooters_ as she called them after the second or third


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

I enjoy a glass or two myself, dry and with ice. I also love a drop of Port.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

I've always thought of it as an old ladies tipple!! It needs re-inventing. It needs to be made appealing to the younger generation. Change its bottle designs and a good advertising campaign! Maybe start calling the younger version "Merry Sherry" or summat. The younger genration like initials - how about OMG its HBC for example? - to get it into the scene!

Not that I mean to encourage kids to drink, but for the twentysomethings????

Jo xxx


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

jojo said:


> I've always thought of it as an old ladies tipple!! It needs re-inventing. It needs to be made appealing to the younger generation. Change its bottle designs and a good advertising campaign! Maybe start calling the younger version "Merry Sherry" or summat. The younger genration like initials - how about OMG its HBC for example? - to get it into the scene!
> 
> Not that I mean to encourage kids to drink, but for the twentysomethings????
> 
> Jo xxx


You´re in the wrong profession Jo ...

But really we need to get people off the idea of HBC (which is really only fit for trifles) and get them to be more adventurous. How to make Tio Pepe trendy? Last time I went to Oxford it was overrun with tapas bars but they were all drinking Rioja or San Miguel.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Alcalaina said:


> You´re in the wrong profession Jo ...
> 
> But really we need to get people off the idea of HBC (which is really only fit for trifles) and get them to be more adventurous.


My older daughters drink WKD (or is it WDK???? Its blue and they all drink it straight from the bottle - that seems to be the trendy thing to do) and thats only fit for cleaning toilets IMO lol!! But they could bottle it with some lemonade or something ?????????????

Jo xx


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

An old maid's drink
Well, I am VERY partial to a chilled copa of Fina La Ina.....as an alternative to G&T in summer.
I'm old, I guess, but no maid...


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## neilmac (Sep 10, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> I've just read this article in the Observer about a group of people trying to increase the market for sherry in the UK, which has fallen by 40% in twenty years. Sherry these days is usually regarded as a tipple reserved for one's maiden aunt at Christmas.
> 
> David Williams on wine: sherry makes a comeback | Life and style | The Observer
> 
> ...


Yes please! The perfect warm weather drink - ice cold with olives and cacahuetas or something else a little salty. Mmm! Summer is only around the corner!


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Something I know a bit about. My father, Mrs. Jimenata and I all worked for Harvey's in Bristol. 

At one time - in my working lifetime - Bristol was the centre of the world sherry trade and indeed was a major centre of the world wine trade.

Alcalaina is right that Harvey's isn't the be-all and end-all of sherry indeed Harvey's themselves had many sherry brands including Bristol Cream, Bristol Milk, Bristol Amontillado and Bristol Fino and many others. They were also a large fine wine merchant and owned the massive Cockburn's port brands. But Bristol Cream was the flagship brand with the majority of the company turnover. 

The Harvey's site at Whitchurch near Bristol was larger than you would imagine in size and scope - over 700 staff and a storage tank farm reminiscent of an oil refinery - but it smelt rather nicer. 

There was also a retail outlet, storage cellars, a superb restaurant and museum of wine in the centre of Bristol. None of this is there any more. 

I left in 1980 which coincided with not only the near demise of Harvey's which at that time was part of Allied Breweries but with the near death of the entire global sherry trade.

I love sherry to this day - my favourite is an ice cold Fino or Manzanilla.


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## Spanky McSpank (Aug 27, 2009)

Some small bars have some tremendous home made fino for 85cents a glass. Fino is strong so you need to be careful when supping that haha.
I have an occasional glass during the weekend with a few tapas. Usually Pavon in El Puerto or Tio Pepe in other areas. Oloroso sometimes too and rebujito en the ferias always.
Round these parts, it's not a young persons drink.


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## TheHendersons (Feb 22, 2011)

Well I am one of those twenty somethings and I will be trying sherry after the raving you lot have done. 

Do I go to the bar and ask for an OMG SHRY LOL?


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## littleredrooster (Aug 3, 2008)

I've always liked a drop myself from an early age, and recall back in my schooldays occasionally sneaking off to buy a bottle for as little as seven bob and a tanner.

However when back in the UK in recent years buying booze in for Xmas, I've looked at the sherry prices on the supermarket shelves and thought, that seems expensive in comparison to other alcoholic drinks on offer and so generally moved on to something else.

Is part of the decline down to it outpricing itself in comparison to other drinks, or is it no longer considered good for you, as used to be the case when the old biddies were enjoying their daily glass of Sanatogen on a regular basis,....for health reasons of course ?


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

littleredrooster said:


> I've always liked a drop myself from an early age, and recall back in my schooldays occasionally sneaking off to buy a bottle for as little as seven bob and a tanner.
> 
> However when back in the UK in recent years buying booze in for Xmas, I've looked at the sherry prices on the supermarket shelves and thought, that seems expensive in comparison to other alcoholic drinks on offer and so generally moved on to something else.
> 
> Is part of the decline down to it outpricing itself in comparison to other drinks, or is it no longer considered good for you, as used to be the case when the old biddies were enjoying their daily glass of Sanatogen on a regular basis,....for health reasons of course ?


It all could be sorted by adding it to lemonade? some other mixer drinks, re-naming, re-bottling, modernising and a good new advertising campaign. Still keep the old versions for those connoisseurs of fine sherries etc. But make the "new, diluted with mixers" version appeal to the masses

Jo xxx


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

TheHendersons said:


> Well I am one of those twenty somethings and I will be trying sherry after the raving you lot have done.
> 
> Do I go to the bar and ask for an OMG SHRY LOL?


Hurray, we´ve made a convert! 

It can be tricky ordering fino in a bar as it is called different things in different parts of Spain. Here, if you ask for _vino blanco_ you often get fino sherry (a bit of a surprise if you just wanted regular white wine!). Tio Pepe is a well-known brand right across Spain so ask for that.

Try some different kinds - fino, amontillado, oloroso - you can get them in the supermarkets, very cheap.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> Hurray, we´ve made a convert!
> 
> It can be tricky ordering fino in a bar as it is called different things in different parts of Spain. Here, if you ask for _vino blanco_ you often get fino sherry (a bit of a surprise if you just wanted regular white wine!). Tio Pepe is a well-known brand right across Spain so ask for that.
> 
> Try some different kinds - fino, amontillado, oloroso - you can get them in the supermarkets, very cheap.


good old uncle Pete's sherry



not much wrong with auntie Mary's coffee liqueur either


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> Hurray, we´ve made a convert!
> 
> It can be tricky ordering fino in a bar as it is called different things in different parts of Spain. Here, if you ask for _vino blanco_ you often get fino sherry (a bit of a surprise if you just wanted regular white wine!). Tio Pepe is a well-known brand right across Spain so ask for that.
> 
> Try some different kinds - fino, amontillado, oloroso - you can get them in the supermarkets, very cheap.


Can't go wrong by asking for Manzanilla - a type of fino sherry from Sanlucar. 

Although thinking about it, you might end up with a Camomile tea I suppose...:confused2:


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

jimenato said:


> Can't go wrong by asking for Manzanilla - a type of fino sherry from Sanlucar.
> 
> Although thinking about it, you might end up with a Camomile tea I suppose...:confused2:


That's exactly what happened to me !


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

xabiachica said:


> good old uncle Pete's sherry
> 
> 
> 
> not much wrong with auntie Mary's coffee liqueur either


Uncle Joe actually - Pepe is a diminutive of José.


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