Elegantly Dressed Wednesday: Sherry
I adore sherry, and not just for its smooth and nutty flavour. Every time I clap my eyes on a bottle of Fino, I’m transported back over twenty years to the pre-lunch sherry-drinking ritual my grandparents adhered to. I can see the midday sunshine pouring through the sashes, twinkling through the little glasses of wine to become dancing points of light.
I can also see the labels. Tio Pepe in the main, but later supplemented by the gaiety of La Gitana, the reliable sombreness of Harveys, the martial splendour of Hidalgo Napoleon. No other wine, whatever its merits, has a better standard of dress than sherry.
My favourite sherry is certainly the last brand. Sold to the French troops as “Napoleon” in the early 19th-century, it was also marketed to the British soldiers under the name “Wellington”. Even better for someone as impatient as myself, the amontillado seco is best drunk at room temperature, saving me the trouble of pacing agitatedly round the fridge.
That said, I’ve never tried the Hidalgo Napoleon Pedro Ximenez Viejo. Something tells me its likely to be a whole lot better than the dregs end of the Morrison’s Fino I’ve got at the moment.
Still, I raise it to elegant wines, wherever they may be found.
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This reminds me of a fabulous, bone-dry sherry, a Manzanilla, I think, that I used to get from Berry Brothers - it tasted of the sea and I could happily polish off half a bottle without realising.
Puss
Comment by Glamourpuss — 14th May, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
Ooooh, I don’t know - Morrisons…
Comment by Ms Baroque — 14th May, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
Careful Baroqueney, as one familiar with Poe (even by way of Alan Parsons) I am sure you know not to insult publicly one who drinks amontillado …
Incidentallly at one stage Morissons sold a Jim Barry Cabernet Sauvignon, and that’s class by any standards, never mind a mediocre supermarket chain.
Comment by Political Umpire — 15th May, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
Added to which, Poe went to school down the road from here…
The Morrison’s stuff is okay. I’d rather have something a little more complex, though.
Comment by Ben — 15th May, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
Well quite, but I was just offering an example of how not all their fare is two buck chuck; at the same time, it’s not exactly Penfolds Grange or Chateau Lafite either.
Did not know that about Poe, so off to Google I go …
Comment by Political Umpire — 16th May, 2008 @ 11:19 am
Not forgetting, of course, the banal but still essential dialogue from Withnail and I:
Uncle Monty: Would you like a drink?
Withnail: Sherry.
Uncle Monty: Sherry. [pause] Sherry?
Marwood: Sherry.
Uncle Monty: Sherry.
Comment by Nick — 16th May, 2008 @ 9:18 pm