Sherry is (still not) sexy

And sadly nor is port however much we enjoy it at Christmas. Let’s see if we can remedy that.

There’s a neon-lit sign in my local tapas bar, Bar 44, that says sherry is sexy.

I love sherry myself, I love what they do but to be honest it’s just not. Not in the way that champagne or anything that goes pop is sexy or an espresso martini or a voluptuous red…

Of course it helps to be in a tapas bar but even there - and it might seem heretical to say it in Sherry Week - that’s not the only thing people drink. Cava, crisp white wines like albarino, a hearty Ribera del Duero, a gintonica as the Spanish like to call it, a beer or even a vermut (vermouth) could all claim our attention. The problem for sherry is that there are just too many good things you could drink instead.

Still, I hope to persuade you that even if not exactly sexy it’s delicious, fascinating and incredibly good value for money. 

If you’d like to find out more about it and other fortified wines like port and madeira - buy a bottle and come along to my online tasting at 6.30pm UK time next Tuesday 14th. (It’s for paying subscribers but you can join for as little as £4.50 which is pretty cheap for a wine tasting plus you’d get the benefit of a month of my pre-Christmas recommendations!) 

(If you’re not up for it, fair enough. I know I’ve bombarded you with requests to sign up recently so absolutely feel free to ignore me 😉)

What to buy? A good starting point would be the feature I wrote for the Guardian the other week. No-one seems to have promotions on sherry at the moment but at under £8 a half bottle for the top of the range own label they’re affordable without one.

I’ll be dispelling some of the myths surrounding sherry and port including how to store and serve them and suggesting some food pairings to enjoy with them.

(For those of you who are in the UK there’s also a madeira tasting in London on Thursday November 16th where you can taste a whole range of madeiras and try some food pairings for yourself. )

Here are some ports - and alternatives to sherry - to look out for