Wine Blogging Wednesday #51: Baked Goods

November 11th, 2008

Wine Blogging Wednesday for November is hosted by Joe Roberts of the 1WineDude blog, “Serious Wine Talk, for the Not-so-Serious Wine Drinker.” I had the pleasure of meeting Joe at the Wine Bloggers Conference and not only does he know his stuff, he also happens to be a real decent guy, even if he does like to take jabs at our West Coast Editor, Steve Heimoff ;)

Joe’s theme for this week is: Baked Goods. We were free to taste any wine in the sweet category be it Port, Sherry, Madeira, a late-harvester or anything else that tickles our fancy. A lot of these stickies don’t get the attention they deserve so this is a great opportunity to put them in the limelight!

I’ve only had Sherry a handful of times so I took this chance to snag a Sherry from the magazine, one that Mike Schachner recently tasted for an upcoming issue. I tasted the Bodegas Dios Baco, S.L. Amontillado. But first, let’s talk a bit about why Sherry is so special.

Produced around the Jerez region of Spain, from the Palomino and Pedro Ximenez grapes, Sherry is a distinct wine that requires tremendous care for production. It is produced using the “Solera System” which is a blending method using various levels of barrels or, Soleras. Because Sherry is non-vintage, various Solera levels are used to combine sherries of different ages into one final blend. The Solera can be six or more levels high and each level contains wines of different ages.

Another point of note is the layer of yeast buildup called “Flor” in each barrel, which contributes to the character of the sherry. Because space is left in each barrel, there is room for the Flor to grow. The bready flavors and aromas found in Sherry are due to the Flor. Sherry is often sweetened with concentrated Pedro Ximenez grape juice.

There are many styles of Sherry but the bottle I selected is an Amontillado, which means that it has a darker color and richer flavor than a Fino, but it is less sweet than an Oloroso, which typically has a higher alcohol as well.

It has a pale amber color and a nose reminiscent of roasted nuts with a hint of spice. On the palate it has some nice bisquity flavors. It’s really smooth, and coats the tongue with its medium-full body. The alcohol on it is 18% and is balanced well. This is a delightful Sherry and a nice way to conclude a meal on a sweet note. I had it after my Roast Chicken with Sundried Tomato Orzo.

I looked it up in our buying guide afterwards and it turns out that it is a 93-point sherry and $20, which is real affordable for a wine of this caliber. Great buy!

I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s contributions and thanks again to Joe, for hosting this month and to Lenn Thompson, the creater of WBW!

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Filed under , Wine Blogging Wednesday | Comment (1)

One Response to “Wine Blogging Wednesday #51: Baked Goods”

  1. 1WineDude on November 12, 2008 10:05 am

    Wow – what a bargain! I need to get me a bottle of that!!!

    GREAT explanation of the Solera system, by the way.

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