Sherry: More than Grannies and Trifle.

How many of us assume it tastes like grannys favourite 'Harvey's Bristol Cream' and would leave us turning our face like grandma above. But there is more to Sherry than we think it's not only a drink for grannies, or indeed for adding to that delicous home made deserts like sherry trifle.

Sherry is as sophisticated and as complex as all other wines. And like other wines the it is in the making that decides the type of Sherry we get, thats right sherry can be divided into diffrent styles, such as Fino, Oloroso, and Manzanilla.

In the manufacture of sherries, the slightly porous oak barrels are deliberately filled only about five-sixths full with the young wine, leaving "the space of two fists" empty to allow the flor yeast to take form and the bung is not completely sealed. The flor favours cooler climates and higher humidity, so the sherries produced in the coastal Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María have a thicker cap of flor than those produced inland in Jerez. The yeast gives the resulting sherry its distinctive fresh taste, with residual flavors of fresh bread. Depending on the development of the wine, it may be aged entirely under the veil of flor to produce a Fino or Manzanilla sherry, or it may be fortified to limit the growth of flor and undergo oxidative aging to produce an Oloroso Sherry.