Flor and Order

An extreme matching challenge proves that sherry really is the best food wine on the planet. Surely it’s time restaurants woke up to the fact, says an impressed Chris Losh

Back in July last year the Tate’s Hamish Anderson and Alessandro Marchesan from Zuma and Roka presented two packed-out masterclasses on food and wine matching at the Imbibe show at Earl’s Court in London. They chose a variety of wines to go with various dishes and asked the visitors
to vote on which ones they liked.

One of the most polarising drinks on show was a sherry. Some of the attendees loved it, some hated it. Some loved it but couldn’t ‘get’ it with the food, others swooned about how good it was. It was instructive. Here, clearly, is a drink that the on-trade needs to work harder to understand. Not least because, once the food and wine matching was over, Anderson and Marchesan went round idly trying the sherry with a variety of the other dishes on offer and found that it went with far more of them than they expected it to.

So, how to square the circle that Spain’s famous fortified is a great food wine but is largely ignored by the very people who should be falling over themselves to serve it? Restaurants, we mean you! 
What we needed, we felt, was a challenge – something that would prove beyond doubt how incredibly food friendly this drink is. Sure, everyone (we hope) knows that fino is good with almonds, olives, seafood, etc. But that’s not a lot of use if you aren’t a Spanish restaurant. How about if we threw the category in the deep end and stuck a range of sherries up against a stack of dishes with which nobody would normally think of pairing it?

Anderson and Marchesan agreed to pick five sherries each, in a variety of styles, to be the ‘category champions’, and we would then pull in food almost at random from restaurants close to one of Marchesan’s restaurants, Roka, to see how the team of fortifieds got on.

It was, we accepted, something of a gamble – not least because there were nearly as many dishes as there were wines, leaving a suicidally small margin for error. If the results were disastrous, we’d be left with two rather shamefaced sommeliers and four blank pages in the magazine, but our duo were quietly confident. And so, the wines were called in, the take-aways were ordered
and battle commenced...

.In the red corner:.

The Food
Sushi and sashimi
Tempura prawns/spicy tuna roll Mushroom pizza
Pad Thai
Japanese mushroom pot
Burger and fries
Fillet steak

.In the blue corner:.

The Wines
Hidalgo Manzanilla La Gitana Mentzendorff, 020 7840 3600
‘This is the perfect introduction to sherry,’ said Hamish. ‘You can almost tell someone it’s a white wine. There’s a bit of that salty, yeasty tang but it’s very friendly.’

‘I don’t get why more people don’t drink this,’ added Marchesan belligerently. ‘It’s a lot better than many of the wines served in gastropubs. We’ve been waiting for white wines with these kind
of characteristics to appear for years, but they’ve been here all the time!’

Soft, subtle and with a gentle saltiness, our panel figured this sherry would be perfect with sushi or sashimi.

Valdespino Fino Inocente Lea & Sandeman, 020 7244 0522
‘I love Valdespino,’ said Marchesan. ‘It’s owned by Osborne, but I still think they retain the passion for what they are doing.’
‘There’s no oiliness on the palate,but it has a good generosity of flavour, which means it has mass market appeal,’ added Anderson. With an attractive mushroomy, earthy tang to it, the duo reckoned
this would be good with the pizza.

Gutiérrez Colosía Fino Alliance, 01505 506060
After a rather peculiar, sulky, cabbagey nose (perhaps related to the fact that it’s the only sherry closed with a screwcap?) the palate revealed itself to be winningly light, fresh and delicate, with a green olive tang, pretty much in the same territory as manzanilla.

‘I’d try this with the sushi and maybe the Thai, too – it has that kind of fragrant structure,’ commented Anderson.

Hidalgo Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana Mentzendorff, 020 7840 3600
‘You get something really chewy here. It has texture and grip, almost like tannins,’ said Marchesan. ‘It’s lovely and nutty but without being a full-blown oxidised style. It still has that lovely manzanilla saltiness.’

Lovely length and a sweet-yet-dry macadamia nut finish. Anderson saw possibilities for this beyond the obvious: ‘Obviously it will work with the fish, but I’d be interested in trying this with the fillet,’ he mused. ‘It might work like the saltiness of the chips.’

Lustau Manzanilla Pasada de Sanlúcar FMV, 020 7819 0360
Delicate and subtle, yet also beautifully complex, with aromas of thyme, green olives and rosemary, this wine was so good that our tasters could barely speak after trying it, beyond Anderson’s visceral ‘bloody hell that’s good!’

It was a terrific combination of almost-sweet fruit, wrapped in an dry, tangy wine. So although it was exhilaratingly vibrant and fresh, it was also intensely approachable. ‘Could be interesting with the pad thai,’ pondered Marchesan.

Fernando de Castilla Classic Medium Amontillado Boutinot, 0161 908 1300
Anderson had requested a dry version of this but our panel were not unhappy to try a medium sherry. Although this style was created for drinking tout seul, the duo thought its sweetness, with windfall apples and treacle flavours might give them more food-matching options.

Valdespino Dry Amontillado Tio Diego Lea & Sandeman, 020 7244 0522
This is a classic amontillado that ‘smells dry but tastes sweet’ as Marchesan put it. Classic amontillado toffee flavours backed up with a zingy freshness on the palate and a neat, nutty finish.

‘There’s a very generous mid-palate here and a beautiful aftertaste,’ said Anderson. ‘A brilliant introduction for people to dry brown sherries.’

And the prospective food match? ‘I think it’ll be great with a burger and caramelised onions,’ opined Marchesan.

Hidalgo Palo Cortado Wellington Mentzendorff, 020 7840 3600
Stylistically, palo cortado is a tricky beast to nail down. It’s more or less halfway between an amontillado and an oloroso, with some aromatics of the former and flavours of the latter and a palate weight somewhere inbetween. This was complex stuff, with coffee beans, old furniture and the rancio element of an old cognac. On the palate it was bracingly dry, with a steely acidity.

‘The flavour is like nuts coated in sugar,’ mused Anderson, ‘but there isn’t any sweetness. It needs a dish with plenty of flavour. It is an amazing wine, but not that expensive – about the
same price as a 20-year-old tawny.’

An ideal food match would be an oxtail stew, where the wine’s structure would cut the fat. Of the dishes today, our panel put their money on the burger, or the steak if it was a fattier cut.

Lustau Oloroso Pata de Gallina FMV, 020 7819 0360
This majestic oloroso brought contented sighs all round the table. Its figgy attack morphed into a salty, umami-fuelled richness and a lengthy finish, winning over Anderson. ‘You’d swear it would be sweet, but it’s totally dry.’ ‘This would be fantastic with steak and kidney pie,’ said Marchesan. ‘Any kind of rich rustic cooking, like offal or something with a reduced sauce.’

WITH THE FOOD

Sushi (supplied by Roka)
In a sense, this was always going to be one of the simplest matches. After all, as Marchesan pointed out, fino and manzanilla have a proven track record with fish in Andalucia. Here we tried both tuna and salmon sushi, with a variety of the dry white sherries. None of them clashed, but the best matches were the two manzanilla pasadas, which had the freshness to match with the fish, enhancing their flavours. The Lustau, in particular, also had the weight to bring out the creaminess of the rice, before cleaning off the palate with a whiff of salt.
‘Damn me, that’s good,’ said a truly awed Anderson. ‘You shouldn’t drink anything else with this.’
‘These kinds of wine are just perfect with food like this,’ said Marchesan.
Star matches: Lustau Manzanilla Pasada, Hidalgo Pasada Pastrana

Tempura prawns/spicy tuna tempura roll (supplied by Roka)
Tempura prawns are something of a staple on many menus these days, so it helps to have a nailed-on match. Our panel initially thought the Hidalgo Pasada Pastrana would work best with this, but in fact it turned out to have too much weight. The best match was not a manzanilla (though the La Gitana went well) but the lightest fino on offer, the Gutiérrez Colosia.
‘It’s more restrained,’ said Marchesan. ‘You need a lighter style for this. The freshness of the drink really works with the richness of the batter and the sweetness of the meat, but doesn’t overpower it.’
With the spicy tuna tempura roll our tasters went for something with a little more weight – and found an absolutely nailed-on 100% match in Valdespino’s Fino Inocente. ‘That’s simply perfect,’ enthused Anderson.
‘The whole dish comes through, but you have that lovely almondy, mushroom flor character accompanying it beautifully in the background. The fish becomes so intense. It’s just wonderful!’
Star matches: Valdespino Fino Inocente, Gutiérrez Colosia Fino

Mushroom pizza (supplied by Zizzi)
If fried and plain white fish are traditional sherry territory, this emphatically wasn’t. The drink was a long way out of its comfort zone and our panel wasn’t sure what to start with. The more mushroomy Fino Inocente was a good flavour match, but too heavy – as was the Hidalgo Pasada Pastrana, but the softer, lighter La Gitana was a fine match.
‘The freshness and the minerality cuts through the cheese,’ said Marchesan, ‘while the salt and nutty characters really work with the pastry. And the herbs on the pizza pick up some of those green apple characters in the wine. It’s a really good match.’
Star match: Hidalgo Manzanilla La Gitana

Pad Thai (supplied by Siam)
With so much going on in the food – oiliness, spiciness, sweet and sour, chicken, egg, peanuts, carrots, ginger, beansprouts – this is a challenge for any wine, and again our tasters weren’t too sure where to start with the matching, so lined up a broad selection.
The Lustau Manzanilla Pasada turned out to be too assertive for the food, punching a large salty hole in the dish, though it was not a million miles away. The La Gitana worked better, being rather more peacable by nature and allowing the food to talk for itself, and while the Hidalgo Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana was a lovely match in terms of flavour and texture, the chilli burned through a little on the dry finish.
The level of heat in the dish, in fact, was the main reason why the Fernando de Castilla Classic Medium Amontillado turned out to be the best match, its sweeter palate wrapping itself around the chilli like a fire blanket, and the nutty characters neatly in harmony with the flavours in the dish.
Of all the matches we tried, this was perhaps the most extraordinary. With less chilli in the dish (it was felt to be atypically spicy) there could have been three excellent sherry matches here – each in a different style: a manzanilla, a manzanilla pasada and a medium amontillado.
‘Can you think of any other wine style where that would be the case? Unbelievable,’ marvelled Anderson.
Star match: Fernando de Castillo Medium Amontillado

Japanese mushroom pot (supplied by Roka)
While this unusual dish of mushrooms served in a broth with rice is traditionally Japanese, it’s stylistically very close to risotto, so forms a good substitute for a restaurant classic.
The panel felt the Lustau Oloroso would be best with such an umami-filled dish and they were proved correct. Ideally, a less powerful oloroso would have worked slightly better – the Pato de Gallina was a bit big for the food. ‘It takes over somewhat, but I don’t care,’ said Marchesan. ‘It’s such a gorgeous sherry that I’m perfectly happy that that’s all I can taste on the finish!’
‘It’s not perfect, but it’s a very good match,’ said Anderson, pointing out that the warming flavours in the wine made the food even richer and more comforting. More wintery, somehow. ‘Oloroso is a great wine style, and it goes really well with this kind of food. Just imagine if there was some parmesan and ham in there, too!’
Star match: Lustau Oloroso Pato de Gallina

Burger and fries (supplied by Gourmet Burger Kitchen)
This is where sherry really could come into its own. Anderson and Marchesan felt that all three of the dry brown sherries went really well with the dish.
The Pato de Gallina was again a bit on the large side, but made the burger taste bigger and richer, and would be perfect with venison burgers. The lighter Tio Diego Amontillado was excellent, however, as was the Wellington Palo Cortado. The latter, in fact, would probably be better for less lean burgers than the five-star one on offer from GBK, where its structure would cut through any fat.
‘It cuts through cheese, fat and butter, but doesn’t have so much body that the food disappears,’ said Marchesan. ‘And the richness in the food softens out the wine’s more austere structure.’
Star match: Hidalgo Palo Cortado Wellington

Fillet steak (supplied just for this tasting by Roka)
With a meat as delicate as fillet steak, our tasters realised quickly that they needed to be in the lighter end of the brown sherries spectrum. The palo cortado was felt to be structurally too aggressive – ‘you need more fat in the meat for that level of acidity,’ said Anderson. ‘It would work with sirloin.’ But the Tio Diego Amontillado was a five-star match.
‘That’s just beautiful,’ said Marchesan. ‘The sherry brings out the flavours of the meat and adds some flavours of its own. It’s like adding peppercorn sauce.’
‘Fillet is delicate,’ added Anderson, ‘and the wine makes it taste sweeter – like adding creaminess. Fillet steak is a tricky wine match because most red wines are too big for it, but this is absolutely perfect. And if there’s ever a char-grilled element to the meat, any oxidised sherry will work with that.’
Star match: Valdespino Dry Amontillado Tio Diego

Editorial feature from Imbibe Magazine – January/February 2011

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