Amontillado is fabulous as a cooking wine. Spaghetti with canned, minced clams, garlic and half and half becomes brilliant with a tablespoon of amontillado. Splash some in pan-seared scallops with garlic. Or make a pan-fried steak sing it’s praises. All sherries keep far longer in the fridge than unfortified wine, so can be drunk over the course of a week. I always have either a fino or an amontillado open in the fridge. Try some in your cooking. You will be thrilled with the results.
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Let's differentiate between a young amontillado, let's say around 12-15 years old, and old amontillados, older than 25 years.
I drink young ones as aperitif or with food; they are excellent with Indian food for instance, or any meat in general.
But older ones ... they deserve contemplation. Never cold, always at room temperature, after dinner, small sips and deliberating with yourself on how to save the world ... or your soul.
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I inherited a sideboard from my mother, with a cabinet of rarely-touched bottles. I vaguely remembered a bottle of sherry; there was a bottle of Amontillado made by Bodegas Valderrama, probably sometime in the 1980s. It was a tad thin, but definitely still with saline/caramel notes. Bring on the marcona almonds and pato negro ham!
With many California reds pushing the 16% abv and up envelope, why the alcoholic content of amontillado, palo cortado and oloroso would disqualify these wines as accompaniments to food is beyond me. The wines are so rich and pungent - and dry - one need not drink more than a few ounces with a main course to be satisfied in any event.
If you've not had Bodegas Tradicion VORS amontillado with grilled baby lamb chops you've let a real treat pass you by. And good palo cortado, along the lines of the F. de Castilla Antique or Valdespino Calle Ponce, is smashingly good with a silky, slightly smoky soup made with roasted delicata squash, apples and cream.
For that matter, there is 'fino amontillado,' something like the La Bota #45, in a grey zone it occupies with manzanilla pasada, and an abv around 16%, dry as a bone, sappy and savory... and wonderful with grilled fish, shellfish, or that mushroom risotto.
Sherry is one of the most versatile food wines on the planet. It should not be condemned to life solely as an aperitif or dessert wine.
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Fascinating history of sherry and how amontillado began:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sherry
Also, an anecdote of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (the English dramatist) sipping a glass of sherry as the Drury Lane Theater, on which he depended so crucially, burned down: "A man may surely take a glass of wine by his own fireside."
http://www.todayinliterature.com/stories.asp?Event_Date=2/24/1809
Being British, I never saw sherry served as anything but an aperitif, not a wine to drink with meals.
I enjoy a dry sherry with Asian food, especially Hunan or Sichuan cuisines, as it most closely resembles the flavor of Shaoxing wine. However, as to Shaoxing wine, under NO circumstances should you buy the "cooking" version.
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I and my Dutch husband were brought up regarding sherries as something to be drunk in small quantities as an aperitif not as something to be paired with a 'main meal' - due to the higher alcohol continent. But I migh serve a dark oloroso with a dense, sweet dessert- such as an English Christmas Pudding or mince pie.
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Sherry parties were a feature of my college days. Good friends, talk of books, some catty remarks about a professor, and sherry with nuts and cheeses. And this was at a California university not a stuffy Ox-bridge site. Do colleges no longer encourage this happy habit?
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I love sherries, and amontillado is very easily paired with anything, except, for me, lamb and spicy ethnic foods. I like it as aperitif, as digestive, and for the bulk of the meal. I happen to like finos more than amontillados, hence no comment!
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Eric's declaration that the Napoleon "was absolutely dry" gives me the most to reconsider and contemplate. Another bottle would be the remedy, but that will take a while.
As for the alcohol content, I definitely felt it strong on the first (third of a) glass, but the three of us finished off two more bottles of sparkling wine and two more bottles of Chilean cabernet sauvignon. I guess you could say the Napoleon certainly primed the pump.
Coincidentally, I noticed that the French red wine I just bought calls itself "unlike a vintage wine...a solera which gets more and more complex every year..."
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Me, too, on Eric's "absolutely dry" Napoleon. Sure did like the sweetness I thought I tasted.
This discussion of sweetness is absolutely mind-bending. The sweetness of a wine is simply not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of scientific fact. It's one thing for lay people to imagine they taste sweetness when they don't or vice versa, but journalist and purported expert like Mr. Asimov simply should not be saying he "disagrees" about sweetness. The wine is either sweet or not. He knows, or can find out, the scientific fact and report it precisely. The reader is either wrong or right, not expressing an opinion to be disagreed with. Mr. Asimov is, quite simply, not doing his job.
Not quite. If you compare a fino to, say, a palo cortado on the palate, the latter will, by dint of its higher glycerin levels, round off the dryness. There is no sugar and therefore no real sweetness, but an impression is given which people often describe as sweetness by way of comparison.
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When it comes to sherry, and amontillado in particular, I rarely think about food pairings. I simply enjoy this wine. It is such a reflection of what nature and a skilled winemaker can do with a simple grape. Like you (Mr. Asimov), I sip it while I'm cooking or talking to friends before dinner. If some ham or cheese or nuts are available, so much the better. Bottom line: don't miss out on this wonderful beverage for want of a food pairing.
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The salinity of Amontillado kind of reminds me of oysters. Perhaps that would be a good combination, and even better with an Amontillado-derived mignonette.
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That friend (Tom) speaks my mind.
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Amontillado always makes me think of the story by Poe, please don't build the wall- interesting to hear its history.
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So interesting, Eric’s comment that, much as he enjoyed the amontillado-mushroom risotto pairing, he’d have preferred a more traditional mushroom match, like a nebbiolo. I struggle with that question. Some pairings are just so good, it’s a pity to open anything else.
It’s all about frequency. A staple is one thing. Nothing beats a trousseau with our standby roast chicken, but I’ll gladly go in a different direction later that week. With our twice-a-year spinach, fontina, ricotta baked pasta, though, I hesitate to try anything but an Orvieto.
And this month, pairing with the once-every-can’t-remember-when mushroom risotto, extraordinary as the amontillado was, I kept wondering—like Eric, it seems—when would I _ever_ not want it with a big, earthy red?
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Well, I have a library and a cigar (several, actually), but I'm fresh out of amontillado. I'll have to remedy that.
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As a Navy family, we spent 4 years in Rota, Spain, in the heart of the sherry district. I never knew the Spanish to drink sherry in any way other than as an aperitif. We were fortunate to befriend the Domecq (Jerez de la Frontera) and Bustillo (Sanlucar de Barrameda) families so we had a long, satisfying exposure to the sherry industry. Of course, that was 45 years ago.
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My guess is that little has changed in Jerez, since Sherry bottlers and shippers often date back to prior to the 1800s. The English link seems to have been strengthened during the Napoleonic war in Spain. My opinion is that food is simply a distraction, and that Sherry is best as a companion to to thought.
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