Oh, sherry

Until recently, sherry was all but forgotten in the U.S., often regarded as a quaint, old-fashioned quaff meant to convey elegance but falling short of the mark. Now sherry is making a comeback, as the L.A. Times reports in a review of a book out next week, Sherry: A Modern Guide to the Wine World’s Best-kept Secret  by Talia Baiocchi.

Sherry wasn’t always relegated to Grandma’s liquor cabinet. Baiocchi notes that it was “was practically the official drink of fifteenth and sixteenth-century explorers, a favorite of everyone from Shakespeare to Poe to Dickens, the base of the Sherry Cobbler, one of the greatest American cocktails ever invented.” At one point, California wineries were even producing more “sherry” than Spain.

Baiocchi tackles a very complex subject in her book, as sherry is quite complicated. There is the complicated solera system for aging, and the fact that sherry comes in many different styles ranging from bone-dry to sticky-sweet. Continue reading the review to learn more, including a definition of the so-called Sherry Triangle.

Photo of Scotch, sherry, and Concord cocktail from indexed blog Serious Eats