Making a (fortified) meal of it 12 July 2006

Sherry and port can be fine food partners, suggests Angela Lloyd

One of the greatest pleasures I get out of my work is the travel possibilities the occupation of wine writer affords, if not necessitates.

To visit the world’s winelands and winemakers in situ not only provides a much better understanding of what they are about, it also puts the wines into context with the history and geography of the area and the culture of the people.

After my recent visit to Jerez and Vinoble, the exhibition of the world’s great fortified and dessert wines, it’s no surprise that I’m currently on a buzz about these often overlooked wine styles. Generally regarded as suitable only for the end of the meal, they are blamed for being the source of the following morning’s headache, the imbiber conveniently forgetting the other wines shared with the rest of the menu.

The Vinoble organisers were at great pains to ensure none of their guests went away thinking that the wine of Jerez – Sherry – should be stuck with such a label. It was a great idea to get 18 local restaurateurs to offer menus matching a variety of sherry styles from the many producers with typical Andalucian dishes, then to offer the visiting media and buyers to be their guests. On each of the four days, we had the opportunity to try a different restaurant, each with its own take on the local cuisine. A brilliant way of encouraging visitors to explore the restaurants of Jerez and making the locals feel part of and benefit from Vinoble.

Spanish computers often came up with some amusing English translation of the dishes offered. ‘Salmon tartae with avocados and slices fold cheese’ (the cheese was mature rather than folded!) was one we enjoyed. And how about `Candied vegetables with two different types of texture of egg jolk and Soap of Tomatoes’, `Typical dessert of egg yolls and sugar with a hint of street Sherry, Ice Cream cake’, or `Bright pickled partridge salad’!

Needless to say none of these tasty dishes reflected the rather dodgy nature suggested by the English translation! Along the way, we discovered Fino sherry makes a great match with fish; the schizophrenic Palo Cortado miraculously complements artichokes, mushrooms and prawns all on the same plate, and caramelised apples in phyllo are partnered perfectly by – not the sweet Pedro Ximenez – but a mature Amontillado.

It really is high time South African restaurateurs woke up to the benefits of serving wine by the glass, either a series with a menu, as we enjoyed in Jerez, or merely to give guests more of a choice without having to opt for a whole bottle. Ironically, dessert wines and fortifieds are usually poured by the glass, but I wonder how often they’re suggested to partner anything other than dessert or as a `nightcap’?

I tried my own experiment on a bunch of willing (I think) wine friends at our monthly `international’ tasting group. We managed a couple of sherries, a few more ports and a muscat de Rivesaltes. The dry sherries (seemingly lighter than many of our 15+ percent alcohol reds) happily accompanied roast pumpkin soup; ports and blue cheese worked equally well together, while they and the muscat didn’t suffer from the ‘end of the meal’ syndrome as they went down a treat with Ruscotti (sunflower seed and raisin, as well as orange and saffron) – an inspired Italian/South African cross between biscotti (the shape and double baking method) and traditional rusks (melt in the mouth texture); they are the brainchild of Les Spiro, formerly editor of Eat In.

Locals too
Those might have been traditional food partners for international wines, but South Africa has a range of fortifieds that will show as much versatility with South African dishes as we discovered with sherry. There are our own sherry-style wines with Douglas Green Flor No 1 still the best bone-dry, fino style. New this coming summer will be the first Axehill White Port and, yes, it’s dry. A non-vintage style from chenin blanc, it’s made in the solera system, the first release being a blend of  2003 and 2004. A 225-litre barrel of each vintage is being held back to blend into future vintages. The wine has a flavoursome nutty intensity and good fresh/rich balance. Deliciously different, I can imagine it making a great partner with many fish or white meat dishes.

There are others, perhaps too hidden away in the Cape winelands. So, there is really no excuse to get stuck in the unnecessarily narrow white and red table wine rut.

Now, which adventurous restaurateur will be the first to make a meal of our own varied range of fortified wines?

COMMENT

From James Browne (of Hartenberg Estate):
Last year July seven of us had a memorable dinner in the wine cellar of Daniel Garcia's Restaurant Zortziko in Bilbao, Spain. We put ourself in the hands of their sommelier to match wines from the long list with the modern Basque cuisine that the restaurant is renowned for. To round off our memorable meal his surprise call, to the assembled company at least, with dessert was a bottle of a rich treacly Pedro Ximenez Sherry from Bodega Gutierrez Colosia. It was a really good call and at 20 Euros was a relative steal. It reminded assembled company to drink with open minds.