JUST over a century ago Gonzalez Byass shipped a first consignment of sherry casks from Jerez to Whyte & Mackay in Glasgow. At the time, 40% of all the UK’s wine imports were sherry whose cheap, plentiful barrels were gobbled up by a grateful Scotch whisky industry.
To bring the story full circle, Richard Patterson, Whyte & Mackay’s master blender, has teamed up with his opposite number at Gonzalez Byass, Antonio Flores, to create Nomad Outland Whisky which has just been released. It started life in the Highlands and mainly involves Speyside malts that were transported to Jerez to mature in old barrels of PX, or Pedro Ximenez, the blackest, most raisin-like sherry of all.
Taking a sniff and swirling it round his tongue, Patterson found, ‘glazed oranges, marzipan, tarte-tatin, Black Forest fruits, moist banana cake, peaches in syrup, mulled wine, whispers of liquorice...’ and much else besides. He is clearly blessed with an extraordinary nose. You wouldn’t want to pass wind in his presence, that’s for sure.
I haven’t tried the whisky yet, but it got me thinking about sherry – my first taste of the demon drink, sneaked from my Granny’s corner cupboard. I can still almost feel the warm glow in my eight year-old tummy as it mingled with that delicious, tingling sensation – the fear of being caught. It has been an enduring love, while my conversion to Scotch was later and took slightly longer.
As for sherried whisky, it can be wonderful if done well from really good casks. However sometimes you get those buttery, slightly rancid flavours that not only taste bad, they can cause the most vicious hangover known to man. Apparently it’s down to using too much sulphur in treating the wood.
Today nine tenths of Scotch whisky is matured in ex-bourbon barrels that cost a fifth as much as sherry casks, which are now anything but plentiful. Real sherries, as drunk by real men in the bars of Andalucia, were buried over here beneath a sickly tide of industrial cream sherry produced in Spain, Cyprus, South Africa and the UK.
The Spaniards eventually won back the exclusive right to the name ‘sherry’, though the horse had to some extent bolted. Yet the real stuff is still there waiting to be rediscovered in all its appetising beauty. If your last experience was brown, sweet and sticky, a treat awaits.
THREE SHERRIES TO TRY
Tio Pepe Fino
£10, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco (15%)
Even in the pit of winter, a chilled Fino with olives, fried prawns or Serrano ham, can give a glimpse of the warm south.
Goyescu Amontillado
£11.50, DrinkMonger (17.5%)
Aged and fortified for longer, Amontillado is Fino’s older brother. This one has a real salty tang that gives way to a softer, hazelnut flavour.
Fernando de Castilla Amontillado
£13, WoodWinters (17%)
A little less dry than Goyescu, but with the same nutty character and a rich, savoury core.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here