Gonzalez Byass Chairman Mauricio Gonzalez-Gordon Talks Sherry

Sherry is an often much maligned and misunderstood product outside of Europe and is frequently shunned due to a general lack of knowledge of the product, how to drink it and how to store and serve it so that it is drunk as it is meant to be. Still a staple of many Spanish drinkers within Spain, it has struggled to shrug off the image that it has garnered over the last few decades that it is an old ladies drink and not ‘chic’ enough to be drunk by any other age group or demographic. The ubiquitous blue bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Cream that sits at the back of most bars across the world has seriously damaged the image of Sherry and caused a generation of drinkers to miss out on some of the most fantastic Spanish wines that are on the market.

Sherry itself is a generalisation of a wider wine variety – it’s also a bastardisation of the name of the origin of the drink; Jerez. British people, oft to change names and words to suit their market and their sales ability (note Claret for example), invented the word Sherry and, to the detriment of the business became the norm for the range of wines made in the area. When you order a wine you don’t ask for a wine, you ask for a white or red wine, or a grape variety and Sherry should be ordered the same way. Fino Sherry, the white version is much like a white wine and, when drunk correctly, exudes the same nuances – it’s crisp, clean, aromatic and great for a climate such as ours.

To learn more about why Sherry has had such a hard time in recent years we went straight to the top and interviewed the man we believe to be the authority on the topic, the chairman of Sherry producer Gonzalez Byass; Mr. Mauricio Gonzalez-Gordon whose family has been making Sherry in Jerez for more than 175 years. We wanted to know his thoughts and gain some useful information into how Sherry can be enjoyed the correct way, as it’s done in Spain. So we sat down with Mr. Gonzalez-Gordon in local restaurant Fofo by El Willy over a glass of chilled Fino Sherry and discussed what can be done to breathe fresh life into a product that we feel, gets nothing like the recognition it deserves.

WTHK: What are the age groups that are drinking Sherry right now?

MG-G: “I think it varies very much these days. You could sub-divide between the traditional Sherry drinking countries (being the UK, Germany, Holland and Spain). On the whole in these countries the average age is higher with two exceptions; one being Spain for obvious reasons as it’s imbedded in the culture and people drink Sherry there regularly. Also, in the UK where we are seeing a revival through the tapas bars and matching food and Sherry. I think we will see the same in the Hong Kong market where we see a high number of Spanish chefs coming out here and more Spanish restaurants opening up. There is certainly a younger crowd drinking Sherry in the new markets and I think this is because of the food matching ability of Sherry. More young people are seeing the great diversity in Sherry and the greater number of combinations that come about from drinking it”.

WTHK: Do you think that Spanish restaurants do enough to promote Sherry in general?

MG-G: “Well I guess you could always say that more can be done but we are finding that working together with them helps a lot and our experience with that has always been very good. We are finding, especially with Chefs travelling out of Spain, that they are much more open and work well with producers and they want to portray an authentic Spanish image meaning they need the high quality food and high quality wine. It’s certainly not happening as much as we like but this is a new beginning and one has to think that the presence of Spanish restaurants abroad is very small still when compared with other cuisines such as French or Italian, so we have a long way to go but I am personally positive about the future for Sherry around the world”.

WTHK: What are the common misconceptions that Sherry still has these days?

MG-G: “One misconception is about drinking occasions and the classical British cliché of funerals and old aunties. Other than that, which I think has been overcome these days, I think the largest misconception is to believe that Sherry is just one category. One problem is that Sherry has had one predominant style in each market, so for example the UK has always been a sweet Oloroso market, Spain is mainly Fino, Japan is mainly Fino too and Germany is more medium style. People also always just ask for a ‘glass of Sherry’ but rarely are they asked what Sherry they actually want. One of the biggest challenges is to try to convey how rich a category Sherry is and all the different possibilities that you have within it from the dry pungent Fino to the elegant Oloroso or Pedro Xinimez”.

WTHK: What do you think the best way we can market Sherry to the new generation of drinkers?

MG-G: “I think that probably the link with food these days is the most important element and we are seeing that more in Spain. The aperitif movement is diminishing as people are living a faster life and there is not much time to have that pre-dinner drink. We see that when we go to restaurants these days whereby people just go straight to the bottle of red with the meal rather than taking the time to relax with a glass of Fino prior to ordering. We need to pay more attention to the loss of the aperitif movement, but it has made us realise the potential for Sherries in the food pairing movement these days. Sherry is very good with dinners as you don’t have to ask for, or drink, a whole bottle you can taste two or three different Sherries over a meal”.

WTHK: Of course, Sherry is a wine, but people do not think of it that way. How can we convey this to the wider drinking public?

MG-G: “I think people have alcohol content in their mind when they think about wine. I think the common misconception is that Sherry is a lot higher in alcohol than it actually is. These days the world is drinking a lot of red wines at 15 per cent – which is the same alcohol percentage as you find a Fino. We still need to convey the message that it is a wine because it needs to be treated as such. From my point of view, it’s very important the glass from which you drink the Sherry from. White wine glasses are the glasses Sherry should be served in – not those very small one’s that everyone seems to be serving it in bars and restaurants still these days as it makes Sherry appear like a liquor when served in a small glass and thus it does not even matter what alcohol percentage it is, visually it comes across as a liquor. At home we will serve Sherry in a ‘Copita’ (a Sherry glass) or a white wine glass and it makes a huge difference in the way that it can be enjoyed. We have an expression in Spanish which I like very much which is ‘vino generoso’ – a generous wine, which I think it adds something else to the product, it sounds much better than ‘fortified wine’”.

WTHK: What can we do to educate the restaurants to serve Sherry properly?

MG-G: “I think that restaurants can do a lot these days. We are really making their lives easier when it comes to service as they already have the white wine glasses. Serving them at the right temperature and pouring the correct amount into the glass is of paramount importance. The other element I find very important is the keeping and storage of the Sherries. An old Oloroso can be kept for a while and it will be fine, but a Fino is a white wine at the end of the day and it needs to be treated thus. It’s not going to age well in the bottle so once you’ve got the bottle open the best thing you can do is to drink it all! Not having a vintage actually makes some people think that it’s a liquor as there is no reference on the bottle, thus we have started, little by little to introduce ‘Best Before Dates’ on the bottle. We feel it’s very important that both consumers and restaurateurs understand that once they open a bottle they should serve it as quickly as they can”.

WTHK: What makes Gonzalez Byass product stand out from others on the market these days?

MG-G: “Well, each house has their own style and most of the Sherries you drink nowadays are good quality as the whole industry and its winemaking has evolved substantially over the last 20 years. We have always worked very hard in research and development. Gonzalez Byass was actually the first company to establish a private oenological research centre in Spain, we did this in 1955. It was after my father came back from the United States he said that the Americans are, through their research going to be making incredibly good wines in the future and he knew that through research we could make better wines ourselves. Ever since this we heavily invest in research and development and I think we were probably the first company to better understand everything that was going on from the vineyard to the bottle in Sherry making. We work closely on ensuring we make every style of Sherry and focus on the quality of them all, not just Tio Pepe. It has helped us to create a very differentiated style in our Sherry and having had continuity in the family for five generations has helped us have a continuity in the style of our wines. Not only has it gone from father to son through the generations within our family, it has been the same for our winemakers”.

WTHK: Do you have any thoughts on commercial cream Sherry’s effect on the market?

MG-G: “We have to accept the fact that cream Sherry is a very important part of the Sherry business – it’s over 25 per cent of the market – and in some markets like the UK, it accounts for a much larger proportion of the market. Cream Sherry can be credited for getting many people to get to know Sherry itself so I think that’s very important. Having said that, cream Sherry is probably responsible for the most out dated image of Sherry so it’s unlikely that the future image of Sherry will grow from the cream side. There are wonderful cream Sherries and they complete the range very nicely. But I think the way for the future is more ‘round the table’. The way we are going to get younger people interested in Sherry is through the drier styles”.

Gonzalez Byass products including Tio Pepe Fino Sherry can be found in Hong Kong from exclusive importer Amorosso Fine Wines and they can be contacted by e-mail on orders@amorossowines.com or you can call them on (+852) 35905348