Page 41 - Uncorked Magazine - Winter 2017

THE MANY SHADES
OF SHERRY
Sherry has made something of a comeback
in recent years, but if you’re approaching Fruit cake and
it for the first time it’s worth noting that
unlike many other fortified drinks, you’ll find a glass of sherry
a huge taste range from bone dry to super
sweet. Fino is the driest and palest sherry, - a Christmas
ideal with tricky foods like asparagus or
better still with traditional smoked salmon. classic.
Manzanilla is a lighter version of Fino though
still dry, Amontillado has darker and more
concentrated flavours, and Oloroso, which
means scented in Spanish, is dry but deeper
coloured and flavoured. If you’re feeling
bamboozled by all the terms, keep an eye
out for the word ‘cream’ on a label as it
means the sherry will be sweeter.

Eau-de-vie to
the French but
uisce beatha
to we Irish.
THE WATER OF LIFE
We are well-versed in the water of life here in Ireland.
What we call uisce beatha the French call eau-de-vie.
This method of alcohol production through distillation
creates high-strength drinks and the flavours are drawn
from the method of distillation, including in brandy’s
case the distillation of wine. Flavour also comes from
the fruits and grains used, or indeed potato peelings
in the case of poitín. The final flavour flourish comes
from the maturation method, such as the oak ageing of
Armagnac and Cognac. Hennessy is probably Ireland’s
favourite brandy, or indeed Cork’s most famous son:
Richard Hennessy was one of the famed Wild Geese, the
youngest son of Lord Ballymacmoy, from Killavullen, in
Co. Cork. He left in 1724 to fight with the Catholic King
Louis XV, finally settling by the banks of the Charente
where he began the first distillation of this water of life.

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