Fino sherry. My first taste of this absolutely boggled my mind. It smelled strongly like crisp green apples covered in honey, quickly transitioning to a yeasty hearty loaf of fresh bread after some brief exposure to air…but on the palate, it tasted like salty ocean water with some pickled vegetable brine.

Sherries are a style of Spanish fortified wines (meaning wines with added alcohol) that are often associated with sweet dessert-y wines, largely due to the popularity of the sweeter styles of sherry. However, sherry as a category of wine actually varies tremendously and includes some of the driest (least sweet) wines in existence. The Fino style is one such example.

As you probably know, wine and oxygen are not typically a good combo (which is why bottles of wine start to sour/oxidize after being open a couple days). However, sherries actually take full advantage of this interaction. Sherry starts its life as a regular wine, and diverges when additional alcohol is added to raise the ABV before filling into casks. Interestingly, the casks are not fully filled, leaving space for oxygen to co-exist with the wine.

For Fino, a layer of yeast (called “flor”) builds up between the liquid and the oxygen in the cask, literally shielding the wine from air exposure while they slowly eat away at the sugar. This layer of yeast resting on the wine for 3+ years contributes very unique flavors to the end product, while the wine underneath continues to age in the barrel.

The end result is a savory, nutty, fruity, yet perhaps polarizing product that compares to nothing else!