Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Oh Sherry!

Happy Friday. First off, I apologize for getting a Steve Perry song stuck in all of our heads. But it had to be done, because I’m focusing on sherry this week. Sherry is one of those ubiquitous bottles that everyone seems to have in their liquor cabinet that almost never gets used. I’m certainly no different, and somehow I ended up with two bottles. So, I figured I would see if I can press them into use. Bon Appetit came to the rescue. They featured a nice article with three different sherry based drinks. Due to my ongoing shoulder recovery, I’m still unable to shake cocktails. So, I’ll be leaving the Sherry Cobbler for another time. I’ll just be mixing the Bamboo and the Adonis.

Important note about sherry. While it is fortified, it is still wine after all. Once a bottle is opened, the expiration clock starts, and friends, sherry does not hold on. I had an open bottle of sherry already, so I  gambled on it still being good. When I tried the first drink, I knew that bottle should have been gone a long time ago. Fun fact: sherry vinegar is not fun to drink.

First up, the Bamboo:

1½ oz. sherry

1½ oz. dry vermouth

2 dashes orange bitters

Combine in a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir to chill well, about 20 seconds. Strain into a coupe or other stemmed cocktail glass. Using a Y-peeler, peel a nice broad slice of lemon peel. With the yellow side down, using both hands, pinch the peel so that the oils from it are released onto the surface of your cocktail. Drag it around the lip of the glass before placing it nicely in the drink

Clean and crisp is an apt description. Could use a little more sherry perhaps, as the dry vermouth comes close to overpowering. It is good, but a touch too sweet for my liking, but not terrible.  The sweetness is a bit odd though, in the sense that it starts out sharp, then mellows as the brandy the sherry is fortified with makes its presence known. This is essentially a slightly sweeter martini. Now, let’s see how the Adonis is.

1½ oz. sherry

1½ oz. sweet vermouth

2 dashes orange bitters

Combine  the above ingredients in a mixing glass and add ice, and stir to chill, about 20 seconds. Strain into a coupe and garnish with an orange peel, employing the method described above

So we’ve had a sherry Martini, and now we have a sherry Manhattan essentially. Boy is this thing sweet. Not only is the natural sweetness from the sherry in play, now we have additional sweetness from the vermouth. To me, this is way too much. That sharp sweetness that comes through in the Bamboo is completely muted here. You get a sweet sherry start, and then sweet vermouth at the end. The orange flavor from the squeezed out garnish and the bitters stand no chance against this sugary onslaught.

For the foreseeable future, I think my sherry collection will be relegated to cooking, or as a digestif. These two cocktails are good attempts at mixing out of the box and broadening the appeal of sherry, however these aren’t doing much for me. However, I’m not quite done with this experiment. Once I can shake cocktails again, I plan on giving the sherry cobbler a try.

(Banner image found here)