We are traveling to California this month with two 10-year old grandsons. The boys and I are excited, but I don't know about Grandma. Putting up with three adolescent boys (I know I'm in my sixties, but hey, boys will be boys, right?) for two weeks maybe asking a lot. Anyway, I'm sure we will have a great trip and enjoy our time with the boys.

I conducted a Spanish wine tasting for a couple and thirty of their guests in July and made a lot of new friends, as well as had a great time. Thanks Don and Carol. It was a Spanish tapas theme with all Spanish wines. Did you know that Spain is the third largest producer of wine in the world? Well, it is and they are producing some really good wines.

The Spanish have always been know for their sherry and to everyone's surprise at the July tasting, I paired a couple of different styles with the dessert our host served. Muy bueno! For you, who are not familiar with sherry, it is a fortified wine. However, unlike a port, which is fortified during the fermentation process to stop fermentation and retain some of the residual sugar, sherry is not fortified until after competition of the fermentation process. Therefore, all sherry starts off dry and is produced from ecentially the Palomino grape. Brandy is added after fermentation to fortify the wine and depending on the winemaker's taste for sweetness, wine from the Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel grapes is added.

By law, Spanish Sherry must come from the triangular area of the Cádiz province known as Jerez , or as the locals say, El Marco. The towns that make up the points of the triangle are: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria . There are basically four styles of sherry, with a rare variety and some blends at the end. The first and driest of sherry is Fino, which is normally aged in oak for three years. Fino is also pale and perhaps the most widely known. Manzanilla is a fino and produced exclusively around the town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda . Amontillado is also dry, but aged in oak for five years. And Oloroso, which is aged for seven years in oak and is a darker and richer wine. The rare variety is a Palo Cortado, which starts out to be a Fino or Amontillado, but loses its cap of decaying yeast called a flor for unknown reasons and oxidizes like an Oloroso. The blends are Sweet Sherry, known as Jerez Dulce in Spanish, and usually labeled as Cream Sherry or Pale Cream Sherry, etc. Again, Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel ( Muscat ) is usually introduced at the end to add sweetness.

The two I chose to serve at the Spanish tasting were both Principe Pio (brand) by A. Soler & Cia., which retail for around $11.00 at Spec's. The first was a Medium Amontillado that was medium-dry or semi-sweet, whichever you prefer. The second was a Rich Cream Sherry, which by unanimous vote was fantastic with the Flan. If you haven't had a Sherry in awhile or perhaps never tried it, do yourself a favor and give these a try with a Crème Brûlée. You won't be disappointed.

Until next month, Cheers!