On wine: Sherry and soup are made for each other

On a cold December evening a few years ago, a restaurant with a fireplace and a reputation for fabulous cream of mushroom soup was our destination.

But once inside, we found a problem: the wine list did not have any sherry to go with the soup, a most unfortunate situation for someone who adores almost all styles of sherry, with or without soup.

The soup was excellent, and we vowed to bring our own sherry with us the next time we went to the place. A year later we remembered, and the soup was even better with it than without.

That led to a curious dining-out plan: bringing various condiments with us when dining out. It is a tactic we still employ. The kit has small jars of aged vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, cinnamon and a small bottle of sherry to enhance soups.

We both love dry sherry, and we have found that even the best restaurants rarely have any sherry at all.

For me, sherry and soup are like peanut butter and jam. And of course one reason for writing about it today is that cold nights are still with us, and a warming glass of sherry always sounds great. With or without soup.

Also, sherry isn't expensive. In fact it is one of the cheapest fine wines on a fine wine shop shelf. For less than $20 you can buy some excellent long-aged sherries that will last in the bottle for weeks. Some last months.

Traditionally sherry is served with tapas, toasted almonds, sautéed mushrooms and literally dozens more finger foods such as stuffed olives, cheeses, fritters, onion rings and truffle fries.

The driest of all sherries are called finos, and they are better today than ever since the classics from Spain now are coming into the United States with a lot less alcohol.

A typical fino once was 18 percent alcohol, and now we are seeing more of them at 15 percent or so.

Served well-chilled, they are simply superb with appetizers or just as aperitifs. (Be prepared for an especially dry wine.)

One of my favorite sherries, particularly with soup, is a style of wine called dry oloroso. A typical amount to add to a bowl of soup is a teaspoon. Adjust to taste.

Oloroso sherries are the quintessential creamed soup wine. Whether sweet or bone dry, they have higher alcohols than fino, but the additional maturity from longer aging in barrels makes them astoundingly complex.

Olorosos are aged in a series of tiered barrels called soleras and usually carry the aromatic stamp of roasted walnuts. As such, they pair beautifully with intense, rich soups, including bisques.

The driest of oloroso sherries, called oloroso secco, isn't as easy to find as the slightly sweeter versions. Amontillado sherries are more common, but if you can find the superb dry oloroso from Gonzalez Byass or Emilio Lustau, the experience can be sublime.

Even rarer than olororo secco is the delicate yet full-bodied palo cortado, kind of like an oloroso with hints of Fino in the aroma.

Two commercially successful sherries are Harvey's Bristol cream and Williams and Humbert's dry sack, both of which are rather sweet to my taste.

I prefer Osborne's olorosos, which are well worth the $30 or so you'll pay for it.

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Wines of the Week: Gonzalez Byass Tio Pepe and Domecq La Ina, Fino, Jerez (under $20 each): These two wines are widely available and probably are the freshest bottlings you will find. Fino sherries should be consumed as fresh as possible. The only differences between these two are subtle style differences. Both are excellent representations of dry fino that are classic accompaniments to appetizers.