An Unorthodox, Ideal Food And Wine Pairing From Spain For The Long Holiday Weekend In The US

It’s an unusual choice, I know, but my vote this year for the top food and wine pairing recommendation for the long holiday weekend is Spanish paella and Spanish sherry. Yes, the Fourth of July holiday commemorates the US colonies’ separation from Great Britain in 1776 and no, that doesn’t have much on the surface to do with Spain (though I appreciate that some historians may disagree). Nevertheless, paella and sherry are an ideal pairing for holiday gatherings, perhaps this year more than most others.

There are at least three logistical reasons for this, as I learned from a particularly inspiring summertime party last weekend. Let’s start with the paella.

• First, with a nod to COVID’s stubborn persistence, group gatherings still tend to be outside in the fresh air. Paella lends itself very well to being cooked on an outdoor grill or even over an open fire.
• Paella’s exceptionally flexible ingredient list can also accommodate a range of culinary preferences at the table, from omnivores to carnivores to pescatarians.
• Paella’s extended cooking time invites conviviality as guests mix, sip and mingle over appetizers like slices of chorizo sausage and Manchego cheese, and easy-drinking, cool white wines like Grüner Veltliner or Sauvignon Blanc.

As a bonus, paella is a fundamentally festive dish that, traditionally, is served on Sundays and tends to bring people together. All of those things are working in favor of paella as the food recommendation that grounds my suggestion.

Which brings us to sherry as its partner when paella is on the table.

To be clear, I’m referring to dry and complex sherry, not the sweet or sticky versions that might be more familiar or more easily available. The specific bottle we opened at last weekend’s party (that wholly inspired this article) was a vintage dry sherry from 1987 produced by González-Byass in the Palo Cortado style. I’m not suggesting that the sherry you choose needs to be that old or that vintage, or even that it’s from the Palo Cortado style (which is distinct from the Amontillado and Oloroso styles). But I do encourage you to be sure it’s dry and that it was indeed produced in Spain, in Andalucia to be exact — there are imitation sherries from elsewhere that are typically sweetened bulk wines with chemicals added for color and flavor.

“Pleh.” That’s an exact tasting note for those imitation sherries.

That is not what you’re after from your wine choices this holiday weekend, or anytime for that matter. What you’re after, and what is worth seeking out, starts when “complex” is one of the first words that comes to mind when you pour the wine, smell it, taste it, or let it finish on your palate.

Each of those things are likely to happen at various times throughout a gathering when you’ve got a glass of sherry in your hand, partly because of the mix-and-mingling that happens to distract you from a focused attention on the wine, and partly because a complex sherry is not one that you want to drink quickly or all at once anyway.

A complex sherry, you sip. A complex sherry, you sip then put down then return to later on. (It is compassionate and patient, oddly, in that way, as it’s ready to pick up the thread again, whenever you are.) A complex sherry welcomes and accommodates different flavors and textures of food, such as the seasoning and protein in a well-prepared paella, particularly when shared with friends at an outdoor gathering over a long holiday weekend in the summertime.