Moby-Dick and Manzanilla sherry
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville, 1851
Manzanilla sherry
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain
Bone-dry and salt-sprayed, for a very long voyage.
Why it works
Manzanilla is aged in the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where the Atlantic air is said to give it a tangy, saline edge. It is pale, bone-dry and bracing — green apple, almond and sea spray.
Melville’s epic is vast, digressive and drenched in salt water, and a chilled copita of manzanilla is the perfect companion for the long chapters on whale anatomy. It sharpens the mind and refreshes the palate between bouts of obsession.
Also try
Fino sherry is a close cousin with a little less salinity.
In the same spirit
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