You won't come across sherry as a cocktail ingredient often, but when you do it's a treat.

Using a nice Amontillado or light Fino sherry in a martini mellows the sometimes medicinal qualities of juniper. Other, sweeter sherries, like Oloroso, mix well with scotch and bourbon for a delightful digestif.

Sherry is fortified wine that we prefer to drink straight while munching on fresh nuts and crackers in the afternoon. "Fortified" means that distilled spirits - in this case brandy - have been added after fermentation to flavor and stabilize the wine.

Traditionally produced in Spain, sherry does not have a specific vintage. Instead, it's a blend of the finest wines from different vintages. As the wines ferment, each barrel takes on qualities that make it unique. These barrels are placed into a tiered system - solera - so that the older wines can educate the younger ones through fractional blending. The bottom or final tier in a solera may be a blend of just a few - or closer to 100 - vintages. Remember, if you see "solera 1920" (or some other year), this isn't the sherry's vintage. It merely designates the year of the oldest wine.