New Cocktail Hotshot: Sherry

After decades relegated to a spot in the cooking aisle, sherry is making a comeback. The Spanish fortified wine is becoming a trendy cocktail ingredient, especially in Los Angeles, the Times reports. The drinks can get pretty swanky—one involves gold dust; another, reportedly loved by Frank Sinatra, flamed orange oil. “You see a lot of going back to classic cocktail ingredients,” says one restaurateur whose establishment aims to recapture “Old Hollywood swell-egance.”

In Tokyo, sherry has gotten so popular that some bartenders are even certified venenciadors, meaning they can pour sherry from a cup attached to a stick they hold high above their heads. Helping the wine’s popularity is its extreme food-friendliness—it’s “a good foodie-gastro cocktail,” says one beverage director; another adds that its distinct, “burnished” flavor helps it to mix well with spirits, making “the style of the drink more exciting.”
(More sherry stories.)