Sherry is a fortified wine that has been produced in Spain since around 1100 BC and was extremely popular throughout the 19th century. It's currently experiencing a resurgence of popularity, so I thought we needed a cheat sheet to remind us of the key Sherry facts. Sherry has been frequently mentioned in literature, including several of Shakespeare's plays (usually as "sack"). My favorite literary reference to Sherry is in Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Cask of Amontillado." The full text is here, and it only takes about 10 minutes to read the whole story. Without giving away the plot, I can say that I love the association of wine cellars with burial and crypts. As you'll see in the cheat sheet, Amontillado is a type of Sherry that develops flor (a film of yeast on top of the wine), but then the flor dies or is killed. Poe cleverly uses Amontillado (and flor) as a metaphor for...well, what happens at the end... This story might also have the best opening line of any short story ever. To see the full collection of wine cheat sheets, click here. To see the Cheat Sheet in full size… …in Internet Explorer, right click on it and select “open in new tab.” …in Chrome, right click on it and select “open link in new tab.” …in Firefox, right click on it and select “view image.”