As Maryanne said sherry is a wine that is fortified with brandy, contains slightly more alcohol than say, chablis, and consequently has a longer shelf life. Sherry comes in 2 varieties, sweet or creame sherry and dry or cocktail sherry. It is a regular wine not a cooking wine...although you might find some laced with salt in the vinegar section of your grocery store....don't buy it it's nasty! You will find sherry whereever you can buy wine. It gives a very distinctive taste to foods. I like it in cream sauces, mushroom soup, some seafood dishes and a certain chicken stew I make. Linda C

Many teaspoons of vinegar later, including one that went down the wrong pipe (bad timing as I've got a strained back and coughing hurts, LOL)... my palate votes for 50/50 balasmic and cider. I preferred the cider mix over the white wine mix. One thing though is that the sherry vinegar (at least mine) has more of a bite than any other vinegar I have, I'm guessing because it's 8% acidic versus about 5% most of my others. Play around and taste it; I'm sure brand makes a significant difference.

You can also use sake in place of sherry, which is what I usually do. However, I usually drink red wine (Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, or Côtes du Rhône) with Brie cheese, but I use white wine (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or Chardonnay) when cooking mushrooms. I don't think a red wine would be good with mushrooms, even though I prefer it with Brie. I've never heard of Mushroom and Brie Soup and I think I would like to make it. I have mushrooms and brie on hand. Does anyone have a recipe that they like?

for me i'd be putting them in the garden wherever now, storage might result in loss of benefit, also would need to be dry i would imagine as stored wet in bags it could rot or mildew. our worm farming now occurs in the gardens where the benefits are delivered direct and where they are needed most. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page