Sherry is a fortified, aged wine made from white grapes. The drink was the first Spanish wine to be designated Denominación de Origen, like the French system of appellations, sherry and only sherry comes from the province of Cadiz, near the area of Jerez, Spain. Legally, even if growers harvest Palomino grapes, they cannot produce true sherry outside this region - there is no such thing as an Californian, French or Argentinean sherry and the keepers of the sherry brand are litigious enough to slap that word off the bottle of pretenders. Proponents of terroir - the belief or science that microclimates and cultural traditions of a very specific area make a product unique to the very land it came from - claim that the chalky, white earth; the heat of the Spanish sun that speeds up evaporatation and white grapes grown in the arid environment all conspire to make sherry the exclusive province of southwestern Spain.
Sherry vinegar is a type of vinegar made from the same grapes used to produce sherry. Vinegar comes from the French, vin aigre = sour wine, but the acidic liquid isn’t always made from wine. There is Cider vinegar, Malt vinegar and Rice vinegar. Vinegar is a result alcohol oxidizing - aerobic bacteria, sets upon alcohol turning it to acetic acid. What was once the ancient’s curse of spoiled vintages, soon became the preserver’s boon. Although, the understanding of bacteria is relatively new, controlled cultures have existed for millennia. Even in the modern era of microscopes and Petri dishes - vinegar makers use a 'mother', bacteria from the previous batch of vinegar is added to a new lot to aid the growth of desirable cultures.
Cooking wines are low-grade wines, made from second and third pressings of grapes. Truly bottom of the barrel stuff - made with extra salts to help preserve them for the many months/years they will spend stored waiting to be used. The general rule of thumb with wines is if you wouldn’t drink it, you shouldn’t cook with it. I actually like the extra flavor that comes from younger, non-vintage, mixed variety wines (read boxed). Sweet and young in the kitchen is fine but I cannot abide by the saltiness of cooking wines. Despite being lower grade - ounce for ounce, cooking wines cost 3 to 4 times more than vintage wines. I find that sherry itself, because it is fortified (brandy is added after the fermentation is complete, moving the alcohol content up to 30 proof), keeps really well. However, I am fairly unique in this view: In Jerez, sherry is served in what would be considered ½ bottles (350ml); what is untippled is said to be poured out, not worthy of saving.
Both wine and vinegar are made from grapes and both are acidic, but the products aren’t really interchangeable. Wine, including sherry, contains about ½ - 1% acid by volume, not really all that acidic, especially compared to vinegar’s 4-8% acid (pickle brine comes in at 18% acid). If a recipe calls for sherry vinegar and you are out or have never owned sherry vinegar, feel free to substitue white wine vinegar, or a vinegar made from white grapes like champagne or chardonany.
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