Sherry we say in English, Jerez in Spanish, Sherish they said in Arabic, a city that you can grasp in a glass and let roll through your lips in your mouth over your tongue. It is a city which has always been a lover of wine, always. Long before ‘sherry’ evolved into what it is today – an alchemical creation fortified with alcohol, oxidised by air and transformed by flor – and before the catavinos wine glass became the glass of choice for sherry lovers, before, even, the solera system of ageing wines, Jerez was always madly in love with the vine. Continue reading “Jerez de la Frontera: A City Long in Love With Wine”
The Landscape of Sherry (Photo Gallery)
“In Jerez”, a wine-maker once told me, “we live with our backs to the vineyard…” In Jerez, he went on to say, fame is attached to the urban wineries, the bodegas where the alchemy takes place. In other wine-producing regions, harvest and production take place on the same terrain, but in Jerez the sun, soil and salts of the earth which give birth to the wine are often forgot. Continue reading “The Landscape of Sherry (Photo Gallery)”
Shakespeare in Love (with Sherry)
Jerez de la Frontera is a city for romantics, its drink a drop for lovers of the vine. And the greatest lover of them all – Shakespeare – was madly in love with Sherry. Continue reading “Shakespeare in Love (with Sherry)”
Toasting to Tradition at Bodegas Maestro Sierra – ¡Salud!
In this hyper-accelerated world we are told that you must either adapt to the new ways or perish; adapt to new technology, new fads and new tastes, but for Bodegas Maestro Sierra, there is wisdom in the old ways. The naturality of a product, the care in its production and the honesty in its presentation may be seen as outdated shibboleths in this twenty-first century, but at Maestro Sierra, well, call them old-fashioned… Continue reading “Toasting to Tradition at Bodegas Maestro Sierra – ¡Salud!”
The Au Naturel Pedro Ximénez: Visiting Ximénez-Spínola Vineyards
Tradition is an invaluable body of thought and practise refined, perfected, and revised over generations, inherited by the young from the old. But tradition can be both a blessing and a burden, and habit can limit the imagination. To think freely you need to break out of old rhythms, try new things, experiment. Continue reading “The Au Naturel Pedro Ximénez: Visiting Ximénez-Spínola Vineyards”
