If you are planning to travel in this area you need to know that from Seville to Cadiz, our next stop, it only took one and half hours driving. We wanted to see this famous port on the coast, but our experience can be summed up in just a few words from Lynne's notes: motorway tolls, SatNav doesn’t work, reverse, reverse, reverse, green roads, too many roundabouts, council estates, no access, dizzy, stress. They do have a seafront like Sea Point, but not a single café or place to have lunch. We left and headed straight for Jerez, where we had booked an AirBnB for a night - 3/4 of an hour away. We eventually found these 2 competing cafés, five minutes’ walk away, to have some sherry and some supper! One had food, the other football, it was Liverpool 2, Roma 0
Before ordering supper, we ordered a Palo Cortado sherry as an aperitif - what else would one choose in the home of sherry? Palo Cortado is a rare variety of sherry that is initially aged under flor to become a fino or amontillado, but inexplicably loses its veil of flor and begins aging oxidatively as an oloroso. The result is a wine with some of the richness of oloroso and some of the crispness of amontillado. Only about 1–2% of the grapes pressed for sherry naturally develop into palo cortado. Interesting! Dark amber, we concluded that, had this been from a better house, the quality might be better. €2.50 a glass
When in Jerez.... After the Palo Cortado apéritif, what else to accompany your Salmorejo but a glass of Fino with a lovely nose, nutty and dry, lean, very typical of the style, and hot with alcohol. €1.40 a glass. Sherry should not be something your Granny keeps on the sideboard for when you visit
Our choices for supper
Bad choice: We ordered Chicharrones de Atun Rojo (pink tuna). It was not tuna, but very overcooked pieces of dry pork belly, also Chicharrones but not what we ordered. (Pity, the tuna may have come fresh from Cadiz). The pork was fatty and full of skin and John does not do those
A dish of potato salad, which was another tapa, rather good
Tempura boccarones (flattened anchovies). This suited John down to the ground, but not Lynne, who hates fish bones and small fishy fish
The bill. Lynne had a tonic water
Up bright and early next morning to visit Sandeman Sherry. We wanted to visit Gonzalez Byass (Tio Pepe) but they don't open till noon. Fortunately, Sandeman opens at 10, so we had a very good cellar tour and sherry tasting there. It is time for Sherry to become fashionable again. It is a wonderful apéritif and a good accompaniment to food. South Africa used to produce some really good examples, but the few that remain cannot compete with the Spanish, sadly
First a tour of the cellars; rows of 600 litre American oak barrels of sherry
The shop
Atmosphere
And Lisa, a guide who spoke excellent English and was very informative, wearing the traditional Sandeman cloak and hat outfit. She knew we were informed, so she added to our knowledge
A Sandeman winemaker drawing sherry from barrels for the inspector, using his "wine thief" to pour with incredible skill to give the wine a bit of air as he pours - sorry it's unsharp, but we came round the corner in the dark cellar and John just pointed and shot! Yes, they do this so expertly, no drips
George Sandeman set up his Port and Sherry business in 1790. These, we were told, are his original tools. Not for torture, for marking the barrels
Some more sherry winemaking tools
A lovely courtyard
Lined with flower pots
The vine pergola in spring, just breaking into bud
Murals with the story of sherry
An illuminated glass fronted barrel where you can see the flor yeast floating on top of the sherry. It is this yeast which gives sherry its special character
A Criadera or Solera system of sherry. The top barrels are the youngest wines; a portion of wine is drawn from the oldest barrel at the bottom, replaced from the younger barrel above and that replaced from the younger barrel above that. So there will never be a vintage sherry; they are all made from a combination of vintages. There can be many layers of barrels
We had a tasting, of course. It costs €15. First a three year Fino, grapey, nutty, dry, soft and crisp. Then a 5 year dry Fino which had more maturity and was warmer and nutty. Then a medium dry, complex Amontillado, shy with nuts and spice on the nose, richness and layers of warm flavour. A 3 year old Oloroso sherry followed with a sweet nose with notes of wood and nice warmth on the palate with nut and apricot flavours; full on the palate, more nuts and Christmas mince pies. Next, a 5 year old Oloroso, raisins, dried fruit, & nuts. Sticky and thick on palate, a dessert wine, with an amaretto biscuit character, to pair with blue cheese, cheese cake and Christmas pudding. And, finally, Pedro Ximenez with raisins, brandy plums, nuts, sweet, velvety rich, perfect for desserts or to add and marinate strawberries or whip into cream (rather like an aged red Muscadel). We bought a bottle of the young Fino because we love it and it is very difficult to find in Cape Town. Sherry has been rather in the shadows and out of fashion in SA. Perhaps we should take another look at it - and do try the real thing
Our companion tasters, Janet and John, were British. They added tapas for another €8 each
The two younger sherries
We were hungry and needed a good lunch rather than Tapas so we stopped for lunch at a bar across the street from Sandeman
Beer is always a good refreshment after sherry, or any other wine tasting
Simple menus like this can deter one as you don't know what the quality will be like
Really good olives and bread came first
Volaores Rellenos - It doesn't look too appetising, but the flavours are great. Squid stuffed with more squid, onions, herbs lemon was quite sour and came with chips
And the herbs were a little bitter
Somehow, Gambas al Aillo sounds more exotic and romantic than Shrimp scampi. Becoming a favourite, shrimps rather than prawns in olive oil and lots of garlic. So good to use the bread to soak up the juices. Lunch with a beer and a tonic cost about €14
