43. Jerez

The handover day!!

John is arriving today (John Williams, chairman of New Zealand Wineries and colleague and friend for many years)…but not until the evening.

So a lazy day, long breakfast, blogging, reading…and in the afternoon Iain and I went to learn about Jerez…or more specifically Sherry!

We enjoyed five glasses of sherry and one of vermouth as we toured the enormous cellars…and learnt about the (surprisingly simple, I thought) method of sherry making.

Make wine. Add brandy to increase the alcohol. Insert into top tier (always of three) 500 litre barrels.

One is only allowed to sell one third of the bottom barrel each year! Appelation rules! Which third is refilled from the second tier. Which is refilled from the top tier…providing the space for the new wine.

Hence – generally – there is little difference in sherries from one year to the next! You will never find a ‘vintage’ sherry!

Having said that the process takes 9-12 years! And sometimes over 30 years! Extraordinary really.

And they are selling more sherry than ever…which was surprising to me, for I thought it was well out of vogue decades ago!

Good tour….and spectacular church-like cellars.

And then….John arrived!!!

….but this picture possibly better sums up his thoughts about joining the ride!! WTF am I doing?

Anyway….after too much sherry, and too many beers….we returned to El Passage to show John a bit of Flamenco! 

 Great evening! Welcome to Spain!