Sherry Triangle

There are a few items and experiences on our must try list while in Spain. Sherry tasting is one of them. Why sherry? I have no idea. Wine tasting in Spain is not as straight forward as tasting back home. There are no tasting rooms all over the place. Here, one generally goes to a facility, gets a tour (that you may or may not actually care about) and then, finally, gets to sample a very few wines.

To sample sherry, we headed out for the “sherry triangle”. This is a triangular region in Andalusia, Spain where Sherry comes from. The triangle is made of three towns, Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa Maria and Sanlucar de Barrameda. All mouthfuls to say. So we shall simply call Jerez de la Frontera, Jerez. Much easier.

Why Jerez? Simple, we were already out in Cadiz and Jerez is fairly close by and easy to drive to. Picking a Sherry tour is less easy. They are put on at certain times on certain days, all dependent on the facility. We chose the most (we think) well known, Tio Pepe. Plus I liked their gigantic sign back in Madrid. So Tio Pepe it was.

After selecting a facility you must select your tour. They come in a few languages. Erm. English for me. And you must select the tour you want. Prices go up according to your desires. All come with a tour of the facility. Beyond that, do you want to sample 2 or 4 sherry’s, each with or without tapa’s. There’s also a Premium or Sherry Cask tour where you get to taste from the cask as well. Not sure on the difference between the two.

We chose the four tastings of sherry with tapa’s. In retrospect, I’d pass on the tapa’s. They were sad in my opinion. Some olives (but the weird musty Spanish ones that taste like dirty socks) with an anchovy on a skewer, a toast with jamon, crackers, and a bit of cheese. However, four types of sherry would be advised as they were drastically different. And the food did improve the sherry.

As for the tour, it begins with being loaded onto a very slow train/trolley that creeps (and I do mean creeps) through the grounds. You’ll get a basic background of the original family, how the company began, partnerships and the grounds. Turns out the brand name, Tio Pepe, means Uncle Pepe. The name honors the founder’s uncle who loved wine and was an influence on him. Very sweet.

After the train, we head into the cask rooms and learn a bit about how Sherry is made. Sherry is a fortified wine mainly made from white grapes. There’s a lot more detail in the tour of course, but that’s the jist. Walking amongst the barrels is neat. There’s a musty wine scent to the air that’s quite appealing. In one building, there are wine barrels signed by a variety of famous person’s around the world. Spanish royalty get to sign a cask, naturally.

We learned about how barrels are made of American oak, used for 60 years and then sold off. Apparently they are in high demand. We learned how they repair casks with black paint looking stuff and that some poor soul checks all the barrels every morning. There are a lot of barrels. We learned they keep the doors open to allow the sea breeze in, unless hot winds are coming from Africa. Then everything is buttoned up.

There’s a rather amusing daily tradition at the winery. As expected, winery’s have mice. The mice, in theory, eat bugs that could pose a problem for the winery. Thus, the mice are tolerated. Way back in the day, someone noted the mice liked sweet things. So they were offered a glass of sweet sherry every morning. Complete with a miniature ladder to get to the top of the glass. This tradition is carried out today. There are photo’s of the mice enjoying sherry.

The grounds themselves are lovely. Lots of grape vines and pergola’s between buildings. Old artifacts from farming are used as decoration here and there.

After the guided tour, you’re lead into another building for tasting. As you’re in a large group, they look at your ticket and divy everyone into groups according to your wine tasting selection, i.e. 2 tastings here, 4 tastings there. Special premium tastings in a different room.

Out came the sherry. Starting with driest to sweetest. One was a sherry spritzer. Now sherry, as it turns out, is one of the fouler things you can drink. Personal opinion here. It was awful. That first dry glass was rough. Made slightly more palatable with the “tapas”. I dare say I was not the only one as most people did not finish their first glass. And the couple next to us proclaimed it undrinkable as well. So there. Sorry Spain. The spritzer was good. Honestly just tasted bubbly. The last sherry was sweeter and more agreeable than the dry ones. But nothing I would ever seek out. Ever. Sorry, Sherry is a solid no go for me. Bleh. Now, to be perfectly fair, we went with friends to a multi course dinner with wine pairings for each course and one of the wines was a sherry. It was sweet and did pair with the cheese well enough. But still. I’ll stick to sweet Vermouth and your heavenly wines.

All that aside, I enjoyed the experience and would recommend at least trying the sherry’s. Maybe you’d like them. Everyone’s taste is different. We passed on purchasing any sherry but did buy a bottle of their Vermouth. It’s rather heavy on the spices and we found it quite delightful with a slice of orange on the rocks. Yum.