SWHighlander
Posts: 29
Joined: 12/9/2012
From: Destin, Florida
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I lived in Europe from 2011 - 2015 and spent some time traveling in Andalusia, Cadiz and sherry country. Here are the notes I wrote for a blog. I doubt much has changed. I wrote for both wine aficionados and for newbies with interest, so I apologize if some of it is too basic for CTers.
Sherry is grown and produced in the part of Andalusia (southern Spain) known as the Sherry Triange, formed by Jerez de la Frontera (east and the biggest town), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (northwest) and El Puerto de Santa Maria (southwest). Wineries are called bodegas. Combine a trip to the Triangle with a beach resort in Chiclana/Cadiz/Rota (or Malaga further away), a multi-city rental car exploration of Andalucía, or trip to southern Portugal. For sherry tasting specifically, the easiest option is to fly into Jerez de la Frontera, a small airport served by RyanAir, Condor (a branch of Lufthansa), and others.
You can get a good feel for sherry in a single day, hitting 2-3 wineries in a single town. Even better, spend 2 days and check out two of the towns in the Triangle, which have different flavors to their wine. The towns are only 20-45 minutes away, but allow extra time hunting for bodegas that don’t have specific street addresses or their address turns out to their business office and not the place with the wine.
Much of the Sherry Triangle is not used to wine tourism. Some wineries almost never get tourists outside the wine business. Tasting rooms with open hours do not exist, except for a couple of the bodegas where you are charged a lot to taste a few of their cheapest wines. If you see open hours listed on their website, it probably means their business office, not tasting room unless specifically stated.
Here is what I recommend:
1) Decide whether you are going to explore Sherry by yourself or pay a tour company to pick a few wineries for you and drive you to them. Tours make it very easy, but you won’t get the best wine or the adventure. On your own, some Spanish skills are helpful but not required.
2) For do it yourselfers, research: Acquire a copy of the sherry bible: Sherry, Manzanilla & Montilla by Peter Liem and Jesus Barquin. Look in the back where he reviews each winery in the area. Make a pick list of the ones you want to visit. Separate them by town. Take a look at these blogs as well: Catavino.net and Jerez-Xeres-Sherry.blogspot.de. Personally I think you have to take the latter blog with a big grain of salt, because he thinks they’re all good.
3) Decide at which places you want to tour versus taste. This is a key concept. Tours will include lessons on the making of sherry, the winery and a tasting. They last 1 to 2.5 hours and may have English language times. After a few tours, it can get a bit repetitive. I recommend 2 tours for all of Sherry and the rest tastings only. A tasting will last 15-40 minutes, counting time to buy any wine desired.
4) Next, contact the bodegas. Email them at least 1-2 weeks in advance for a reservation. If they don’t respond within 2 days, call them by phone. Some will speak English, but some only Spanish. If you do not want a tour, request that you come by to BUY some of their wine, and of course taste it first. Do not use the words tour or visit, because this confuses them and they think you want them to show you around the grounds which is done a set times in large groups for $ and much more limited time options, if they offer a "tour" at all. All of them are happy to let you come taste their wine though and talk to you about it. (Same thing for Piedmont in Italy and other wine regions in Europe.)
5) When you are in Sherry, if you have time to spare, you can call additional wineries the day of your visit. You might be able to tag along with another group’s tour, or even more likely is they may let you drop in to taste and possibly buy without a tour -- since this doesn’t require much of their time.
6) Transporting back home. 3 options --
a) Checked luggage. Pack a few wrapped up in your clothes. Preferably put each one in a gallon ziplock bag just on the off chance it is broken (but I’ve never had one broken by the airlines). If you can find a wine shipper box padded for air travel, a 12-bottle case can be checked, weighing ~37 lb. (But good luck finding an air shipper box in Jerez.)
b) Ship back to US (each state has its own rules and most bodegas only ship to California and a few others).
c) Get the name of the US distributor for their wines. When you get back to the US, contact them to buy directly.
Specific Sherry wineries for visiting:
In Jerez de la Frontera
- Fernando de Castilla: High-end, boutique winery. Fabulous private tour with cask tastings including 40 year old brandy. Highly recommended. Did not respond to emails - had to call. Free tasting with purchase.
- El Maestro Sierra: Small winery focusing on supplying the locals with weekly sherry. Free tasting. No tours offered. Great value low end basic sherries, cask tastings from spigot. High-end aged olorosos and amantillados are reportedly outstanding, but also pricey ($70-105, no tasting). Located in Jerez town center, hill top, next to the Alcazar and Gonzales Byass. (US Importer: De Maison Selections Inc, Chapel Hill NC 27514)
- Gonzalez Byass: Massive sherry house makes one of the most famous sherries, Tio Pepe (low end). Open tastings in English at 12, 1, 2 and 5:15, M-Sa in summer (fewer in winter). Must be done as part of a tour on the hour, tasting 2-3 lower end sherries with others who show up for the tour at the same time. €13.
- Tradicion: boutique house, makes only aged sherries (no fino / manzanilla). Tours by appt. +34-95-616-8628 / +34-68-922-4162. visitas@bodegastradicion.com. Hours: M-F 9-18:30, Sa 10-14 (Mar-Jun), 8-15 (Jul-Aug).
- Valdespino / Grupo Estevez : Very large sherry house. Skip their very long tour (1.5 hours before the tasting room) and do tasting only. Bottle tastings.
In Sanlúcar
- Barbadillo: large house with some high-end bottlings as well (pasada en rama manzanilla). Manzanilla Museum. Guided tours in English at 12 and 1. €3.
- Guerrita Wine Bar: Alongside a locals’ tavern, Taberna der Guerrita, there is a small modern wine shop and lab-like tasting room opened by Armando Guerra, the tavern proprietor’s son. It offers one of the best selections of sherry in Spain. See this raving article from the NY Times. https://www.spain-holiday.com/Cadiz-province/articles/top-10-bars-not-to-miss-in-jerez-and-cadiz-sherry-country
< Message edited by SWHighlander -- 8/30/2018 8:02:10 PM >
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Advice on Cadiz, Jerez and area? - 
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