Jerez de la Frontera – the Home of Sherry

Zagan the motorhome is slowly roasting in the sunshine behind a motorhome repair shop in Jerez, Spain. Don’t worry, he is perfectly OK. La Morada Del Sur, the repair and parts shop, allows motorhomes to stay in a big parking area around the sides and the back (N36.71387, W6.11025). It’s €15 a night and that includes services, electric hook up, WiFi, access to a shower and loo and of course a motorhome accessories shop – that also does a bit of sherry tasting on arrival.

Warning – this blog post has been written under the influence of sherry and brandy!
Jerez is famous for four things – motorbike racing, flamenco, dancing horses and sherry. After our weekend at the Circuito de Jerez, I think we could safely tick off the motorbike racing thing to see. Flamenco I’ve seen in the past, and I’m not a huge fan of dancing horses, but sherry – it had me at sherry. In all honesty we weren’t going to bother to come to Jerez itself, but after putting on Facebook that we were going to the circuit loads of people told us how much they love the town – so we thought we’d give it a look.

The motorhome parking is around 10 kilometres from the race circuit, so it really didn’t take us long to get here on Sunday. Once we were checked in, shown to our space and offered a sherry (as you do), we both set off for runs towards the town centre. It’s 5 kilometres (about 3 miles) to the middle of the old town, but neither of us made it there. Following the bike paths, we both found ourselves making loops of differing sizes around the suburbs – there are a lot of bike paths here.

This morning we decided to cycle into the centre instead of getting the bus. It was an easy flat ride, but with quite a few roads to cross – and we were never certain if the cars would stop for us, but fortunately they did. Parking our bikes by the market, we watched a chap making churros (he looked like he was born to it) before going for a wander, marvelling at how busy the place was (we normally end up arriving at places in the early afternoon when everything is shut).

After a quick look around the outside of the Alcazar (the citadel), we didn’t go in as we’d only just visited the one in Antequerra, it was time to strike out and find some sherry. Tio Pepe is the big brand in town. Shops and restaurants have its logo on their awnings, there is a huge Tio Pepe bottle on top of the telecoms tower at the race circuit and it even has its own roundabout in town (nowhere near the actual bodega though).

The Tio Pepe bodega tour looks great and includes a mini train ride around the vineyards, but it wasn’t for me. In my life there has only ever been one sherry – Harveys Bristol Cream. Of course with a name like that I assumed it was made in Bristol, but it turns out sherry, in order to be called sherry, has to be made in the sherry triangle which is formed between the cities of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El Puerto de Santa María and of course Jerez. Harveys imported sherry to Bristol from Spain, and in 1882 launched a blend of three dry and one sweet sherry that became Haverys Bristol Cream. In 1895 it received a Royal Warrant and in 1970 the brand was bought by the Fundador Bodga here in Jerez.

Walking towards the Fundador bodega the air mainly smelt of orange blossom from the hundreds of trees around the town, then suddenly your nostrils would be over come by the smell of sherry, which would disappear as quickly as it arrived. We arrived ten minutes too late for the first tour of the day at noon, so we nipped out and grabbed a bite to eat – at least we tried to grab a bite to eat and failed miserably. We asked at a cafe and a bar, both of which were only serving drinks and we got too scared in a tiny corner shop where the woman behind the counter sounded like she was in an argument with a customer, but we think she might just have been asking what sort of donut she wanted. We were finally saved by a Dia supermarket, and after sitting in the sun eating lunch on a bench we then coughed up €12 each and joined the 2pm tour. There were five people on it in total, all English – it was virtually a private tour.

Our tour guide took us into one of the huge high-ceiling bodegas (warehouses) where hundred of barrels full of sherry lay in the cool damp air. She explained about the different types of sherry (I only recently discovered there are different types when I bought some Fino sherry and found it was nothing like Harveys!) and how strong each is and how long they are fermented for. With sherry the barrels are never emptied and always stay in place. When they need to bottle some sherry two thirds of the liquid is taken from the bottom barrel and bottled. That barrel is then topped up by the barrel above, that barrel is topped up from the one on top. The top barrel is topped up with ‘new’ sherry. So, although it’s fortified wine, you won’t find sherry with a year on it as it’s always a blend of years.

We then went into the museum where she let us smell all the different types of sherry they produce, from €5 a bottle Fino and €8 Harveys Bristol Cream to the €75 Harveys V.O.R.S. We were then taken through the story of how Brandy de Jerez was ‘discovered’ and another sniffathon of all the different types of Brandy they produce. We were then given a few minutes to have a look around the museum which is housed in one of the old bodegas.

We were then taken into another bodega where the walls were covered in a dark black fungus which helped with the ageing process (so they say – I wouldn’t fancy shifting all those barrels to clean behind them). In here were massive barrels that held 2000 litres and also barrels that famous people had signed when they visited.

Finally it was time for the bit everyone was really there for, apart from Jay, the tasting. We were given a choice of dry sherry to try, followed by some Harveys Bristol Cream (served with ice and a slice of orange – which was really nice) then a tot of Brandy. Of course I had to try them all, and some of Jay’s but I think it’s safe to say Harvey’s is my favourite.

Hoping the police don’t breathalyse cyclists around here, we made our way back across town to the bikes and I managed to keep within the lines of the bike path on my way home.

Safely back at Zagan we’re sorting out our plans for the next couple of weeks. We need to be in Malaga for the 18th to collect our numbers for the half marathon, which is still going ahead at the moment – many others have been cancelled around Europe. Tomorrow we’re heading for the bottom of the sherry triangle to El Puerto de Santa María from where we’ll get a ferry over to Cadiz. The weather forecast has things heating up even further for the next few days, so maybe, just maybe the Spanish will take off their scarves and coats so we don’t look too out of place in our t-shirts and shorts.

Ju x