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Vineyards in Jerez, Andalucia, Spain |
We set off for Jerez de la Frontera from Seville on a beautiful sunny morning with an intense blue sky; yet another wonderful day in Andalusia! Jerez is 55 miles to the south of Seville but before arriving in the town we took a detour to visit one of the vineyard areas to the north of the town. Looking over the rolling landscape vines can be seen growing on the areas which give off a white sheen. These are the famous albariza soils which have a high chalk content, ideal for the growing of grapes which are to be destined to make the different styles of sherry. The albariza soil is often compared to a sponge due to its water-retaining capacity. During the hot summer the surface of the soil becomes baked forming a crust which stops the moisture deeper down from evaporating. The roots of the vines thus continue to take in water and stop the vines becoming stressed. The main sherry grape is the palomino fina, which produces very average white table wine but when used for all the different styles of dry sherry produces a wine on a totally different quality level.
It’s interesting to note that the world’s two greatest aperitif wines, champagne and sherry are at the two climatic extremes of grape growing, one being almost not hot enough and the other almost too hot. The best vineyards in both cases are on chalky soils and yeast pays a major role in the ageing process of champagne and some of the styles of sherry as we will see when we get to the bodega (winery).
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Sánchez Romate Bodega, the old quarter of Jerez, Andalucia, Spain |
Leaving the vineyard we headed to Jerez and the Sánchez Romate bodega situated in the old quarter of Jerez. This is one of Jerez´s oldest bodegas, having been founded in 1781. They do not normally arrange visits but made an exception for us. Rafael, who was to show us around and who has spent nearly 40 years working the bodega, handed each of us a copita, the typical sherry glass. He also had a venencia, the instrument used for drawing wine from the butts, as we were going to taste everything straight from the barrel. It was then off for a lesson on how the different styles of sherry are made and what they taste like!
The winery buildings with their rows and rows of sherry butts, their high sloping roofs and the subdued light are often called cathedrals and do seem to have an air of sanctity about them, the better to contemplate the vinous treasures which they hold!
Sherry wines are produced using the solera system. In the sherry bodegas you will see 500-600 litre wine butts stacked one on top of another up to a height of four. The butts nearest to the floor are known as soleras and those above as criaderas. When wine is needed for bottling it is taken from the soleras which contain the oldest wine. Up to one third of the wine in the solera may be extracted. This quantity is replaced with wine from the criadera above the solera and successively up to the last criadera. The last criadera is replaced with wine from the previous harvest that has been fortified. To make things more confusing this whole system is also known as the solera.
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Sampling fino straight from the butt using a Venencia |
First of all we tasted some fino. This wine is fortified to 15% alcohol and a layer of yeast which in Spanish is called ‘el velo de flor’ forms naturally on the surface. A sixth of the butt is left empty so the yeast can develop. This yeast which occurs naturally in the area lives off nutrients in the wine, especially glycerine. The blending of older wine with younger ones in the solera system helps to maintain the yeast layer along with cool temperatures and high humidity. In the warmer months the area where finos are aged are watered several times every week to maintain humidity levels.
We sampled the wine straight from the butts and everyone was impressed with it’s tanginess and yeasty almondy taste. We did a second tasting mixing in some of the yeast with the wine giving it an obviously yeastier taste. This is how the people who work in the bodegas like their fino and it´s only in the bodegas you can try it!
We moved on next to taste an amontillado. This is a wine that was originally a fino but had been fortified to 17% alcohol killing off the yeast layer. It was then left for two years in the same butt before being added to the last criadera of an amontillado solera. Without the presence of the yeast layer the wine goes through what is known as oxidative ageing. What we tasted had taken on an amber colour and had a very nutty taste but still with a tangy hint of the fino it had been before. The nose had a distinct caramel-like aroma although the wine was bone dry. For many people in Jerez this is the finest of the different sherry styles.
With our mouths still puckering we went on to another bodega building where old oloroso was being aged. Oloroso has never had a layer of yeast covering the wine as it was fortified to around 18% alcohol from the start. The wine we tasted had an average age of at least 20 years. Its colour was between amber and mahogany and had a very intense nose with lots of different aromas; walnuts, dried figs, wood, orange peel to name a few. The taste of the wine really filled the mouth and lingered there for ages. This wine compared to the commercial brands of sherry so often seen in British supermarkets is like comparing the finest acorn-fed Iberian ham to a slice of cheap bacon. A few people in the group were now starting to reconsider certain prejudices that they had had against sherry!
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Butts of Sherry, Andalucia, Spain |
Moving again to another part of the bodega we now tried a Pedro Ximénez wine. This is made from a grape of the same name. The grapes are dried in the sun for up to two weeks which shrivels the grape concentrating the sugar. After fermentation the wine contains a lot of residual sugar. It is then fortified and aged in the same way as other styles of sherry. The wines are dark mahogany in colour and give off an intense aroma of raisins or molasses. They are viscous and very sweet. The locals pour these wines over ice-cream, an absolutely delicious dessert!
As well as sherry wines most of the bodegas in Jerez produce sherry vinegar and brandy. The best vinegars are on a par with balsamic vinegars from Modena in Italy. They don´t normally have the sweetness of their Italian counterparts but have a distinctly nutty flavour. A finger dipped in the vinegar we tried was enough to verify this.
The Sánchez Romate bodega is famous for its brandy Cardenal Mendoza. The spirit which is the base for the brandies in Jerez does not come form the area but from La Mancha, the great plain to the south of Madrid. All brandies in Jerez are aged in butts that have been used previously for ageing sherry, so the brandy takes on some of the characteristics of the wine. In Sánchez Romate all the butts that are used have previously held Pedro Ximénez wine. The base spirit which arrives in the winery is left in butts without being moved for two years. This then goes into a system of soleras and criaderas. We tasted the finished product from a solera butt. It was smooth with a sweet finish to it.
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The grapes hanging heavy on the grapevines |
In 1971 38 butts of Cardenal Mendoza brandy were set aside and left for ten years when a special bottling was made to celebrate the bicentenary of the bodega in 1981. Only a fraction of the brandy, known as Non Plus Ultra, was bottled. Since this time a small amount is bottled each year. The butts are then replenished with Cardenal Mendoza brandy. Everyone got to taste this special brandy and judging by the ohhhs and arrrs, there was general agreement that this was something exceptional, an incredibly smooth complex brandy. In Spain this brandy retails at around 200 euros a bottle, maybe just a little over most people’s budget.
After nearly three hours in the winery it was now time for some lunch so after profusely thanking Rafael we headed to one of Jerez´s finest restaurants, La Mesa Redonda. We started off by sharing a number of entrées including mojama (air-cured tuna), excellent home-made pâté and an incredible potato salad which had an amazing sherry vinegar as part of the ingredients. Everyone then chose a main dish of fish or meat. Many of these dishes included sauces made with oloroso, amontillado or pedro ximénez. The Iberian pork sirloin I had with a pedro ximenez based sauce was superlative. The desserts included the ice-cream with pedro ximénez wine that I mentioned beforehand and another local speciality, sherry trifle! It was just as good as the trifle my mother used to make!
Lunch over, it was time for a stroll around the old part of Jerez before heading back to Seville after a very full day in more ways than one, and no a jokes about sherry-drinking vicars or maiden aunts.
