Category: sherry

Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Gonzalez Byass
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Gonzalez Byass.

(The grounds of the bodega have grape vines covering the streets to provide shade.)

(A train takes people on a tour around the bodega.)

(One of the rooms for special events.)

(A barrel signed by Picasso.)

(Some Tio Pepe out of the cask. You can see the flor broken up in the glass.)
- Make Tio Pepe
- Over 200,000 visitors per year to bodega
- Tio Pepe grapes are and will always be collected by hand, not machine
- Higher vineyards considered better – get more of the wet wind
- Theyre one of the only companies to grow PX in Jerez. Others buy it from Cordoba
- Have a big catalogue of vintage-dated sherries- Anadas
- Corks are loose on sherry barrels to let air in, but most air freshness comes from when you change the levels of the sherry in the solera
- The El Duque brand starts as Tio Pepe fino, aged longer
- The higher the percentage of alcohol, the more lignin it absorbs from the wood.
- Nuttiness comes from the grapes. Coconut comes from the wood.
- Palo Cortado- probably started back in the day when they couldn’t accurately meauser alcohol percentage, so they put too much in the fino and killed it
January 12, 2011
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Williams & Humbert
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Williams & Humbert.

(The bodega is absolutely enormous.)

(There's a horse show inside the bodega for visitors.)

(For barrel tasting, the venenciador (in this case, the chief oenologist) inserts the venencia into the barrel to pull out a cup of liquid, then pours above a glass to aerate.)

(From a high perch in the bodega, you can see nearly the whole thing. Center in the picture is a tour group.)
- They make Dry Sack – actually a medium sweetness sherry
- Huge tourist visitor center- enter through the bodega and go to the horse show
- Brandy de Jerez is very popular in the Philippines
- Bowmore 1964 was aged in their casks
- Macallan new casks prepared here
- New wood with aged sherry added to them
- The sherry is not sold afterward- too woody
- Fino was first developed in an industrial way in the 1920’s and 30’s
- Dry sack is the top selling medium sweet sherry in the world.
- Tio Pepe is top selling fino. (Not made here.)
- Harvey’s Bristol Cream is the top cream. (Not made here.)
- Dry sack is blended with PX right at the beginning before it enters the solera system
- 15 year oloroso is very yummy.
- I also liked Gran Dulque de Alba XO
- They make the Dos Maderas rums
- Liked the VORS amontillado, VOS Palo Cortado
January 4, 2011
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Sanchez Romate
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Sanchez Romate.

(Our guide used a barrel as a chalkboard.)

(Our host.)

(The bodega is relatively small and sort of goth.)

(We signed a barrel.)
- Not a touristy bodega- don’t do tours
- Fino has more oxidation than manzanilla because the flor dies in winter and summer in Jerez.
- Delicious amontillado 5 years under flor
- Muscatel was like blueberry pie filling with curry
- Brandy Cardenal Mendoza top selling brandy de Jerez in US
December 28, 2010
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Osborne
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Osborne.

(The logo for Osborne is the silhouette of a bull. You see it all around.)

(This is barrel with a clear end so you can see how flor (a layer of yeast) lives on top of the sherry. The yeast consumes nutrients in the alcohol, and also protects it from oxidation in fino and manzanilla sherries.)

(Aging sherry.)

(After the Osborne bodega visit, some local food to soak up the sherry.)
- Huge company with biggest selling products port, water, ham, etc.
- Their fino has a five level solera, fairly unique
- Have a “Fino-Amontillado” with a lot of time under flor. It’s their signature product.
- Want more humidity in bodegas where fino is aged
December 20, 2010
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Grupo Estevez
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Grupo Estevez.

(Sherry sleeping peacefully in the bodega.)

(One of the warehouses is named for flamenco dancer Lola Flores.)

(Horse stables and ring behind the bodegas. Jerez is home to flamenco, dancing horses, and sherry.)

(The interior is a fancy place with fine art and marble statues.)
- Tio Mateo, Agostino, Tesoro, La Gita are some of their brands
- They used to have several bodegas, centralized them all to the one we visited 20 years ago
- One bodega named after flamenco dancer Lola Flores
- La Gita manzanilla from Sanlucar is the only manzanilla that has a production date on the bottle- should help us Americans know when its too old to buy
- Inocente Fino is fermented in the barrel not in stainless tanks.
December 16, 2010
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Tradicion
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Tradicion.

(The small and beautiful bodega.)

(Drinking out of the barrel.)

(Criadera refers to the level of the barrel in the solera system. The 1/18 refers to the number of the barrel and the total of the set. )

(They also have an art gallery in the bodega. I call this painting "Laserdove".)
- Bodega only started in 1998
- Only produce old sherries – VOS, VORS.
- They buy them from other bodegas already aged and put them into their solera system.
- To my palate, older sherries are effervescent, literally. Very acidic. Lively jumps in your mouth.
December 7, 2010
Sherry Bodega Visit: Harvey’s
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Harvey's.

(At the vineyard.)

(The white, chalky soil of Jerez not only seals in water to get the vines through the dry season, it reflects sunlight up to the bottom of the vines as well.)

(At the bodega, the famous Harvey's Bristol Cream.)

(Barrels of sherry at the Harvey's bodega.)

(Sherry, read for drinking!)

(The grounds at Harvey's are filled with animals like albino peacocks and…)

(a pair of alligators.)
- 75% of their grapes are machine harvested
- PX and Palomino grapes look similar but taste very different
- Vines last 30-35 years before being replaced
- Harveys sells 51% of all sherry in US. That’s most (all?) Harvey’s Bristol Cream
- Harvey’s VOS, VORS not yet sold in US.
- The cream category of sherry was named for Harvey’s Bristol Cream
- Harvey’s has albino peacocks
- Alligators- Harvey and Kevin. Kevin didn’t get along with his former mate Sandra and killed her. Gay alligators?
November 28, 2010
The Tequila-Sherry Connection

Every time I look for sherry I find tequila there too. What is it with the tequila people and the sherry people being the same people?

Steven Olson aka Wine Geek is both a tequila and mezcal ambassador and also a sherry ambassador.

Jacques Bezuidenhout, Partida tequila brand ambassador and sometimes sherry ambassador, also created of the La Perla cocktail with both tequila and sherry.

George Sandeman of the Sandeman sherry and port family is a huge tequila fan.

On a recent trip to Spain with Steve Olsen were Phil Ward and Katie Stipe of Mayahuel, the tequila-and-mezcal bar in New York.

Gitane restaurant in San Francisco has a drink with tequila, PX, lime, and ginger beer.

And just the other day I got a recipe pitch from Espolon tequila with this recipe from H. Ehrmann of Elixir:

Ashes to Ashes

1.5 oz. Espolón Tequila Reposado
.5 oz. Pedro Ximenez Sherry
1 oz. Lemon Juice
1 tsp. Sweetened Cocoa Mix
.25 oz. Agave Nectar
1 pinch Ground Cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice, cover and shake well for 10 seconds. Strain up into a cocktail glass. Garnish with cinnamon dust.

I also love both sherry and tequila, but I don't know what they have to do with each other.

What gives?

October 12, 2010
How Long Does Sherry Last?

Sherry is a wine, albeit a fortified one, that does spoil after a certain time being open. It also typically doesn't improve once it is put into the bottle so here's how long to keep it around.

According to the Consejo Regulador of Sherry, the wine should be stored for the following times:

Fino or Manzanilla: in a sealed bottle it will last for 12 to 18 months. If the bottle is opened and stored in the refrigerator, it will last one week.

Amontillado and Medium Sweet Sherries in a sealed bottle will last for 18 to 36 months. If the bottle is open they will last 2 -3 weeks.

Oloroso and Cream Sherries in a sealed bottle will last for 24 to 36 months. If the bottle is open they will last 4 -6 weeks.

Pedro Ximenez in a sealed bottle will last for 24 to 48 months. If the bottle is open it will last 1 -2 months.

September 27, 2010
Sherry is Not Just for Sipping

In the new issue of Fine Cooking Magazine, Tara Q. Thomas has a story on sherry with food pairings (preview mode so far- full story should appear at the link later). To pair with the feature on the FineCooking.com drink blog, I list a simple recipe for the Sherry Cobbler.

Should you want more complicated recipes, I recommend stopping off at the Secret Sherry Society website for drinks from the likes of Charles Joly, Erick Castro, Danny Valdez, Thomas Waugh, and Phil Ward.

September 25, 2010