On Friday we had a 10:40 train from Sevilla San Bernardo station to Jerez de la Frontera, a town about an hour south known for their Sherry varierty of wine. The word "Sherry" in Spanish is actually "Jerez", pronounced "heh-res" (or "heh-reth" depending on where you're from), but the English butchered the word and called it Sherry instead. Either way, we were off to a Sherry tasting!

Morning in Sevilla

a morning run

We began the day with a morning run, to abdicate ourselves from the gluttonous sins that were to come. Of the two of us, Claire is the runner, but I'm always grateful when she convinces me to go on runs.

I plotted the route, and realized that I could surprise her with a run to Plaza De España - the enormous plaza built for the 1929 World's Fair in Sevilla. I didn't take any photos, because we were running, but we'll be back on Sunday with more photos and a more in depth description.

High-tailing to the train station

We left the airBnB with enough time to make it to the train station, but had to power walk the 25 minute trip. We made it on time, and jumped on the hour long train ride down to Cadiz, getting off a Jerez.

Jerez

We got to Jerez just before noon, with a two o'clock tour scheduled at Bodegas Tradiciòn. We walked around the town before getting lunch.

While the train station itself was beautiful, the area by the train station was quite modern, lacking all charm.

The charm returned once we got to the main square, Plaza Arenal, but the place looked less and less maintained the closer we got to the sherry tasing. Lots of beautiful buildings with cracks in the walls.

and of course, lots of catholic symbolism -

Lunch in Jerez

We sat down to lunch just off Plaza Arenal at a place Claire found online. We sat outside and walked in to order at the bar. The menu had traditional Spanish fare at great prices, and had been open since the 1930s (civil war, schmivil war?).

We got spanish tortilla, a tapa of chorizo stewed in oloroso sherry (we were soon to learn what that meant) and a full plate of jamon iberico. This was probably the best jamon we've yet had in Spain - we barely had to chew it.

We enjoyed the stray kitten in the alley way.

The Sherry Tour

We got to the English speaking tour at Bodegas Tradiciòn, and were greeted by our very knowledgeable Austrain tourguide, whose name I regret to say I'll never remember. Regardless, she greeted us and our tourmates, and we waited in the lovely courtyard for the tour to begin. Claire and I were the youngest members of our tour by about 30 years.

Our tour guide explained to us that Bodegas Tradiciòn specializes in small batch sherries that are aged significantly longer than most.

To be a true "Jerez", the grapes must be grown within the Jerez Triangle, a geographic region spanning from Jerez to two other Anadalucian towns.

There are all of three wine grape used for Sherry, one for the dry varietals and two for the sweet.

Making Sherry and Sherry Styles

Regardless of style, the sherry making process is more of less the same. Sherries are fermented and then aged in giant barrels. The unique item about the aging process is that the sherry is transfered from barrel to barrel as it ages. As new sherry is fermented, it is added to the young sherry barrel. One third, let's say, of the young sherry is then transfered to the older barrel. One third of that older barrel is then transferred to an older barrel, and etc until the oldest barrel is used for bottling. Therefore, the bottled sherry is ultimately a blend of a bunch of different vintages.

With the dry grape, you can either make Fino (or Manzanilla, depending on which specific party of the Sherry Triangle it's made in) or Oloroso. When making Fino, the winemaker leaves the barrel only 70% full, leaving room for a film of natural yeast to form on the top layer of the wine - this keeps the wine separate from the air, keeping it from oxidizing.

Once a Fino wine has begun aging, wine makers can choose to convert the style to either either a Palo Cortado or an Amontillado. Amontillados are made after aging Finos for a set period of time, and then transfering the wine to Amontillado barrels, allowing the Fino wine to oxidize (mingle with the air and such).

The Palo Cortado process was a bit less straightforward - the wine maker realizes that something is potentially not right with the Fino barrel, and converts it to a Palo Cortado barrel early in the aging process, allowing the young Fino to oxidize at a young age.

The Oloroso style is made with the same grape as the Fino, but distilled alcohol is added during the fermenting process, prematurely ending fermentation, leaving some of the natural sugars in the wine. While still considered "dry", it's on the semi-sweet side.

The two sweet grapes are used to make Pedro Ximenes, the desert wine of the Sherry family. These grapes are kept on the vine to ripen longer, and develop more natural sugars. They're fermented to produce an almost raisin like wine.

Lastly, many places combine Oloroso and Pedro Ximenes to produce the "Cream" sherry, a sweet but not-as-sweet-as-Pedro-Ximenez-sweet wine.

The tasting

After the tour of the facility, we tasted one of each type of sherry, produced by Bodegas Tradiciòn, along with an array of salami, cashews, manchego cheese, olives stuffed and sardines, and tuna.

We did the tasting from the most dry to most sweet, in the other of Fino, Palo Cortado, Amontillado, Oloroso, Crema and Pedro Ximenez. I assisted Claire and in finishing the dry wines (and I sure wasn't complaining) but somehow she was able to finish the sweet wines herself. Go figure :-)

An Unexpected Art Tour

After the tour, we were invited into Bodegas Tradiciòn's art gallery. The winery owners also fancy themselves art collectors, and recently their collection became a certified Spanish art museum. The collection included famous artists like Velazquez and El Greco, but of which we saw at the Prado and other museums in Madrid.

What I found even more impressive was the painting of the defeating Moors handing over control to the city of Granada to the Catholic Kings of Spain in 1492. There is a copy of this painting in the Granada city hall, and its likeness is depicted in the Granada section of the Plaza De España in Sevilla. This winery has the original.

Wine on the Square and our way back to Sevilla

We had a few hours to kill before our train, and we had nothing to do but return to Plaza Aranal and put all of our new sherry knowledge to the test. I ordered an Amontillado and then an Oloroso. Claire enjoyed a Crema.

We sat and enjoyed our Sherry, enjoyed the sites and sounds of Spanish life, and took photos of adorable dogs.

And just like that, it was time to head back to Sevilla.

I'll let you guess where we ate upon returning to Sevilla. I'll give you 100 guesses, all in little sandwich form.