Sherry Pt1 A Brief History

I feel inclined to write about the joys of Sherry, just a little background on what has quickly become one of my favourite tipples. I have always been a fan of the sweeter styles of Sherry but it wasn't until I had the pleasure of working with The Sherry Institute of Spain that I realised the depth & vast quality of wine that Sherry has to offer, because Sherry is a wine it should be treated as such.

The wine actually takes it's name from the town of Jerez (pictured above), Jerez is in the south of Spain in the province of Cadiz in Andalucia, it's a beautiful place if you havn't been. It is not known for sure exactly where the name comes from but what we do know is that Jerez is situated upon what used to be a Moorish town called Sherish.

it is highly probable that wine has been produced in the region since the earliest times, even through the period of Arab domination until they were expelled from Sherish in 1264.

Sherry has a very old school reputation in the UK,'something that your grandmother would drink', I now know that my grandmother was on to a very good thing indeed.

The UK & England in particular has been a very important customer to the wines of the Jerez region, perhaps as early as 1530 merchants had been looking to ship it over. It is clear that during the Tudor times the wines of Jerez were extremely popular in England & it grew in popularity, so much so that vast numbers of English merchants had established themselves in the town during the 18th & 19th century. It is claimed that by 1850 40% of all wine imported into Britain was Sherry.

Unfortunately during the 1970's & 80's the market became flooded with low quality wine, which damaged the regions reputation & Sherry's popularity waned. With the support of the European Community, they ripped up a considerable area of vines which helped with the quality of wine and also helped with the balance of supply & demand. Further to this there are now strict guidlines on the amount of stock that any company can release on to the market each year. This is to make sure that the wine is aged sufficiently, therefore being of a much higher standard. Secondly there was a voluntary agreement between all the producers that they would not export in bulk & now nearly all Sherry is bottled in the region of production.

So thats a very brief bit of history in a nut shell, for further reading I recommend picking up a copy of 'Sherry' by Julian Jeffs, it's a cracking read. I will go on in future blogs to talk about production techniques, grape variety, The Solera System, Sherry Styles, how/what/when to drink it & with what.

Until then, please go grab yourself a chilled bottle of Manzanilla (La Guita is a fav round here) throw some fresh shellfish in the pan or on the BBQ, with some olive oil, chilli & garlic, serve with dressed watercress & enjoy.

Check out www.tenstartapas.com for more tips & recipes
Enjoy these two classic slices of Flamenco

11 No Naqueres Más De Mí.m4a

02 Gatlif.mp3