For the fourth year, International Sherry Week takes place throughout this week with over 1,500 sherry-themed events worldwide registered on the appellation’s web page.
Spanish Wine Lover joins in the celebrations with a compilation of pieces published on our site over the past three years about a unique wine which is still little understood by many wine lovers and the general public.
For those who wish to have a general overview of the region and the wines made there, we recommend you read this piece with basic information about grape varieties, soils, production and ageing areas, wine styles and pairings.
The wealth of styles is now larger than ever: biological and oxidatively aged wines share space with a new wave of white wines with no added alcohol —started by Equipo Navazos and followed up by Ramiro Ibáñez and its Pitijopos series or Alba Viticultores and their Alba Sobre Tabla, among many others— which prove that Palomino can be the perfect introduction to world class Sherry wines and a good vehicle to express albariza terroir. As we reported from last year’s Vinoble fair, there seems to be a change of cycle in Sherry Country.
Sherry wines are tremendously food-friendly and are capable of enhancing the dishes of many world cuisines as well as being an ingredient or the perfect pairing for the food prepared by chefs across Spain. You can discover many of them in our Addresses section, with bars and restaurants from Cádiz down south (Aponiente, La Carboná, El Espejo Gastrobar, El Campero, or the wonderful Taberna der Guerrita which hosts some awesome tastings like this with Antonio Flores from González Byass) to Madrid (Surtopía, Taberna Palo Cortado) or even Japan.
The work of sommeliers like Juan Ruiz Henestrosa (Aponiente) is essential to convey the greatness of these wines, because as he acknowledges in this interview, “talking about wines from the Sherry Triangle is fashionable but consumption has not increased. It’s true that quality has improved —that’s a step in the right direction”.
Sherry-laden cocktails like the Sherry Cobbler, so popular in the US in the late 19th century, are back to stay as our US correspondent Bill Ward wrote in this interesting piece where he also suggests some sherry-friendly addresses from Manhattan to San Francisco. Vermouth has also found inspiration in Sherry, as our cocktails expert François Monti explained; so much so that there are a few producers in the Triangle reconnecting with their own vermouth past.
From Rioja to Galicia, Bierzo or Rueda, producers from far away wine regions like to experiment with the veil of flor to add an extra dimension to their wines, as Amaya Cervera explained in her piece written last year.
Undoubtedly, the best way to discover what’s so special about the Sherry Triangle is to spend a few days in the region and walk on albariza soil in legendary vineyards like Macharnudo or Miraflores before visiting the wineries, tabancos and tabernas in Jerez, El Puerto and Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
You will find cathedral-like cellars like Barbadillo but also small traditional wineries with their old oak casks like El Maestro Sierra or Emilio Hidalgo, and the rest of producers reviewed in our Wineries section. The Sherry region has got the beauty, the art and the greatness of one of the world’s most fascinating wine regions.
