Shaking For Some Sherry

We've spent the last couple of days in and around Seville. We got in yesterday around 2:30 on the train from Granada and made our way to the hostel. After getting settled in, had some lunch/dinner, and went exploring. It took a while, but we managed to do a little bit of zigging and a little bit of zagging to get to the cathedral, Alcabaz and Plaza Nueva. We we got close, all of a sudden, there were tons of people and we could hear drums not to far away. Obviously, we had to investigate. Turns out that it was a parade of drummers marching along the streets. They eventually gathered in the square in front of one of the churches to meet up with a Saint's idol and then march around some more. I'm not sure which saint's festival this was for, but it was definitely fun to watch and be a part of the crowd.

We explored the area a little more and unfortunately, both the cathedral and Alcabaz were closed for the night, so no luck there. But, there was plenty of opportunity to get some great pictures as the sun set. Also, in Plaza Nueva, there were a bunch of different street performers. One guy had two puppets on his back, a guy and a girl, in a dancing pose. He'd get on all fours (hidden by the woman's skirt) and start prancing around in circles to the music making it look like the two puppets were dancing together. It was pretty neat. There was also a clown working the crowd. It's amazing how much of a difference a clown act can be when it's in a different language. I suppose there are some acts (like the one I saw at Cirque de Solei) that don't use words and thus have no language barrier, but when a good portion of the act is working the crowd, it just doesn't have the same effect if you can't understand anything being said.

We wandered around a little more and then decided to turn in for the evening.

The next day we split up. I really wanted to go down to Jerez de le Frontera to see the Sherry bodegas, while Matilda wanted a more relaxing day so she stayed in Seville. On the way to Jerez, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get into any of the bodegas. I had looked online the night before and only found one that might potentially be open on Sunday in the offseason. I decided to risk it even though going would mean I wouldn't be able to see any of the sights in Seville since they'd be closed by the time I got back. I figured, I've seen a bunch of churches and ruins already, but Sherry's a special kind of wine and I really wanted to see that. I guess this means I'll have to come back to Seville at some point and see everything :-)

Anyway, I knew the first tour of the bodega was at noon, so I took the 10am train down there. The train was quite empty. Not too many people around that early on a Sunday. Even the bakeries were closed, so my breakfast was quite limited. The ride itself was interesting because of how desolate the area is. You could tell that the ground is farmed, but there's hardly any greenery anywhere even though it was 20 degrees outside. I guess all the water's gone at this time of year. Makes me understand why they say 80% of Spain could become desert in the next 50 years with global warming.

In Jerez, I had an hour to get to the bodega. It only took 10 minutes so I had some time to look around at the Alcabaz. I couldn't go in because they were doing some restoration on it, but I could walk around the outside. On one end, under the park of orange trees, was a gigantic flea market. Ok, let's be honest, junk market. It was full of a lot of crap!

I was able to get a tour of the Gonzales-Byass bodega, one of the biggest in town and it was even in English! There were 5 of us on the tour. Two older couples, one from Sweden and one from Britain, and me. We got to see the distilleries where the make their Sherry brandy, as well as all the Soleras for the wine. For those who don't know, Sherry's done a little differently from other wines. First, it's fortified a little bit. Second, the wine is aged in a stack of barrels called a solera. The barrels actually have to be American oak as of about 75 years ago. In the solera, you have a different layer for each year that you're going to age the sherry. Each year, you draw off a third of all the bottom barrels. Then you replenish it by taking a third from the barrels above. You keep doing this until you get to the top of the pile. At the top, you put in the new wine from this year's harvest. This process means that the wine will be very consistent year by year, which is good for marketability and if you have a very finicky environment. I understand that the grapes grow in that area because the soil is very chalky and holds a lot of water. In the winter, they get a lot of rain and the ground holds that water all through the dry summer. This would seem to me a fairly reliable climate, so I wonder why they felt they had to start this kind of system. They even do the Sherry brandy like this.

From the tour itself, I guess the most interesting thing (apart from the tasting of course) was the fact that their guestbook is created by having people sign barrels. In this case, you have to be famous to be asked to sign a barrel, but they've definitely played it up and gotten a lot of people from 6 generations of Spanish royalty, to Winston Churchill to Picasso.

At the tasting, we got to try a sweeter one and their famous dry Fino. Fino is made with a lower alcohol content and the barrels aren't filled to capacity, so that a flor of yeast can grow inside the barrel and add flavour to the wine. Only at the end is it fortified. I found these two wines were too extreme. The nuttiness in Sherry doesn't work that well when it's dry for me. It needs a little bit of sweetness to balance. In the shop, I was able to try some more and found an off dry Amontillado made from partly Pedro Ximenez and partly Palomino grapes that suits my taste. It also has a very robust flavour profile that develops from fruity on the attack and evolves into a nice nuttiness by the finish. I also bought some brandy and sherry vinegar to round out the options to take home.

After the Bodega tour, there wasn't much to do since everything was closed, so I hung out in a bar with some tapas and wine before catching the train back to Seville for the evening. This evening was similar to last where I just wandered around town taking pictures and then we had a small dinner of tapas that was ok. Nothing too special.