On a trip to London last week, I tried to get a feel for how consumers might see sherry. Just ordinary consumers, not the sorts who buy wines from expensive West End merchants. Of course, this exercise was totally unscientific. In between errands and meetings, I dropped into as many shops as I could to get an idea of what a potential sherry drinker might experience. I stupidly forgot my camera at home, and the pictures my phone produced are simply not up to scratch for this post. So you will have to do with this picture of Tio Pepe and the amusing advert down below.

Anyway, the value wines account for the largest part of the steady decline in sherry sales and since most sherry in the UK (largest sherry market) is sold through the the supermarkets, these were necessarily my main ports of call. All the supermarkets I went into had house brands, which seemed to be fully representative, even including Amontillado and Oloroso wines (this surprised me). Tio Pepe was ubiquitous with Croft Original and Harvey’s Bristol Cream popping up in most places, including even smaller off-licenses (bottle stores), but not so much in the off-license chains, like Oddbins and Majestic. I’m certain if you ask any Briton to name a sherry, one of these three brands above will come up.

Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket, has their house brand produced by Zoilo Ruiz-Mateos (part of Grupo Garvey). The Tesco packaging did nothing for me (nor did “Bodega Jerezana” at Waitrose and Sainsbury’s “Taste the Difference”) but I was not really expecting own-branded goods to do much. I’m sure the wines in these own brand bottles are very good but I could not help thinking that buyers own brands can’t be doing sherry any favours, …

In recent weeks, I have visited the Emilio Hidalgo bodega twice, and since their wines are so good, a post has become just about unavoidable. This is a small, truly independent, family-owned bodega. It was started by the Hidalgo family in the mid 1800s and is run by decedents of the founders brothers Fernando and Emilio Hidalgo and their cousin Juan-Manuel Hidalgo. The business remains at their original site, in the old centre of Jerez and the bodega is made up of a series of traditional, thick walled bodegas separated by “patios”. This is an age-old system. When a breeze moves over the buildings, cooler air sinks down into the patios and then through the open doors around them into the bodegas, while warm air inside the bodegas rises up into the high cathedral-like roof spaces. This is how the bodegas are kept cool, even when it is fiercely hot outside. The temperature can also be regulated by opening and closing doors or windows, so keeping the inside of the bodegas at a steady temperature, perfect for ageing the wine.

The first time I visited Emilio Hidalgo, with friends, we tried three of their wines. Their Fino “La Panesa”, an old Amontillado called “El Tresillo 1874″ and their well known Oloroso “Gobernador”. They are all worth seeking out, and no doubt their other wines are too. Germany is currently the main export market for Emilio Hidalgo, however if you are based in the States, their agent is Winebow, who should be able to help you locate a bottle or two.

At Emilio Hidalgo, I once again enjoyed a lively conversation with their American exporter, Peter De Trolio. Peter …

Initially, I thought I would be the only person bringing sherry to the EWBC 2008 invitational tasting, but once things got going, I was pleased to see that some Osborne Fino Quinta and the Manzanilla and Fino from Equipo Navazos (Nos 7 and 8 ) had made an appearance. The more the merrier, as far as I was concerned. I think the guys from Vinustv provided the Navazos wines and that Osborne had sent a few bottles of Fino Quinta to Catavino.

Navazos are doing really interesting things, but this post is about the wines I took along, which were from Alvaro Domecq here in Jerez. A not insubstantial number of bottles where donated by Alvaro Domecq, and they also sent along a complimentary “copita”, the traditional sherry glass, for each of the participants. Generally, the Alvaro Domecq wines went down well with the EWBC participants, and I was glad of the opportunity to introduce Alvaro Domecq and sherry to those who did not already know either.

The wine
The soleras at Alvaro Domecq date back to 1800, when Antonio María de Aranda started a bodega in Jerez. His son, Fermín Aranda, a famous medical doctor, inherited the business, which subsequently became “Fermín Aranda”. Fermín, in turn, passed the bodega on to his daughter, Pilar Aranda, who inherited the business in 1946. She was a very successful Almacenista, holding her own in a man’s world and producing outstanding wines and vinegars. Almacenistas (from “almacenar”, which means “to store”) are very rare now, but in former times were a major part of the sherry trade. They aged wines in their …

Two weeks ago, after a very relaxing holiday in Galicia, we chose to make our way home to Jerez via Portugal, stopping off for two nights in Oporto on the way. I’ve been to where they make Madeira, I live where they make sherry but I had never been to Oporto, so this was an exciting opportunity to visit the place where they make Port. For me, the “traditional” fortified wines are madeira, sherry and port so in a way this completes the circle.

What struck me immediately on arriving at Vila Nova de Gaia, where all the port lodges are, was how geared up they are for visitors. This is starkly different to the experiences to be had at the sherry bodegas in Jerez. I’m being general here, so there are exceptions, but I think the sherry trade could learn a lot from their cousins in Portugal. But of course that’s only if the sherry trade sees any benefit in visitors to their bodegas. I often wonder if they really do.

If I were a winemaker and someone made the effort to turn up at my cellar door, interested in my product, I’d be more than happy to show them around, give them a taste and hopefully sell them a bottle or, even better, a case or two. Surely, that’s good PR? Is there any point in catering for wine tourism? Is it worth opening up to visitors? Actions speak louder than words, so the port companies obviously think wine tourism is a …

Recently, I have seen on the web a number of “wine writers” who have dismissed sherry as wine “not drunk by Spaniards” and “better left to Grandma at Christmas”. I’m shocked and a bit irked. Why has such a noble beverage taken a back seat in the world of wine? Sherry should not be disregarded so off-handedly. Sherry in its seemingly infinite forms is a drink that I feel I need to defend and perhaps explain a bit.

Now I’m not saying that everyone is dismissing sherry, just those outside of the 5-10% of us geeks that read trade publications, and follow wine bulletin boards more closely than our own heart rate. In fact, in Robert Parkers last issue of his Wine Advocate, he gave rave reviews to 3 different bodegas and the scores ranged from 87 points all the way up to 96 points. Whether you agree with Parker’s scores or not, if someone with so much knowledge about wine can put a sherry in the same league as a first growth Bordeaux, maybe there is something to be said for it.

So what is sherry?

The simplest answer is that Sherry is fortified (generoso) wine made from white grapes in the area surrounding Jerez de la Frontera in the region of Spain known as Andalucía. It also happens to be one of the oldest wine making areas in all of Spain. The name Sherry itself comes from an English corruption of the word Jerez, pronounced: he-reth. Looking closer, the DO of Jerez is made of three regions: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and Puerto de Santa María, each of which produces their own unique style.

The region is …