WINELIFE was briefly in Spanish Jerez to combine summer temperatures with sherry sipping in the sun. Because the very best place to discover and taste this wine is where it is made.
Text: Petri Houweling | Image: Shutterstock | With thanks to Antoin Peeters, Karel Klosse and Jeroen Vonk

Ever heard of the sherry triangulo? That southernmost tip of Spain, between Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María? It is one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world and the birthplace of a very special wine, namely sherry. This Spanish fortified wine can only be made in the region of Jerez, located on the Atlantic coast in western Andalusia between Seville and Cadiz. Only here do you have the terroir that makes the juice of the three white grape varieties palomino, pedro ximénez and moscatel gives the special flavour of sherry. They are on the snow-white Albariza soils, with a unique composition of mainly lime (70 per cent) with sand and clay. This combination, which works like a sponge, ensures that the roots of the vines always find water. Important, because with only 20 millimetres of precipitation in summer, it is really dry here. 

Not only the precipitation, but also the wind affects the humidity. For if it comes from the west (the poniente) then it is cooling and humid. But if it blows from the east (the levante) it feels dry and warm. 

THE SOLERA CRIADERA SYSTEM

Another, unique aspect of wines from Jerez is that the wines mature in the solera criaderas system. These are stacked old oak barrels in which sherries of different ages and stages of the ageing process - ranging from very young to very old - are blended together. This gives one type of wine with the house's recognisable and unique flavours. Sherry therefore never has a vintage on the label. There are sometimes up to 55,000 barrels of sherry maturing at the same time, especially at the larger bodegas such as Valdespino. These are stacked in gigantic, 15-metre-high storage buildings called cathedrals. The enormous height of these buildings has a reason, because the higher the ridge of the roof, the greater the temperature difference with the ground. Downstairs it stays nice and cool this way, important because wine matures best in a relatively cool environment, especially in hot Andalusia. These 'cathedrals' are built so that the poniente winds can pass through them

Sherry is the biggest kept wine secret