Classic Jerez Wine Trip
Description
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Main Grape Varieties
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This trip is ideal for wine professionals and connoisseurs alike who want to delve into the wines and the wineries in Jerez. Explore the different styles of sherry through private, in-depth wine tastings with winemakers and expert guides. Learn about the unique winemaking process, see the vineyards, and pair sherry with authentic Andalusian gastronomy. Visit the cities and towns of Andalusia, exploring their extensive history and rich cultural heritage.
Jerez de la Frontera might be the most Spanish city in Spain. Tapas, Sherry wine, bullfighting, flamenco, Catholicism, and sunshine all flourish here, in the southernmost reaches of the Iberian Peninsula. With its air of slightly faded aristocracy and secrets around every corner, Jerez will enchant you the moment you arrive. The surrounding province of Cádiz offers incredible variety. The provincial capital of Cádiz, perched on an island peninsula jutting into the Bay of Cádiz, reminds many people of Havana, Cuba. Sanlúcar de Barrameda’s riverfront shrimp feasts with Manzanilla sherry are unforgettable. Heading south on the coast you find Moorish hilltop towns and salty fishing villages that will remind you how close you are getting to the Straits of Gibraltar. Up the road in Sevilla, Andalucía’s capital offers incredible history and architecture, but when the sun sets and the tapas bars fill and spill into the narrow streets, Sevilla will astonish you.
Jerez de la Frontera is best known for sherry wine, known simply as Jerez in Spanish. The term encompasses fortified wines made from Palomino Fino, Pedro Ximenez, and Moscatel grapes, with the latter two used exclusively for sweet wines. Dry sherries are made from 100% Palomino Fino. The young wine is fortified (alcohol added) and aged in the solera system, where barrels of younger wine feed into older barrels to create a final product containing very young and very old wine together. Some types of wines are less fortified and grow a layer of indigenous flor (yeast) as a result, undergoing biological aging. Fresh fino from Jerez and salty manzanilla from Sanlúcar are aged entirely under flor. Other wines are fortified sufficiently that this yeast cannot survive,
undergoing oxidative aging. Palo cortado ages under flor for a very short time before oxidation begins due to the flor dying off. Amontillado spends years under flor before fortification, while oloroso is fortified immediately and never grows flor. Sweetened styles, from driest to sweetest, include medium, cream, moscatel, and Pedro Ximenez.
Highlights
- Have lunch in the vineyards at a traditonal sherry bodega
- Taste biologically aged sherries from the barrel with the winemaker
- Tour historic white hilltop villages in the mountains near Jerez
- Michelin star dinner in Jerez
- Feast on manzanilla sherry wine and fresh-caught prawns by the water in the charming sherry town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda
- Enjoy a private sherry and tapas dinner at a local’s home in Sevilla
- Make the rounds of the Sevilla tapas bars with a private guide for a tapas tour dinner
Suggested Itinerary 6 Nights
Itineraries are hand crafted with extra care to create the right mix of food, wine, and culture for a memorable and unique experience. Here are some ideas and a sample itinerary. Contact us to get started.
Day 1 – Jerez
- Visit a bodega in the center of Jerez
- Enjoy a traditional lunch in the vineyards at a family-owned winery outside of town
- In the afternoon, enter a private aristocratic mansion where you will meet the owners and see a different side of Jerez
- Check into your luxury hotel in a renovated 18th-century palace
- Overnight in Jerez
Day 2 –Jerez
- Taste biologically aged sherries from the barrel at a family-run bodega
- A private wine tasting lunch in a historic sherry bodega in Jerez prepared by an acclaimed local chef
- Spend the afternoon with a sherry master tasting VORS sherries
- Overnight in Jerez
Day 3 – Jerez & White Villages
- The town of Arcos de la Frontera lies at the foot of the mountains near Jerez. Visit its old part and enjoy spectacular views
- Lunch in nearby Medina Sidonia, famous for raising fighting bulls and making artisan pastries based on Moorish recipes
- Dinner at a newly minted 1 Michelin starred restaurant
- Overnight in Jerez
Day 4 – Jerez & Sanlúcar de Barrameda
- Nearby Sanlúcar de Barrameda also produces sherry, with light and dry manzanilla the main style
- Visit a bodega in this seaside town
- Buy Sanlúcar prawns from the delta and other fresh seafood and take it to a bodega where they will cook it for you. Enjoy lunch paired with their wines
- Dinner at a 3 Michelin starred restaurant focusing on products from the sea
- Overnight in Jerez
Day 5 – Sevilla
- Transfer to Sevilla
- Private tapas & sherry dinner in a local home
- Taste a selection of dishes prepared by your host and paired perfectly with sherry wines of the highest quality
- Overnight in Sevilla
Day 6 – Sevilla
- Sevilla is known for the best tapas bars in Spain, so find the best tapas and sherry in town with your guide on a evening tapas extravaganza you will long remember
- Overnight in Sevilla
Day 7 – Departure
- Transfer to the Sevilla train station or airport for departure
Options
- Cross the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the old ferry transporter boat and enter Doñana Nature Reserve for sightings of migratory birds, wild boar and sometimes the elusive endangered Iberian Lynx.
- Enjoy a private cooking class in a house overlooking the old quarter of Jerez de la Frontera.
- Visit the Flamenco Museum before an evening of flamenco in an authentic tabanco (sherry bar) in Jerez.
- Visit the taberna in San Fernando (famous for hosting flamenco legend Camarón de la Isla) for dinner and a flamenco show
- Spend the day visiting Iberian ham producers near Aracena. Get up close with the Iberian pigs raised on wild grasses and acorns, learn about the three-year ham curing process and taste authentic Jabugo ham.
- Visit Cádiz on the Atlantic coast. The gastronomic beating heart of Cádiz is the central market where you will taste fish and seafood in all manner of preparation: dried (tuna mojama), cured (anchovies and sardines), marinated, grilled and fried.
- Extend your trip with visits to the Pueblos Blancos (white villages) of Vejer de la Frontera perched high above the Atlantic, Medina Sidonia and Arcos de la Frontera.
- Travel to Córdoba, Ronda and Granada in Andalusia for food, wine and cultural experiences.