On Saturday (30 April) I ran a wine tour to Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda. This was the first time I was with Australian clients since the start of lockdown in March 2020. This is definitely a step forward back to what I was used to as I normally see lots of clients from both Australia and New Zealand.
Our first visit was to Lustau, a winery in Jerez that I have visited many times. I actually do the visit there myself as I know the winery like the back of my hand! We then went to Bodegas Callejuela on the outskirts of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The winery that is run by the brothers Paco and Pepe Blanco is one of the places that I most like to visit in the area. Clients get to see the vineyards and also have a visit which is a master class in the wines from this part of Spain. Everything is tasted from the cask. I think in total we tasted 12 different wines.These included non-fortified wines from their 3 vineyards, vineyard-specific vintage manzanillas, 3 other manzanillas, an amontilladoa and an oloroso produced using the solera system as well as a wonderful 2021 Pedro Ximenez.
In the photo below you can see the bunches of grapes alrady forming on the vines. This is more advanced than the vines in the Ronda area where I was on Monday.
The next photo is of Pepe Blanco with my Australian friends and the final one a sherry cask containing a 2016 manzanilla that was sublime.
Wines tour to Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda