I ran yet another wine tour to Jerez de la Frontera today. I always remind people that only authentic sherry can come from the Jerez area. As well as Jerez de la Frontera, the other two sherry towns are Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. The English word sherry comes from the Arabic name for the city of Jerez which was Sherish. In fact four hundred years ago sherry was called sherrish sack.
Before going on to the Lustau winery, I made a quick stop at the central market of Jerez which has a great fish section with lots of stalls brimming with produce as you can see in the photo below.
When I go to the Lustau winery I do my own tour. I have been visiting the winery for over 19 years and know the place like the back of my hand. Well, this time we tasted 9 different sherries including fino, manzanilla, amontillado, palo cortado, oloroso and some high-end cream sherry. In the photo below I am holding a glass of Emperatriz Eugenia oloroso, one of the best olorosos in Lustau’s range.
We finished the tour with a tasting of 3 VORS sherries. These are sherries that have an average age of more than 30 years. VORS means Very Rare Old Sherry or Vinum Optimum Rare Signatum in latin. The three wines were all exceptional with that added concentration that long ageing gives to these wonderful wines