Jerez

For those of you who haven't linked the first and second pictures, yes the ladder up against the glass in the first picture is so mice can drink out of the wineglass.

What isn't immediately evident is a) what is in the glass b) where the wineglass is and c) how the mice fill a glass and erect a ladder to drink out of it. Let's deal with these answers one by one.

a) Sherry. To be precise, I believe it is Oloroso sherry, though it is possibly Amontillado.

b) The wine glass is on the floor. (It's the floor of one of the Tio Pepe barrel aging warehouses in Jerez)

c) I really hope you weren't asking yourself such a silly question. The story goes that one of the old winemakers found out that the mice in the warehouse liked sweet sherry, so he started the tradition of leaving a glass out for them. The tour guide said there's youtube videos of the mice actually drinking, if that's something that interests you.

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Ok, onto the post proper. Jerez is to sherry what Porto is to port i.e. there is no other place in the world with the right to make a wine and call it sherry. In fact, the Spanish for sherry is 'vino de Jerez'. We took a day trip out there and found it was similar to many other wine regions in Europe: you can make an appointment or you can take a cellar tour, but rarely can you just turn up and taste.

Fortunately the first winery we went to that wasn't appointment only was one of the rare breed where you can just pay them some money and drink. Some of you may recognise the Sandman's logo from our Porto photos, as it's also a company that makes Port.

The other we visited was Tio Pepe and we had to take a tour. But it was at least a little interesting because the Sherry making process is fairly unique, and Tio Pepe has quite a collection of autographed barrels.


















Who is that masked man???











Mmmmmm Alcohol.....



OLE!!