From Swindon to Jerez...

In the first of a new monthly series, Phil Saunter and Shareen Campbell, owners of Los Gatos Tapas Bar and Bistro Les Chats, introduce us to the delights of sherry.

From Swindon, it’s an easy road to Southampton and once off the ferry, France opens up quickly in front of you. Keeping west of Paris, through Tours to Bordeaux, avoiding the Pyrenees, you can cross La Rioja and join the Ruta de Plata at Salamanca. From there, it’s a straight run south past Sevilla to Jerez de la Frontera, just 30 minutes from the coast at Sanlucar de Barrameda…

One of the pleasures of exploring the food, wine and geography of Spain over the last 10 years has been our growing understanding of the delicious and versatile Vinos de Jerez, known in England as sherry.

Despite the exponential growth in popularity of Spanish cuisine across the UK, sherry remains largely a mystery to even the most dedicated of foodies. This week we hosted our ninth annual sherry dinner, 7 courses with 7 matched sherry wines, with guest star Javier Hidalgo (Bodegas La Gitana) explaining the wines his family has been producing for 7 generations.

Sherry starts as a dry white wine, made mostly from Palomino Fino grapes, only in the towns of Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda and Puerto de Santa Maria. Like all winemaking, a fermentation of the grapes must take place. Here, the natural local yeasts and the way they are used, give a unique flavour to the wine. For hundreds of years, the same wooden barrels have been sharing these flavours.

The discovery that fortifying the wine stopped it oxidising on the sea voyage to England, meant that it became one of the first wines we took to. Shakespeare called it sack. English gentleman such as Messrs Harvey and Croft bought up vineyards and imported the wine through Bristol, sweetening much of it with the addition of a dark local grape known as Pedro Ximinez.

These days, we can buy the wines of Jerez in all their forms, from bone dry fino, salty manzanilla to nutty amontillado and rich oloroso. The “PX” grape makes a luscious dessert wine – so good with chocolate! Why not raise a glass?