Discovering Sherry in Jerez de la Frontera

Jerez de la Frontera (pronounced He-reh), is a city I actually had never heard of until planning for a trip to Spain with my friends, Corey and Doreen. We were on the way to Morocco from Seville while on summer vacation. Prior to our departure to Spain, I had read about Jerez being famous for producing Sherry, a fortified white wine. In fact, Jerez de la Frontera is known as being the Sherry capital of the world! Since the city is conveniently situated along the way from Seville to the ferry port (for ferry crossings to Tangier), we decided to stop by and check it out.

Now this was my first time going on an official tasting outside of the US. Yes, I’ve had wine before on other travels, like in hotels, restaurants and cafés. But never had I gone to a winery for wine education, tour and tasting. So needless to say, I was thrilled about this new adventure.

González Byass (Bodegas Tio Pepe), probably the most famous winery or “bodega” in the region, was one of the first names that jumped out when I did a Google search of cellars nearby. And so, this was the place my friends and I visited for our Sherry tasting experience.

Upon arrival, we immediately took notice of how nice Jerez was. It’s located in the south and so this means warmer temperatures, blue skies, palm trees. It was lovely.

The tasting itself was fine, but nothing memorable. It wasn’t so much the wine, but I found the experience to be a bit too commercial for my palate- shuttle tours of the estate,  a visit to the museum and gift shop, etc. I have since learned that this is the norm for larger corporations, as compared to smaller family run wineries. What’s interesting is that an employee at the train station tried to tell us that and suggested someplace else. But we declined thinking the known brand name was where we should go. Oh well…

Overall, it was a good experience to have been introduced to Sherry wine, especially in the Sherry capital of the world.