Jerez
Jerez - or Sherry, or Xérèz - has been the home to Sherry making for around 3000 years - find out more about this ancient city with a thoroughly modern atmosphere.
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Sherry has enjoyed a renaissance in the UK recently with leading chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, Skye Gyngyell, Jason Atherton and others proclaiming the joy of Sherry on their wine lists and in their cooking. Not since its heyday in the late 70s has Sherry - and Sherry drinkers - had it so good!
Spanish gastronomy began to gain currency at the end of the 90s, with the rise of the tapas bar on high streets around the UK. Some very high profile restaurant openings - including Moro, Cigala and Fino in London and Oloroso in Edinburgh - helped to shore up Sherry's reputation as distinctive food wine. More recent additions in the south-east including London's Barrafina and Brighton's Catalan specialist Pintxo People.
Sherry's appeal also lies well beyond its ability to partner Spanish cuisine. A new wave of chefs are championing Sherry's compatibility with non-Spanish cuisines - including modern Indian, Japanese, British and Italian - due to the shear breadth of styles, from the driest to sweetest wines in the world.
Of course, Britain's love affair with Sherry began several hundred years ago with Henry IV cited as one of its biggest supporters. However, it wasn't until Francis Drake flooded the English market with 3000 casks after ransacking supplies for the Armada in Cadiz that the association was cemented for good.
Sherry making began on the Iberian Peninsula when Phoenician traders from (what is now) Lebanon introduced winemaking to Spain more than 3000 years ago. The name Sherry comes from the Moorish town of Seris (so good they named in thrice?) - now Jerez or Xeres. Jerez's geographical and climatic peculiarities - including one of the hottest winemaking climates in the world, its proximty to the sea and the special white chalk albariza soils, mean that this corner of south-west Spain is the only place in the world that gives rise to this most versatile and very special style of wine that is known as Sherry.