South of Spain - Jerez, El Puerto and Cadiz
Keeping Sevilla as our base we were to rent a car the day before leaving it to explore the southern towns of Andalusia and so we woke up bright and early to pick our car for the first road trip of the holiday.
Picking up one of the few automatics they had around we get into our lovely glowing red car we've cheekily names Señorita.
Driving through the countryside of Spain is quite different to that of Italy but driving nonetheless is still my favourite way of exploring a country.
Our first destination is Jerez, the peak of the sherry region and the minute we start entering the Provence we begin to see small signs of it on the hill slopes. We unfortunately arrive there around 12:30 and the heat was just on it's rise starting from 32 right up to 45 during siesta!
Of the various sherry plantations around, unlike wine tasting in Tuscany, you do need to book a tour in advance to save a spot for your tastings. There are a couple of options, with Tio Pepe being the biggest and since we only had a couple of hours we decided to go with them. There are tours with tapas involved too but that's simply jamon and cheese so I'd advise the wine only however get the one where you can taste the Oloroso (€2-3 more) and not just the Fino, as Oloroso was a universal favourites moving us.
The tour was slightly long for my liking as it went into a bit too much of detail but it was quite informative about their process. For non-enthusiasts please skip the next para :)
Basically sherry is quite different to the process for normal wine and this region in Spain predominantly produces sherry from white grapes. The climate and white stoney soil helps retain the water required. The way the wine is stored and matured in Gonzales Byass (the corporate name) is called Soleras Criaderas - a process where the bottom row of casks stores the oldest wine and when it reaches it years of maturity a part of it is taken and mixed with the newer ones on top and so on. This is a reason why sherry doesn't usually have a year on the bottle. Ideally the way it goes is: 6 years called a Fino, 8 years an Oloroso, they have a 12 year Oloroso as well. We also heard about Croft, quite famous in the UK though it was the first time I heard about it and I didn't quite enough it but then again I'm a red wine enthusiast so no surprise there.
We also got so smell and see how their brandy was distilled.
Their shop is nicely and conveniently laid out and we actually ended up buying a few bottles to consume during our trip and I picked a lovely brandy for my dad's collection. Do ask somebody there to help you and you get to taste the brandy's too. Their vinegar was good as well but there just wasn't enough space for it all to be bought!
After our lengthy 2.5 hours of the sherry tour we once again wandered during siesta in search for some quick tapas before heading into El Puerto de Santa Maria. Walking towards the only plaza around Jerez we were beckoned by an extremely happy and friendly older Spanish man who basically wouldn't let us go anywhere else and walked me by my arm into his cafe in such style that I couldn't say no even if I wanted to. It was indeed one of the tastiest and cheapest meals.
With some chorizo sandwiches packed for the rest of the journey we hit the road once again for El Puerto. Now, it probably was just the time of day or year that we were there, but the place was absolutely deserted and we encountered a few drunks. So after a quick stroll along the river we decided to skip it in about 15 mins and headed straight for Cadiz.
Ah Cadiz - what can I say except everything that has already been said about this long endless stretch of beach. The town was cute and lovely, busy and still cheap and friendly. The beach went on forever and the water though a bit rocky to enter was refreshing. We were happy, our day was complete with a gorgeous beach to balance out the heat.
