Wine.Musings

Jerez in March smells of jasmine (actually orange trees) and sunshine. Its ornate white city center is bursting with life and preparations for the Semana Santa (if you do not know what that is, do not Google it). Squares and bars are filling up with Friday evening clamour, energy, and anticipation. 

We, three pasty London-dwellers, unaccustomed to this perfectly pleasant expression of spring, are not where the action is (or not yet, anyway). We are a 10-minute walk away, where industrial and mass residential areas give way to rundown ancient warehouses. Here, tucked away in an alley, is Bodegas Tradición, the one sherry house I wanted to visit on our trip.

A passionate German guide, who has worked at Tradición for nearly two decades, explains to us the storied history of this place and its people. Founded in 1650 as Bodegas CZ and becoming the supplier to both the British and Spanish Royal households, the bodega fell on hard times and was forced to shut down in the sherry downturn of the 1980s(?). Sherry’s decline has been steady and relentless, spelling both ruin and opportunity for local producers. In 1998 Joaquín Rivero re-established his family’s bodega, changing the name to Bodegas Tradición CZ and buying up some very special sherry casks for its soleras. Unlike many others in the area, Tradición do not grow grapes, but focus exclusively on the process of ageing very old sherry (VOS = minimum 20 years; VORS = minimum 30 years of ageing).

After an extensive tour of the storage spaces and soleras, we sit in the lovely bodega courtyard, ready to taste the Tradición’s line-up.

First, we start with the fino, the lightest and most “entry-level” of the Tradición sherries, though this term hardly applies here. The wine is refreshing and well-balanced, tasting of hazelnut, yeast, brine, and green herbs. If you’ve ever had a fino, this is a quintessential example of what this style should taste like. If you’ve never had a fino and are perplexed by this tasting note, just imagine yourself sipping this as a little aperitif accompanied by a bowl of smoked almonds or salty cheeses. 

Then follows the Amontillado VORS 30 Years, which elegantly demonstrates the results of both biological and oxidative ageing. The palate shifts to dried fruit, salted caramel, almonds, honey, and raisin. There is a pronounced, but well-integrated alcohol kick. Beautifully aged, this wine is time itself. 

We continue going deeper with the Oloroso VORS 30 Years – richer, heavier, more substantial. The caramel and raisin notes are even more pronounced, complemented by hazelnut, walnut, orange peel, and leather. Completely dry.

Onto the sweeter styles, we open with the Cream VOS 20 Years. The sweetness here is well-balanced and pleasant. Figs, raisin, prunes, walnut, honey, vanilla come together to create a thoroughly enjoyable post-dinner sherry style (or pre-dinner if you are so inclined). This is not your grandmother’s sherry. 

For the grand finale, a very special experience — our guide invites us to walk around Bodegas Tradición’s art collection, one of the best in Andalucía, while enjoying a glass of Pedro Ximénez (also known as PX). Now, I’ll admit that I am not a fan of this stratospherically sweet sherry, but something about its coffee, molasses, treacle notes hits just right as I contemplate Goya, Picasso, El Greco, the other Spanish greats before me. In real life, you would more likely use PX as part of a dessert, rather than on its own, but I am sure someone out there would prove me wrong. 

We leave Bodegas Tradición, slightly tipsy, ready to take our sherry exploration into the balmy Friday evening. But while the street bars of Jerez are fun and will pour you a sherry taster for as little as 1.2-5 EUR, they only make more obvious the quality that Tradición offers, the wonders that only passion, precision, and time can create.