Sherry Trip to Jerez
Following our participation in Sherry Week last November, we were invited to Jerez to visit the producers behind this delicious wine and experience the drink in its proper setting.
We began in Jerez with a walking tour of the old city, followed by a visit to Fernando de Castilla. There, we were welcomed by Jan Petterson, who has owned the bodega since the 1990s. He was the driving force behind their Antique Range, which is a long-time favourite at Taurus.
For me, the standouts were the Amontillado and the Palo Cortado from the Antique line. Both styles begin life under flor, which is the layer of yeast that forms naturally on the surface of the wine in the barrel and protects it from oxygen during the aging process. But Amontillado is a kind of hybrid. Whilst it starts off like a Fino, aged biologically under flor, this layer eventually dies off or is removed, and the wine continues to age oxidatively.
This two-stage process gives it the best of both worlds: it has the freshness and salinity of a Fino, layered with the richness and nuttiness that comes from oxygen exposure. Fernando de Castilla’s Antique Amontillado shows this beautifully, with notes of hazelnut and orange peel, and a subtle salty lift.
Palo Cortado is a little more ambiguous, often described as a cross between an Amontillado and Oloroso. Traditionally, these were barrels that didn’t follow the expected path - wines that began under flor, but developed a rounder, richer character, often because the flor broke down unexpectedly.
Winemakers would mark these casks with a single vertical line (palo), and if the wine continued to diverge from the norm, they’d cross it with a slash, thus creating a cut stick (a palo cortado). Far from being a fluke, Fernando de Castilla’s Antique Palo Cortado is wonderfully precise, layered with the weight and depth of an Oloroso, yet lifted by the elegance of an Amontillado.
We returned to their Antique Oloroso later in the day, but this time over a tapas-style dinner of aged cheeses and cured meats – a pairing that reinforced just how well these complex wines perform at the table. The idea that Sherry is confined to aperitif status really doesn’t do it justice. The intricate winemaking behind it really shows that it was always destined to be a gastronomic wine.
The following day, we visited Lustau for a vertical tasting of Fino and Manzanilla. Both are aged biologically under flor, which gives them their distinctive savoury edge, but the key difference here is location. Fino is typically produced in Jerez, whereas Manzanilla comes exclusively from Sanlucar de Barrameda, right on the Atlantic coast. The cooler, more humid conditions encourage a lighter, more saline style of wine.
To see this distinction firsthand, we visited Barbadillo in Sanlucar. I particularly enjoyed their Criadera range, drawn from the criaderas of La Compania - a former 17th century Jesuit convent turned aging cellar.
The standout was the Oloroso – dry, structured, and full of character, with flavours of walnut, spice, and toffee. It’s since joined our range here at Taurus! Afterwards, we had lunch by the sea – plates of prawns, clams, and grilled fish, washed down nicely with glasses of Barbadillo’s Solear Manzanilla. Bright, bone-dry, and intensely saline, it was the perfect match. It’s now also part of our range and is the perfect drink to accompany summery seafood dishes.
The most incredible part of the trip was being able to experience everything first-hand - walking through the cellars, seeing the solera system in action, spotting chalk markings on barrels, and tasting wines at different stages of maturity. The trip also underlined how essential it is to experience sherry with food. A Manzanilla with seafood, an Oloroso with slow-cooked meats – this is where the wines truly shine.