The Second Glass

Greetings fair readers, this week for the third installment of our conversations with Ryan and Gabriella Opaz of Catavino.net who are wine bloggers currently in residence in Barcelona, Spain, we’ll focus on the region of Jerez in Southwestern Spain.

Typically when I think of Sherry, I think of my friend Harker’s grandmother, she loved the stuff. She would sit in front of her fireplace sipping from a long, thick glass; wide on the bottom and slimming out towards the top. This is a typical misconception; that Sherry is the stuff our grandmothers are made of. In reality, Sherry is a very interesting wine which hails from the south of Spain and brings with it a rich and warm history.

“Only wines based on the Solera and Criaderas system and made in and around Jerez can be considered Sherry,” Opaz informed us. A crucial step in the Sherry process is the utilization of The Solera system. “The Solera system, is a method of dynamic aging in oak barrels, which allows young wines to take on the characteristics of an older wine,” Opaz said, “One of the most historical and famous wines in all of Spain, owes much of its success to the British shippers over the past two centuries!”

In Jerez, wines can vary from straw-coloured and dry, with a spicy, delicate aroma to intensely sweet, dark mahogany colored wines with rich aromas made from Pedro Ximenez.

Grape varieties of Jerez:

• Major White: Palomino Fino, Moscatel, Pedro Ximénez

Read about the Sherry at Catavino.net : Sherry 101

Photos by Ryan Opaz