Sherry Tasting with Gonzalez Byass in Seville
Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to a sherry tasting by Bodegas Gonzalez Byass, which took place here in Seville. I know little about sherry, and was recently won over by the marriage-made-in-heaven between Tio Pepe en Rama and the Feria de Jerez. So I would like to learn more, and attending World Sherry Day in Jerez further piqued my interest. After all, how can you live in Andalucia and not know about sherry?
This event took place at Catador, a tasting room in Barrio Santa Cruz. Decor wise, it has a backdrop of blown-up photos of the wine cellars, lined with Tio Pepe barrels, and fields of verdant green vines against a blue sky, designed to transport you to that special corner of Cadiz province where sherry is made, of which Jerez city is the unofficial capital. Three long, narrow worktops were supplied with neatly-arranged groups of glasses - ten per person. They were placed on a sheet of paper with ten circles, each labelled with the wine that glass would hold, the grape and the percentage proof.