Hola! I have been advised (thanks, Hil!) that as we are in Spain, the correct hello spelling is with a silent “h”, and that I may not go back to Ola until we return to Portugal! So – hola!
It occurs to me that I didn’t write about dinner last night – not because we didn’t have it - we did and it was wonderful - but because we had most of the same things a second night in a row! We started with the spicy langostino’s with marinated cucumber slices, and then moved on to the patatas bravas (spicy potato wedges with sauce) and finally the stir-fried beef with cabbage, carrots and noodles; yummy! We washed everything down with a Spanish sauvignon blanc and were so full that – hold on to your hats!! – we didn’t even have dessert!
We have had a really, truly lovely day today, in Sanlucar de Barrameda, which is approximately half-an-hour away from our place in Cadiz. But first things first! When the alarm rang this morning at 7, it was not a welcome sound! I had gone to bed early enough – 10-ish, but my sleep bank must still be missing hours, and it was very hard to get up! However, since we had a plan, needs must and I finally dragged myself out about 8-ish. For all the rain that had been forecast, all day yesterday, we never received a drop, which – while making tourism much easier, nevertheless we missed seeing! Rain is still a possibility for this evening, 24%, and 72% for tomorrow, so we are still in this cold snap that has moved across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s interesting to think about – that that cold front has come thousands of miles from the U.S. with nothing else to stop it until it arrives here! (I’m not wishing for rain, mind you – but as there is a chill in the air that certainly wasn’t here our first two days, I just wish it would go up a few degrees!). I also used the opportunity to run another load of clothes; always a good idea!
Our mission today was to get to Sanlucar, one-third of the cities comprising the “sherry triangle” and hopefully tour a sherry bodega. (Let me first say that my idea of a good sherry has always been Harvey’s Bristol Cream…at which most “real” sherry afficianados turn up their noses! Oh well!). We had decided that we wanted to tour, if at all possible, Barbadillo - one of the oldest sherry producers in the country (celebrated their 200thanniversary last year. Visited by the King of Spain, no less, to commemorate the event. And, when a famous person visits, they get to sign a barrel.). We had discovered that they did an English tour on Tuesdays at 11 am, but when we tried to sign up for the tour, our application was for some reason rejected. Not being known for taking “no” as an answer, we arrived there about 10:45 am (and it was NOT easy to find a place to park, that’s for sure!) and inquired. As it turns out, we were the first two people to sign up, and two Swedes joined us a few minutes later.
 |
| Ancient castle next to the bodega |
 |
| Ancient Palomino grape; note soil |
 |
| Lovely old buildings |
 |
| Lots and lots of barrels |
 |
| Stacked 3-5 barrels high |
 |
| Katherine explaining |
 |
| Some can even be aged outside (under cover) |
 |
| Windows in the west wall to catch breezes off the ocean |
 |
| Actual inside of a barrel with yeast layer |
 |
| More windows to catch breezes |
 |
| The ask famous visitors to sign casks! They didn't ask us... |
 |
| King of Spain visited last month to celebrate 200 Yrs He got to sign! |
 |
| Lovely tasting room! |
 |
| First bottle tasted! |
 |
| Second bottle tasted |
 |
| Third bottle tasted |
 |
| Love that CREAM! |
Our tour guide, Katherine, was from Rhode Island, and had done a year’s study abroad in her undergrad years, and really didn’t want to go home. So, as this wasn’t really feasible, she is now working at Barbadillo as well as on her Master’s degree in wine tourism. Who knew?! As R says, what will they think of next!
Katherine gave us a wonderful tour! Barbadillo apparently is one of the few bodegas that is still directly under the original family ownership, and it is one of the largest. The place itself is really huge, and goes on and on – one part here, another part across the street, etc. But it seems that all of the wine blending and aging is done in Sanlucar. The grapes come from across the sherry triangle area, and are either purchased from outsiders or from Barbadillo-owned vineyards. The grapes are then shipped in huge tanker trucks to Sanlucar for processing and aging.
Before the tour, I had wandered through the sherry store, and seen a great many different and surprising things, including sherry vinegar and sparkling Moscato and thought – huh???! (I also would like to point out, that we use a fair amount of sherry vinegar in cooking and salad dressings, and when we ran out the last time, I had a very difficult time even finding sherry vinegar in grocery stores around town – so, I did what most of us do in this day and age – I ordered some from Amazon. It did arrive safely, but now I have several more bottles of various types to try when we get home! Yeah!!)
The first stop on our tour was a small section of growing grapes. Katherine showed us the reason the grapes seem to grow well in this area. The soil is very, very special – it’s the soil from an ancient seabed, with a large amount of calcium carbonate in it. It’s very light in color and it is very porous, so that it holds the water, which is very important, as sherry houses are not permitted to externally irrigate their vines. Apparently, the roots of the vines can go more than 30 feet deep.
According to Katherine, in order to stay in business, most of the sherry houses in Spain have had to resort to additional products to bring in revenue. Apparently, Barbadillo’s white table wine, made exclusively from the white Palomino grape, is the largest selling wine in Spain, and accounts for over $1M in their annual sales! That’s a chunk! We were able to walk around the huge labelled casks (American Oak) and Katherine explained the process of how sherry is blended and created. Fascinating process that I won’t be able to write about here, but if you ever have the opportunity, do come to Spain and see (and taste) for yourself!
Our tour took almost two hours, and then we sat down for our tasting. We had four very generous tastes – first, the white table wine, then a Manzanillo, which is like a “baby” sherry, then a full-aged sherry and last Eva Cream, their sweet wine. Honestly, I prefer port, but R really enjoyed the sherrys. We were actually able to get out of the store with two bottles of sherry (one cream and one aged) and two bottles of sherry vinegar. [We bought only two bottles of sherry principally because they are not allowed to ship to private buyers in the United States. – R] I’m really looking forward to getting those home!
As it was now past 1 pm, we decided to pick up sandwiches on the way home, and got back here about 2:30 pm. As R suggested, wouldn’t naps be just the thing?? And speaking only for myself, I had a great nap – it’s lovely and sunny (albeit brisk!) outside, and our landlords have left us some lovely throws for the couch – just the thing to bundle up in! R, having slept for a bit on the couch, has now just gone to bed and is sound asleep! Fabulous way to spend a late afternoon!
We do have lettuce (and sherry vinegar!) here in the flat, so we may just do salads for dinner tonight. As R said yesterday, with one tapas meal per day, that’s about all one needs to eat in any 24-hour period. So, I’ll have to go through our long list of recommended restaurants to find someplace good for tomorrow night, our last night in Cadiz!
Much love,
m
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment