Sherry, now we're cooking

On the final day of my press trip to Jerez we started with a trip to the central market, where they have all kinds of fresh fish and fancy vegetables that look like I couldn't afford them, kind of like the Ferry Building in San Francisco but probably hundreds of years old. We picked up some ingredients and headed to a hospitality school for a cooking lesson. All of our dishes had sherry in them, this being a sherry press trip and all. They also all had meat, so I made pretend food while everyone else made real food. The most amazing part of the experience is that I neither cut nor burned myself. Others were not so lucky during the flambe session. I focussed on my particular skill set, which is drinking alcohol rather than eating it. Afterwards I took a walking tour of Jerez, which is a city with layers. Jerez has been conquered by the Romans, Goths, and Christians, and has had so many turnovers that there are classical, Arabic, and Gothic elements together on some buildings. There is the ancient, walled city, the old city, and the newer residential part. The outlying areas of Jerez are not so pretty but the downtown is a bunch of interconnected walking streets, public squares, and narrow streets. That night was our grand finale dinner. It was held in the Palace of Time, a huge museum with clocks from the 17th-19th centuries. After a walk around to check out the clocks, we sat down for a great dinner followed by a flamenco performance. We stayed up until 3 in the morning afterwards talking and drinking sherry and brandy back at the hotel. Visiting Jerez made me want to come back and see the other two cities that make up the central triangle of the sherry region. According to the book I've been reading each has its own traditions, even in the style of making sherry. This trip was enlightening, as sherry isn't an easy spirit to understand. (I'll try to share my info a little later.) But when I start nerding out on something, I really want to get up in there and learn everything. So I guess I'll have to visit the region again asap. And then it was off to France...

Sherry shaking

Last night Simon Difford demonstrated some sherry cocktails. This is good because I came on this trip thinking of sherry as a fortified wine and cocktail ingredient, whereas most of the other writers specialize in wine and have never worked a shaker before. We made many drinks from the Savoy and other classic books, most of which are in the style of Dry Sherry (fino) + Dry vermouth + sweetening agent. The formula works pretty well and we were able to create some new drinks using modern sweeteners/liqueurs such as St. Germain. We also hung out with George Sandeman, who works for the company of his forefathers and is Alcademics-Rated Awesome. He has a weakness for tequila that I admire and we stayed up late talking and laughing when we should have been getting beauty rest. Now I've got to go to a sherry cooking demo, which is kind of weird since all they eat here is meat and Camper don't play that game. (Game, get it?) I guess I'll just drink the ingredients.

Sherry trip pics

Are located in my Flickr set here. I'll add more as I keep going.

Sherry, baby!

I'm in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain to learn about sherry. Last night we visited a vineyard at sunset and had a dinner. Today we went to the sherry control board for a long lecture on sherry, then walked to the Sandeman bodega for a barrel tasting, product tasting, and lunch. I've learned so much about sherry that I don't have time to type 1/10th of it in right now. I'll try to fill in some fun facts later. I'm about to head off to a sherry mixology lecture with Simon Difford who's joined us on the trip. Heck, yeah!