24 Thursday Aug 2023
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The Jerez grape harvest is in full swing and this year the annual harvest festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary, September 2- 17th, with a whole whack of activities. I am hoping to go to one of the Catas Magistrales that take place outside in the Alcázar patio. Stay tuned!
22 Tuesday Aug 2023
Posted in decanter magazine, sherry, tapas, wine
24 Monday Jul 2023
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Since I moved to the present Casa Azahar, and downsized (including getting rid of about 80% of my books), I am being very selective about any new book purchases. But I couldn’t resist this one, written by César Saldaña, the president of the Regulatory Council Sherry Academy (and one of my teachers during the Sherry Educator course I took in 2015). So this arrived today and, although I’m just a few pages in, I can already tell it’s going to be a profound and enjoyable experience. ¡Salud! 🥂
17 Monday Apr 2023
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This year’s Sevilla presentation of the 2023 Tío Pepe en Rama took place at the glamourous Villa Luisa. Each spring this limited edition selection is chosen by Gonzales-Byass master wineblender Antonio Flores from two of the oldest Téo Pepe soleras, Rebollo and Constancia, and it is then bottled without filtration or clarification to ensure the freshest “straight from the barrel” fino sherry experience.
I had a great time meeting up with so many friends and colleagues. The sherry community here is quite a special one. My only “complaint” is that we weren’t given a bottle of this year’s en rama to take home as on other occasions. Time to go shopping…
23 Thursday Mar 2023
On Monday I was invited to the presentation of this year’s bottling of La Goya XL Manzanilla en Rama by Bodegas Delgado Zuleta, held at the fabulous Terraza La Fortissima. At first I thought it was going to be a vertical tasting when I saw other versions of La Goya in the ice bucket but when I asked José Antonio Sánchez (technical director and winemaker at DZ) he said it was actually going to be an L-shaped tasting, with different samplings of La Goya from two criaderas and two soleras (criaderas go up and down, soleras sideways). Cool.
Afterwards there we were treated to snacks on the rooftop with other wines from the Delgado Zuleta range: Goyesco Ámbar, Gallipato, Tarabilla and Barbiana en Rama. It was a perfect sunny day and fun to catch up with colleagues and friends.
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