Blogs from Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 2

In the province of Cadiz there are three towns which form the famous 'sherry triangle' of Spain: Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria. Any bottle labelled as 'sherry' must have come from this region, which has been producing wines since the times of the Phoenicians (1100BC). Having had absolutely no appreciation for sherry in the past, I decided to visit a bodega in Jerez to sample some different types and educate my palate. Arriving on a sunny May bank holiday, I went to the Gonzalez Byass bodega near the centre of town, where they produce Tio Pepe brand sherry. The company was founded in 1835 when Manuel Maria Gonzalez Angel, under advice from his uncle the famous Tio Pepe, founded a winery in Jerez. Soon after he created a ... read more

Wednesday 2nd Februay 2011 After saying our farewells we took to the road again heading west past the rock of Gibraltar to the point where the med meets the Atlantic ocean near the town of Tarifa. Here we turned north west towards along the Costa de la Luz. The scenery changed driving across a sweeping plane we passed Cabo de Trafalgar off which Lord Nelson achieved victory and met his death on 21st October 1805. Further on we passed another location that saw a British naval victory Cadiz where Francis Drake destroyed the Spanish fleet in 1588 prompting Philip II OF Spain to assemble another fleet – the Armada which was destroyed at the hands of the English with the help of the weather and sounded the death knell of Spanish maritime power. On to Puerto ... read more

Walked a bit in Jerez de la Frontera. Not really exciting town but first time to visit so all is new. In my early previous life I bought sherry and since my mainsupplier had his bodega in Puerto de Santa Maria I never took the opportunity to see Jerez where the most bodega s are like Sandeman, Gonzales Byas, Harvey and so on About the cathedral of Jerez you can say 1 thing. It s huge. In the mainstreet there are as in the other streets lots of banks probably waiting to be rationalized by the crisis. There are still a lot of pappa-mamma shops who would not survive in the northern countries of Europe, But it looks nice and a pity that they will disappear slowly slowly. Had a late dinner on the main marketsquare ... read more

Stops on our way south.... read more

hphoto... read more