The Vinoble Verdict

The first floor of the Moorish palace was, as ever, dedicated to Sherry. One corner Fino, another Palo Cortado, and so on.  There’s no better way to taste through all the Sherries of a particular category. Except, of course, for the fact that the rooms are like the busiest of tapas bars. Tip: get there early in the morning.

At one end of the room Pepe Ferrer was doing a revealing tasting of flavoured gels with Sherries.  Verdict: make a chilled Cream Sherry your choice with curry. Nothing better with Indian spicing. You read it here.

Off the main rooms producers have their own stands. There’s Javier Ochoa, trying to be retired and on holiday, but still at work on the family stand pouring his daughter’s super-delicious sparkling Navarran version of an Italian Moscato d’Asti called  MdO.

Out of the window I could see Jan Pettersen, who runs multi-award winning Sherry House Fernando de Castilla.  He was busy offering samples and showing labels of his new Vermouth, deliciously dry and spiced, coming on the market soon. It is made from old Pedro Ximénez (PX) and Oloroso with 27 botanicals.  Downstairs the stand of Montilla-Moriles producer Toro Albalá was thronged.  Anyone who gets 100 points from Luis Gutiérrez in the Wine Advocate (for their PX Convento Selección 1946, and in this case deservedly so) is bound to be an attraction.

Across the square, Pedro Ballesteros MW and Cesar Saldaña, the director general of the Sherry DO, were leading an exceptional tasting.  On show were a range of experimental wines from Jerez’ leading winemakers, plus new wave wines from the next generation. There’s plenty to debate: ‘static ageing’, that’s to say wines that mature like table wines in a barrel, and don’t go through the traditional solera system; wines that aren’t fortified; single vineyards and the search for terroir.  Sherry is not that old-fashioned drink frozen in time – it’s a wine that is changing, as it always has. What’s exciting in 2016 is the emphasis on quality not quantity.

So Vinoble 2016 was an ideal way for to learn about and savour Sherry. There was also time to visit bodegas in town, drop in on a flamenco party, and eat tapas to  your heart’s content.  Put 2018 in your diary now.

But, and there has to be a but doesn’t there?, Vinoble is managed by the City council (not, as you might expect, the DO Jerez regulatory body). As Mayors change – and Jerez has been particularly unfortunate in its recent rapid succession of Mayors -  and financial pressures increase, Vinoble has been really squeezed.  My fervent hope is that with two years until the next Vinoble it will be managed by a well-funded event organiser with the intellectual vision to frame the programme and the management skills to welcome back producers and buyers worldwide.  That will put the event back on a firm footing.