No wine is more typically Spanish; none is more widely recognised wherever it goes. But sherry is so much more than just, well, sherry. Behind the familiar name lies a complex world embracing history and tradition, art and science, climate and soil, all of it wreathed in the rich culture of Spain’s deep south.
Just as much as Bordeaux or Barolo, the town of Jerez shares its name with a world-class wine. Sherry’s origins are thought to lie in the first millennium BC, when Phoenician merchants in what is now Andalucía made wine in clay amphoras for export to Rome. But it was in the 12th century, with the arrival of England as a thirsty market for the fine local wines, that sherry began its rise to global fame.
