Radical change in Jerez: sherry popularity falls after decades'.

I have been to Jerez de la Frontera on a number of occasions, mainly to visit the huge cellars filled to the ceiling with Sherry casks. Previous visits to famous Sherry houses have always been about the barrels. During each tour, it was mandatory to show the barrels cut open, demonstrating the fortified fino or manzanilla Sherry resting quietly under the cover of the flor. Tastings were always conducted from the barrel, guided by a man twirling a venencia, similar to a whip. Conversation was always dominated by discussions of the traditional solera system, how many years Sherry has been in barrel, how the wine strengthens, or the difference between biological and oxidative aging.

Things that are rarely talked about: grapes, vines, farming''farm. In all my years of visits to Jerez, I have never once been invited into the vineyard. The difference came this spring when I found myself with a new wave of Sherry producers in Jerez - some of whom have formed a group called Territorio Albariza. This new generation opposes what they call the "blending culture" of the big Sherry houses, which they argue too often relies on cheap "neutral" wines, then fortified and aged in wood to give those wines character.

'People think this is the original way of Sherry, but it's not,'' said Willy Perez of the Luis Perez winery as we walked around the famous Macharnudo vineyard, about 20 kilometers from the Atlantic near the town of Sanlúcar de Barameda. В''Macharnudo grapes have been grown for centuries, and in the 19th century it was some of the most expensive land in Europe. Yet it's the kind of vineyard you almost never hear about in modern Sherry ads.

"Things have changed in the last 50 years," Perez told me. "The message has moved from vineyards to wineries, and the flavor of Sherry has changed." The recent changes have hit Sherry hard, demand for which has been declining since the 1980s. Vineyard acreage in Sherry country has reportedly dropped from about 70,000 acres to just 15,000. "People are talking about a crisis in Jerez," says Muchada. - "A lot of wineries have sold their vineyards, and we've lost touch with the vineyards. There are, of course, high quality producers in Jerez. Big Sherry houses such as Valdespino and''Lustau, are producing some excellent Sherries. Eduardo Ojeda and his partner launched Equipo Navazos in 2005, which seeks out and produces special barrels of rare, coveted Sherry from small wineries throughout the region. To change the future of Sherry, however, more radical changes are needed. In the U.S., people in the wine and spirits industries have been trying to revitalize interest in Sherry for more than a decade, but so far they've had few results. trust me? How many regular drinkers do you know who regularly enjoy, say, fino or manzanilla or amontignado? "

The opposite of the expected revival has actually happened. In a 2019 Wine-Searcher article titled "Sherry Dies, Pass the Port," author Don Cavanagh summarizes the situation in dire terms. "Extinction is so final''word that it's odd to use it in reference to an entire category of wine, but in addition to gorillas, Indian elephant and white rhino, we may soon have to add the name Sherry,' Kavanagh writes." "The real interest in the wines is likely to be limited to whiskey winemakers who need barrels to age their own product, but the public's interest will gradually wane. "

Okay. Some of the original activists for Sherry's revitalization have become cynics. "It's something that people in the industry don't want to hear, especially those in favor of Sherry's, but it's never going to happen, man," author and mixologist Derek Brown told me. Brown ran a well-known Sherry's bar called Mockingbird Hill in Washington, D.C., during the so-called'' The 'Sherry's revival' of the 2010s. Unlike his other popular bars, the Sherry bar didn't last long. Even in Spain, Sherry consumption is declining, especially as an everyday drink. The Sherry Consortium found that over 40% of Sherry's fino in Spain is consumed exclusively at various feria (or festivals) around the country, mostly in rebuitos, a drink made from a blend of Sherry's fino and 7UP.

Back in Jerez de la Frontera, the Consorcio Regulator has finally taken action to reverse these negative trends. Last year, a number of new rules went into effect for Jerez D.O. that producers hope will help change the course of Sherry. The most important change is more mandatory fortification. Unfortified wines can now be bottled from''labeled D.O. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry. "We struggled for 10 years, but now we can have fino without fortification," Perez told me. Six local grape varieties will now also be allowed: Perruno, Beba, Canocazo, Vigiriega, Mantuo castellano and Mantuo de Pilas.

In Jerez, before phylloxera, there were 45 varieties of white grapes and 33 varieties of red grapes, according to Ramiro Ibáñez of Bodega Cota 45. "With the culture of the last 50 years, we've lost that tradition," Ibáñez says. - "We are now taking touches and tools from history." That doesn't mean traditional Palomino grapes will become any less important. In fact, many believe that Palomino, if grown properly, can reflect terroir just as well as other world-class grapes. "You read the book, and there'"It says '\'Palomino is a neutral grape'\' but it's not.

Depending on where it's grown, the grapes can be refreshing with citrus notes, mineral with salinity, juicy sweet orchard fruit or perhaps all of these qualities at once. "People say Palomino is the grape of the future," he says. - "It has low strength, and it will show you everything." Finally, another major change will be that the wine will include the vineyard location on the label, which will become a more important aspect of Sherry Sherry in the future. Watch for appellations such as''Macharnudo, Miraflores and Carrascal as the new 'grand cru' designations. Jerez is likely to promote its coast at a time when the term 'Atlantic wines' has become popular in the Iberian Peninsula. "For us, the most important element is the Atlantic," Ibáñez told me. - "Now in Spain they want to say Atlantic climate everywhere. But the Atlantic is here." Perhaps the most interesting winemaker I met in Jerez was Raul Moreno, an experimentalist whose wines are familiar to the wine bars of Spain's big cities. I sent

1. EN with Moreno to his vineyards at Pago Miraflores, which he called "the coolest vineyard in Jerez." Here the soil is pure limestone and he grows vines''biodynamic method using a mule. "It's precision winemaking, and it takes a lot of work," Moreno says. - "There's a lot of potential in this region if people would use good agricultural practices. But they are lazy." Last year, for example, Moreno started picking grapes on July 17. "I'm always the first to pick in Jerez. I'm also always the last one." One reason is that Moreno grows a huge variety of different grapes: Pedro Jimenez, Tintilla, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Muscat and, of course, Palomino. He makes a 100% Perruno (meaning "dirty dog") red wine, one of the just-authorized varieties, that is fermented on the skins, aged for 10 months under flor and matured in chestnut barrels. It was fresh, mineral,''floral, and I couldn't believe it was a Jerez wine. It shocked me. "The future of Jerez is in unfortified wines. But alternative varieties and blended wines are also the future," Moreno says. Moreno previously worked for large industrial wineries, having lived half his adult life in Australia, and only returned to Spain in 2020. He's seen it all and knows all the tricks, but he's very low intervention. Moreno is what we might call "last-natured" - using natural wine techniques such as skins contact, carbonic fermentation and aging in clay tinajas, but also sticking to traditional Jerez aging under flor. Moreno is currently experimenting with Portuguese varieties such as Arinto, Encruzado and Baga.'''Arinto is the best varietal grape for climate change in the Iberian Peninsula,'' he says. His Destellos 2022 is a blend of Palomino with 15% Arinto, fermented in chestnut amontignado or manzanilla barrels. Moreno and I visited a new vineyard near El Puerto de Santa Maria, on an estate with a house dating back to the 12th century. We met his partner in the new project, Thomas de Vangen, who owns the property and is the producer of the Diatomist brand. After the overview, we sat down in the shade to sip wine and eat jamon and cheese. Moreno opened his La Esencia 2022, a claret made from an unprecedented blend of Tintilla, Palomino, Pedro Jimenez, Perruno, Arinto and Baga - aged in clay pots for three months. Op ...
   • Again, this was a wine that had never been drunk from''is consumed exclusively during various feria (or festivals) around the country, mainly in rebuitos, a drink made from a mixture of fino Sherry and 7UP. Back in Jerez de la Frontera, the Consorcio Regulator has finally taken action to change these negative trends. Last year, numerous new regulations went into effect at the Jerez D.O. that producers hope will help change Sherry's fortunes. The most important change is that there is no longer mandatory fortification. Unfortified wines can now be bottled under the D.O. label. Jerez-Xérès-Sherry. "It was 10 years of struggle, but now we can have finos without fortification," Willy Pérez told me. Six local grape varieties will now also be allowed: Perruno, Beba,''Canocazo, Vigetega, Mantuo Castellano and Mantuo de Pilas. In Jerez, before the advent of phylloxera, there were 45 white grape varieties and 33 red varieties, according to Ramiro Ibáñez of Bodega Cota 45. "With the culture of the last 50 years, we've lost that tradition," he says. - "Now we're taking things and tools from history." That doesn't mean tra ...